Is it Bauman or is it Bowman? Strangely enough, Alisa was born a Bauman but married a Bowman. She kept her maiden name until the birth of her daughter in 2004. A hospital mix-up provided her daughter with Bauman for a last name. While Alisa stood in line at the Social Security office to fix her daughter’s misspelled last name, she decided to finally legally change her last name as well. The two names, however, only differ by two letters, causing a great deal of confusion.

Alisa began her writing career while still in high school, as managing editor for the student-run Minstrel. She continued her love of writing in college, working as a staff writer and arts editor for Penn State's Daily Collegian. While studying print journalism in college, Alisa dreamed of one day winning a Pulitzer and writing for the New York Times. After graduating from college in 1992, Alisa landed a job with the News-Journal, a large metropolitan newspaper in Wilmington, Delaware. Here she covered everything from courts to crime to local politics to human-interest stories.

Eventually, however, after covering a string of child murders, Alisa realized she wasn’t thick skinned enough to survive the newspaper business. She also realized that the quintessential newspaper reporter’s diet of fast food, coffee, and hot dogs probably wasn’t all that good for her health or waistline.

Alisa gave up her dreams of winning a Pulitzer and of working at larger newspapers. She instead went into book publishing. After spending a few years writing and editing health books for Rodale, Inc., a publishing company in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Alisa again changed jobs, spending three years as a senior editor at Runner's World magazine before starting her freelance business.

Alisa has always valued the importance of giving back to the community where she lives. Over the years she has volunteered her talents in many ways. She has taught adults to read, tutored inner city youth, rehabilitated injured wildlife, and chaired the local Sierra Club group.

In 2004, Alisa experienced her greatest life joy: the birth of her daughter, Kaarina. In what little free time she has managed to find since that momentous day, Alisa enjoys reading novels (book group is her favorite “night out”), blogging about the ups and downs of marriage at projecthappilyeverafter.com, yoga, meditation, running, hiking, and playing with her dog, Rhodes. She lives in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, where she and her husband, Mark, co-own South Mountain Cycles and Coffee Bar, the first bicycle repair and service shop in the area to house a coffee bar.