1. I’ve been faculty in the Siena Biology department since 2012. I came here from a postdoc at the University of Chicago. Before that I had a postdoc at the Smithsonian, and before that I was in grad school at the University of South Carolina.
2. These days I think of myself as a marine ecologist, but I didn’t always know that’s what I’d be.... throughout middle school and high school, I was a theater nerd. For many years I went to a summer camp that performed Gilbert and Sullivan operettas (and yes, a bunch of random middle schoolers performing The Pirates of Penzance is every bit as horrible/wonderful as you might imagine!). For most of high school I was either in a show or working stage crew for a show. At some point I realized that I lacked both the talent and the drive necessary for a performing arts career, but those early theater experiences definitely taught me a lot about teamwork, being comfortable in front of people, and taking criticism. The other side effect is that I spent my formative years memorizing Gilbert and Sullivan instead of listening to the radio, so I’m hopelessly ignorant of pop music (I am terrible at pub trivia! Unless the pub trivia is about obscure G&S lyrics!).
3. As an undergraduate I attended the University of Chicago, where I worked in a microbiology lab researching antibiotic resistant bacteria. But near the end of my junior year I was feeling really burned out, and I decided to leave science. I had this idea that I’d combine my interest in science with my theater roots to do something involving educational television (!). So I quit my lab job and got myself an internship at the local PBS affiliate, WTTW Chicago. The summer internship led to part-time work during my senior year, and then a full-time job after graduation. I primarily worked as a production assistant on a home improvement show called HandyMa’am with Beverly DeJulio. I worked with wonderful people and learned a lot about tools. I also learned that TV production can be surprisingly boring! At the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about one particular class that I’d taken ...
4. The very last quarter of my senior year in college I took a class on Invertebrate Biology. (Invertebrates are animals without backbones -- worms, clams, crabs, octopuses, etc etc.) I signed up on a lark, mostly because my friend wanted me to take it with her, and I liked the professor. The class wound up completely blowing my mind. I couldn’t get over how fascinating invertebrates are! After graduation I kept working for HandyMa’am, but I was literally having dreams about invertebrates. After about 6 months of that, I decided that I should go to grad school.
5. I applied several places for grad school, but wound up attending the University of South Carolina. I chose USC because I specifically wanted to work with a faculty member there who did (and still does) especially fascinating work with marine worms, which are the coolest of all the cool invertebrates. Most of my graduate work was done at Friday Harbor Labs in the Puget Sound’s beautiful San Juan Islands. I feel very lucky that my work has let me spend time in such wonderful places.
6. In both college and grad school, I was lucky to have mentorship from really great advisors. My PhD advisor, in particular, had a big influence on me. She was one of the first women in marine ecology, and she taught me a lot about navigating a career as a woman in science. She taught me to look at the world with curiosity and intellectual rigor, and to treat everyone (including myself!) with kindness. I hope I can pay it forward by mentoring my own students with the same blend of kindness, curiosity, and rigor.
7. I now live in Niskayuna with my husband Dustin, cats Charlie and Zoe, and a rescue dog named Winston. Winston is a 12 year old 75 lb Great Pyrenees mix, and I wish I could take him to work with me (below).
8. Speaking of dogs, I grew up with a wonderful St. Bernard named Barney. Obviously, I was fated from childhood to one day become a Siena Saint!
9. In our spare time, my husband and I both enjoy curling. Curling is one of the oldest team sports in the world, having originated on frozen Scottish lochs during the 17th century. The modern sport involves throwing 44-pound granite rocks down a sheet of ice towards a circular target called a “house”. As the rock travels, players with brooms madly brush the ice in front of it; the friction melts the surface and influences the rock’s trajectory. Points go to the team who gets their rocks closest to the center of the house. We got into the sport around 2014, when we moved to a neighborhood near the Schenectady Curling Club. We attended an open house, and Dustin fell in love right away. He made it look so easy! I couldn’t deliver a rock to save my life, but he was so enthusiastic that I couldn’t say no, so together we joined a league. Fortunately, practice really does pay off, and I am no longer as hopeless a player as I was that first season (on my good days, anyway!). Curling is a very social sport, with lots of post-game camaraderie. We’ve made many dear friends through curling, and I’m glad Dustin convinced me to join.
10. In 2017 I co-founded a non-profit science outreach organization called CapSci. Our mission is to promote science in the NY Capital Region. We are best known for the Albany March for Science in 2017 and 2018, and for the Science on Tap series, which brings local scientists to bars to talk about their work with the public. CapSci has given me an outlet in which to channel my feelings of anxiety about the state of the world, particularly my concern about climate change. It’s also helped me meet other scientists and science enthusiasts from the Capital Region, which has been fun. Now that the pandemic is winding down, we are hoping to resume in-person events soon.
