I was born  in Denver, Colorado but moved to the Bay Area in the 1970s  I consider myself a Californian. I went to school at UC Davis majoring in Genetics  and after graduating quickly started doing primary research on Prions and Alzheimer's disease at UCSF and then at Stanford and UC San Diego.   I earned my teaching credential and a masters in Physics education from Notre Dame and have been teaching science in high school for the past 8 years. My philosophy is that teaching science is teaching students how to critically think and problem-solve.

I live in Redwood City with my husband, my two daughters, a dog and more cats than I like to admit. -Ask me about cat genetics someday. I love all sports and when I’m not coaching Capuchino’s swim team, you can find me running, skating,skiing, scuba diving,  biking, boxing, doing yoga,  ballet, or trying to learn how to make my tennis serve consistent.