About the author

What sort of person is Diana? Curious–in that she wants to understand what motivates people. Adventurous–in that she’s often ready to try something that she hasn’t done before. Tenacious–in that once she’s taken on a challenge, she sticks with it. And cautious: when choosing between alternatives, she tries to select the one most likely to lead to other interesting choices down the road.

After a peripatetic upbringing as what’s commonly known as an “Army brat” and the oldest of four sisters, Diana majored in English Literature at Swarthmore College (followed by an MS in Elementary Education six years later). After graduation, she headed for California and life–complete with many more moves–ensued.  Diana  enjoyed a 24-year career at Intel as what she likes to call a “Business Process Engineer.”  She has an aptitude for figuring out how multiple diverse departments  can work together smoothly, effectively, and efficiently to achieve common business objectives. Diana managed several groups at Intel, including Corporate Logistics  and a small group of Corporate Capital Acquisition Project Managers. She traveled to Intel locations around the world and made presentations to all levels of management.

She was also active in the Council of Logistics Management, serving as an officer of the San Francisco chapter and, at the national level, as program chairperson for the CLM Expert Systems Research Committee, which published Putting Expert Systems to Work in Logistics, by Mary Kay Allen and Omar Keith Helferich, in 1990.

Diana applied the same skills—analysis, synthesis, and communication—as she discovered and recounted the story of her great-grandfather in Reflections of a Civil War Locomotive Engineer: a ghost-written memoir. She is currently working on a historical fiction trilogy entitled Women Absent Their Men: Betrayal – Adèle’s Story), Call to Arms –   Jeannette’s story and Pulling Together – Emma’s Story; inspired by three strong women in her family–two of whom she never knew at all.  It spans nearly fifty years: 1898-1945. Her own memoir, Tenacity is My Middle Name: Adventures of a First-born Daughter, is still pending.

Settling down at last, Diana lived near Portland, OR for eighteen years before moving into the city in 2010. She loves to read, of course, as well as to write. She is member of the board of two prominent arts organizations and was thrilled in recent seasons to be a supernumerary in several  Portland Opera productions. She also enjoys cooking, yoga and walking for exercise, and travel in the US and abroad. Widowed shortly before she retired, Diana has three grown children, and two grandsons. Since retiring, in addition to researching and writing her first book and learning a little Italian, she married Gary Piercy and gained three grown step-children, plus five step-grandsons.