I have been known as The Butterfly Lady for more than thirty years. I am a storyteller, and a performer and I have taught at the college level. I have been involved with butterflies in many ways, including collecting stories, myths, legends, poems, superstitions and art about the butterfly, with the recurring cross-cultural themes of transformation, love, death and rebirth and spiritual awakening. In 1977, after raising and releasing monarch butterflies for several years, I went to Mexico to search for their overwintering roosts, knowing only the altitude and the type of tree in which they rested. I spent two months in the mountains before finally encountering 50 million monarch butterflies mating on the first day of spring. There were many lessons for me along the way. I have had a gallery dedicated to the butterfly, choreographed dances, created art and wearable art, given lectures, and planted gardens for them. I have worked at the butterfly conservatory at the American Museum of Natural History in 
New York City for fourteen years and continue to be there alternate Thursday afternoons from October through May. I share the many messages of the butterflies as I travel, giving lectures around the country. I was on the Board of Directors of Michoacan Reforestion Fund for seven years and am currently on the Board of Directors of the La Cruz Habitat Protection Project, Inc. and Forests for Monarchs.