I fell in love with biology after I fell in love with sea kayaking, wowed by killer whales, the amazing world of the intertidal, and the birds that live around the sea. My educational path took me from SRJC to UC Berkeley, where I was introduced to the formal study of animal behavior. Although I focused on marine biology during my undergrad years, I was wooed to Argentina to study the social environment of a little subterranean rodent, the colonial tuco-tuco, for my graduate research.

I have come full circle now teaching biology at SRJC, where it all began. I am also the science advisor and board president of Orca Behavior Institute, a non-profit based on San Juan Island, Washington, studying the behavior of killer whales. I hope to excite my students with the amazing-ness of the natural world. It doesn't get any better than the study of life!