Lisa & Brian
I’m a curious, passionate, playful woman in a joyful marriage with my college sweetheart. I’m a dancer, teacher, writer, editor and researcher.
My life’s work has focused on improving population health and well-being. After landing a job as a professor at Cal State East Bay, I expected to spend my career as an academic. But then I took up pole dancing at Sheila Kelley S Factor, which changed my life in brilliant and unexpected ways.
I’m writing a memoir about my journey and often write about the lessons I learn from the pole in my blog. When I began to hear similar, “It changed my life,” comments from other S Factor students, as well as those who do pole fitness, burlesque and ecstatic dance I became intrigued. Reported benefits go beyond fun and fitness. They include: empowerment, embodiment, vibrancy, self-awareness, joy, body pride, intimacy and sisterhood (among others). These effects are remarkably similar to those obtained from dance therapy, expressive arts therapy and long-term cognitive therapy.
It’s become my mission in life to document and understand this transformative power of sensual dance through my writing, teaching and research because all women deserve to feel so magnetic and radiant. If you have a story to share about your dance experiences please contact me.
I love to learn. I have a BA in Psychobiology and a BS in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania (where I met and fell in love with my husband, Brian pictured above). I also completed a PhD in Health Services Research at UC Berkeley and a post-dotoral fellowship at the Centre for Evaluation of Medicines at McMaster University.
