Diane's fascination with travel started when she was a young girl held captive in the back seat of her parents' Plymouth Fury. She's visited most of North America, and has spent time in Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia. She has lived in Greece, Italy, and Portugal. 

Diane has been a newspaper writer and editor since 1982. Since 1997, she has been affiliated with the Boston Globe, where she was on staff for five years before taking the freelance plunge in 2002. For the Globe, Diane writes the biweekly “Where They Went” travel feature, along with other travel and feature stories. For the News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), she writes the "Who and Ware" column about regional artisans. Diane's work also has appeared in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, St. Petersburg Times, Backpacker, Gourmet, Shape, Body & Soul, AARP Magazine and AARP Bulletin, Bicycling, Adventure Cyclist, and others.  She contributed to the books "Checking In 2007: Places to Stay in New England," the Boston Globe, 2006; and "The New York Times Practical Guide to Practically Everything: The Essential Companion for Everyday Life," St. Martin's Press, 2006.

Diane is a member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors and the Society of American Travel Writers. She teaches travel writing at Duke University Continuing Studies and is working on a farm-related NC travel guidebook, Farm Fresh North Carolina, to be published in early 2011 by University of North Carolina Press. In 2008, she won a prestigous national Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism award for newspaper writing.

Diane lives in Durham, NC, with her husband/photographer/favorite travel companion Wessel Kok, along with their two wiener dogs, one cat, and six bicycles.