Author, Poet, Photographer, domestic violence survivor, and naturalized immigrant, Cornelia is currently an Arts and Letters Member-At-Large of The National League Of American Pen Women. Cornelia lived in Kaneohe, Hawaii for thirty-six years. She makes her home in the Mid-Hudson Valley of New York. Her poems and photography are published in print, online and Rain Bird, a literary and art journal of the University of Hawaii's Windward Community College (2008-2013). In 2013, Cornelia received Rain Bird's Kolokolea Poetry Prize for her poem, "Speaking French." In October 2015 her chapbook "Hawaiian Time," entered in the National League of American​ Pen Women’s Vinnie Ream contest was awarded the 3rd place in their inaugural multi-discipline category.