About Me - Laura S. Grillo

dissertation coaching

Dissertation Coach
- Compassionate guidance and insightful editorial feedback at all levels of the process, from Thesis Development and chapter editing to final proofing
- Effective help writing and common hurdles from writers’ block to the rabbit hole of research
  - students have hailed from Berkeley, Cambridge (UK), Georgetown, Princeton University, Standford, TCU

Scholar of African and the African Diaspora religions
- My work is interdisciplinary: Cultural Anthropology, Women and Gender Studies, Ritual and Performance, and Postcolonial Theory
Academic Leadership
- Author of 4 successful Accreditation Reports for WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges) and created the Model it adopted for all institutional reporting
- I served as an Administrative Consultant to the Provost (at Pacifica) and the Graduate Program in Theology & Religious Studies at Georgetown University
- Leadership positions in Professional Societies, most notably the American Academy of Religion and the African Studies Association
- Service on Editorial and Advisory Boards of peer reviewed publications includes:
  - Religious Studies Review
  - Religion Compass Journal
  - Journal of the American Academy of Religion

Editorial and Advisory Board Service on peer reviewed publications includes:
- Religious Studies Review
- Religion Compass Journal
- Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Creative Writer
- I won several Writers’ Residency Awards for Creative Non-Fiction.
- Award in Ethnographic Writing from the Society of Humanistic Anthropology.
- For information on my memoir Ask for the Road, See “Publications”

- I am a Swiss citizen as well as American, and speak fluent French as well as Italian.
- I hold a Level II certification as Yoga Instructor and also have certification in Yoga Nidra, a meditation-based form of deep integration.
- I am studying Taiji.

dissertation coach