The M Clinic

BIO

I was raised in a working class family with six children. My parents placed heavy emphasis on education. I attended West Catholic for Boys High School and excelled in academics and athletics. I earned All-Scholastic honors in football in the State of Pennsylvania and graduated as a member of the National Merit Honor Society.

I attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin on an academic scholarship and majored in Radio-Television and Film.

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BIO

I was raised in a working class family with six children. My parents placed heavy emphasis on education. I attended West Catholic for Boys High School and excelled in academics and athletics. I earned All-Scholastic honors in football in the State of Pennsylvania and graduated as a member of the National Merit Honor Society.

I attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin on an academic scholarship and majored in Radio-Television and Film. Scriptwriting assignments received exemplary marks while studying under Professor James Heddle in the Film Department. My student film project, Madstax, a documentary film about the arts community in Madison, Wisconsin received high marks and was premiered in the campus theatre. The film brought Hollywood Director Charles Washburn, Jr. to Madison who recruited me to work as a Research Assistant for Universal Studios.

I worked as a teaching assistant in photography and filmmaking at the Philadelphia College of Art in the Photography Film Department and later worked as an Associare Producer for New Jersey Public Television via the Mercer County Community College Department of Telecommunications.

I produced public affairs programs for WCAU-CBS Radio and WPVI-ABC Television. In 1982, as an independent producer, I produced, directed and edited a documentary film on unemployment in urban American, which was aired twice in the Philadelphia market.

I served as General Manager for the PhilaFilm Festival, which featured films produced by foreign and domestic filmmakers. It was feast or famine in the broadcasting field so I sought a career change to better support my family.

The Mental Health field is where I found my niche. There was something inside of me that made it very easy to connect with others. I enjoyed the collaborative effort of a multidisciplinary treatment team and developed a thirst for more knowledge and skills development.

The suicide death of my father was something that I never talked about and it seemed like working in mental health brought this issue and many other unresolved childhood and adolescent issues to the surface. Working in the field of mental health made me aware of the stigma of mental illness; the stigma made it very difficult for me to seek professional help. I sought relief in alcohol and drugs. It was the darkest and most devastating period of my life. It was only through the grace of God that I survived it. I lost many things in the process but I did find recovery and to this day I am a grateful, recovering person.

I have dedicated my life to helping others who struggle with mental illness and/or substance dependence. Toward that end, I enrolled at Eastern University in the accelerated Master's Degree program and discovered what it is that is inside me that makes it easy to connect and help others. It is empathy. I graduated with a 3.80 grade point average, earning an MA in Community/Clinical Counseling and began working in the field of mental illness and addictive disorders.

Still, the passion for writing and filmmaking remains. My ultimate career goal is to produce, direct and write for motion pictures and television.

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