- I grew up in Albuquerque, NM. We spent a lot of free time in the mountains, on bikes, in swimming pools, and in the woods along the banks of the Rio Grande. My mom taught Spanish and there were enough native speakers in New Mexico that I had a somewhat bilingual upbringing.
- My three older brothers and I are all within six years of age. We looked out for each other and had really independent childhoods, as was common for Gen Xers. My brothers pushed me to keep up, and we were fiercely competitive with anything that we could do 2-on-2.
- I started school a year early. My parents approached Sr. Lucille, the principal of Our Lady of Fatima School, about enrolling me in kindergarten so they could drop us all off in the same place. Her response, “Well, her brothers get good grades, and she’s tall, so she won’t stick out!”
- My parents met in San Francisco. My mom grew up outside of Philadelphia, and her parents moved to the Bay Area area while she was in college. My dad grew up in Ireland and came to the U.S. to work in a research lab at UCSF. I still have lots of family in Ireland.
- Attending the University of San Francisco was a perfect match. My dad liked that it was Jesuit and my mom liked that it was near my grandparents. Being in the city, finding my passion for academics, and figuring out what my faith meant to me all helped me find my voice and come out of my shell.
- I started at USF thinking I was pre-med, majoring in biochemistry. In my first year, I was clumsy, spilled chemicals in labs, and fell in love with multivariable calculus at the same time. From there on out, it was all math for me. I was peer-pressured into a physics minor, which let me do more math in an applied setting.
- The next steps of my math career took me to three different time zones and came full-circle. I went to Northwestern for graduate school, worked as a visiting assistant professor at Temple University, and then got a tenure-track job at Fort Lewis College (FLC) in Durango, CO, only 3.5 hours from Albuquerque.
- I started at FLC at 28 years old, single, and as an assistant professor. In my time there, I met my husband, inherited two lovely stepdaughters, and was eventually an interim associate VPAA with the rank of professor. FLC had a beautiful mission as a Native American-serving Non-tribal Institution. Securing an NSF Noyce grant that allowed me to take FLC students to do math outreach on the Navajo Nation was a great culmination.
- My husband, Josh, and I have logged hundreds of miles hiking around the high peaks and desert terrain surrounding the Four Corners. Together, we climbed 14,000 foot peaks and backpacked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I’m excited to start exploring New York state more.
- I have a big, beautiful, blended, extended family that continues to grow, welcome new people, and find ways to find forgiveness and coexist even when relationships get tricky. Depending on how you count, I have at least a dozen nieces and nephews between the ages of 13 and 30.
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