I ran cross country & track in high school, and went to college at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where I majored in Geology and Economics. I studied abroad in Málaga, Spain, explored the west with geology field camps, traveled from Boston to New Orleans to Sevilla playing rugby (and tore both my ACL’s and broke my nose), directed an ESL program to promote education for immigrant families (English classes for women, childcare and tutoring for children, and advocacy and community for families), and volunteered with Habitat for Humanity (and continue to do so today with the Greater Boston chapter).

Having lived in Italy & Spain and taught ESL in college, I’m fluent in Italian and Spanish… after twenty minutes of warming up or after a few glasses of wine or margaritas since I’m a bit out of practice….

My enthusiasms include the outdoors, elaborate social-event organization, athletics and triathlons, travel, cooking, swing and salsa dancing, sewing and quilting.

I moved to Boston in 2001, I have tried to take advantage of all nerd school has to offer – from singing in the Chamber Choir while recovering from knee surgery my first semester, to serving as president for our department’s student council, to playing ice hockey for the crEAPS and learning to snowboard, to falling for a rocket scientist named Geoff…. Boston is a great city except for the cold! My office window has an spectacular view of the skyline (when it’s not snowing). I’ve sailed and gone swimming in the Charles, and even raced in the 62 degree waters of the Boston Harbor...

I moved to Pasadena, CA November 2006.

Parents
My dad is a professor of political science at Dickinson College where he studies civil military relations and democratization in Latin America, China, Africa, American government and political corruption. My mom teaches earth science and active physics at West Perry High School, and is a member of the LeTort Regional Authority, which monitors and protects our community’s watershed. They moved back to Bologna, Italy in July 2006 for 2 years & hosted a spectacular wedding adventure there for us in October 2006 - can't wait to visit them again!

Legend has it that my parents were introduced by their friend Jimmy at the house of a blind guy named Pedro one October in Syracuse, NY. Later, they realized that before Jimmy introduced them, together they had unknowingly researched and written his PhD thesis for him – He told my mom that he had done great research but just couldn’t articulate the interpretation, while he told my dad he was great at synthesis but was having trouble with the research and statistics…. Jimmy failed his PhD defense, and my parents were married in July, and 30 years later, can still be found kissing in the kitchen.

My mom loves our old boxer dog Buddy (RIP), geology & science, cooking elaborate feasts for friendly gatherings, figuring out where words come from, and rock’n’roll. She was the first person to nurture my curiosity about the natural world, and from her I inherited my love of all things chocolate.

My dad loves history, travel, a hamburger and chocolate milkshake at an old-fashioned diner, baseball and college football, our fat cat Josie, and playing golf. He does the dishes, so we let him play loud music that no one else likes.

Siblings
I’m the oldest of three – 2.5 years older than my brother James Michael and 8 years older than my sister Christina Marie. James goes by “James,” except when he works with truckers delivering appliances, when he figures it’s ok for them to use a nickname, since it’s easier to swallow a kid with a college education in philosophy if you call him “Jimmy.” Christina goes by… Christina, Tina, Teeny, Chris, Chrissy, Winky – and I call her Tina-Ree.

James graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2004, and is studying environmental law at the University of Vermont. Christina is attending Dickinson College.

We were all born in Carlisle, and grew up living sometimes there and sometimes in Bologna, Italy, where my dad was directing a study abroad program. James studied abroad there for his junior year at the University of Pittsburgh, and if Christina plans to study abroad there as well. My parents moved back for another two-year stint in 2006.

Pets
Old loveable boxer dog Buddy (RIP)
Fat loveable kittycat Josie