Colleen Ryan has an associate degree in liberal arts from Westmoreland County Community College (WCCC), a bachelora s degree in business/human resources from Geneva College, and a mastera s degree in writing popular fiction from Seton Hill University. She spent 26 years working at WCCC where she was coordinator of community education creating and developing new non-credit programs. Currently, she is an adjunct professor at WCCC teaching writing and literature. Colleen has three children and six cats and is a political junkie, who loves to read and watch crime dramas, cook, and decorate her home, which is a work in progress, as is the author. For several years she has been a member of the YWCA Unity Coalition, an organization whose objective is to promote racial understanding and empower women. She is a member of the NAACP and a former member of the Westmoreland County Art Grant Advisory Program.