Clinical Instructor of Marketing, Georgia State University

Christiane Palpant (affectionately known as Prof CP) is a university professor, professional artist, author, speaker, and founder of PalpantArt—a creative studio in Atlanta, where she lives.

She spent two decades as a Fortune 500 sales executive leading business deals in all 50 U.S. states. Then, at her own crossroads, she customized a van named Millicent and drove 45,000 miles across the country to paint the horizon in all 50 states—not as an escape, but as a search for what comes next. That journey became the foundation for her book Cue the Lifeboat.

Today, Christiane is a Clinical Instructor of Marketing at Georgia State University, where she mentors more than a thousand students navigating their first career chapters, and a professional artist whose work has been exhibited globally. She wrote this book for the question her students ask most, and the one she once asked herself: "What do I do when the roadmap disappears?"

Cue the Lifeboat is her answer: a choose-your-current guide for anyone standing at that edge, ready to chart their own course.

When she's not teaching or writing, you'll find her painting in her studio, on a trail, or planning the next creative leap, often with equal parts curiosity and courage.