Maps of the Past

An overview of Gregory’s Ancestry.

Personal Background

My life has been a trip through liminal spaces.

I was raised in Howard Beach (Queens, NY) and spent my early years near Jamaica Bay's ever-shifting boundaries of water, marsh, and sand.

My early exposure to the beach, with its continual fluidity, instilled in me an appreciation for liminal spaces—those in-between places where boundaries blur and new possibilities emerge. Years later, I lived near the rugged beauty of the Irish coast, another liminal space between cultures and continents, where I completed my academic studies. Today, I reside in Grand Rapids, Michigan, near the shores of Lake Michigan, another powerful liminal space.

My career has combined university teaching and academics with marketing and business. Today, I’m engaged as a writer, teacher, and real estate professional. Each shift has taken me to spaces between skills, disciplines, and roles.

My Irish and English ancestry further deepens my connection to liminal spaces, where entwined cultural identities weave the past and present.

Creativity and meaning arise in these in-between spaces, which the Irish call thin places - where boundaries dissolve and new possibilities emerge.

I am at home in liminal places, in spaces in between, with one foot on the beach and the other in the water.

Education, Affiliations, & Advocacy