About Alex

After almost two decades as a Lonely Planet author, startup director and co-founder, journalist and humorist, Alex is turning her sights towards teaching people the key to opening their own well of creativity. Alex doesn’t teach writing as much as she teaches getting rid of the barriers that hold you back from writing. To do that, she writes books about creativity, leads workshops, coaches one-to-one, and consults for nonprofits and startups. She writes a column for Seattle Times Explore: Creativity at Work. 

After getting a master’s in journalism from UC Berkeley in 2002, Alex has contributed to over three dozen travel guides for Lonely Planet (including Happy, Calm and Explore Every Day), managed start-ups in Silicon Valley and London, taught writing and creativity workshops around the world, performed stand-up (pretty decently) and Improv (very poorly), and worked as a series editor and career coach for The Guardian US. 

Her methodology borrows from psychology (social, cognitive and positive); both humor and trauma studies; mathematics and Quantified Self; and hundreds of previous students and clients. She’s currently writing a book and workbook to share the methodology.