I grew up in Mansfield, Massachusetts and spent summers with my family on Cape Cod. I attended McGill University in Montreal, Canada and received my BSc degree in Biology in 1980. After working as a research technician in Boston for a year, I was accepted into the University of Washington's graduate program in Oceanography in 1981. While at the UW, my research centered on how food produced in surface waters is transported to the deep ocean floor. Cruises on the R/V Thomas G. Thompson to Hawaii and the Gulf of Alaska were a highlight of my master's degree program. After graduate school, I spent several months in the Bering Sea as a fisheries observer on Japanese fishing trawlers. I was hired in 1986 to teach science at Everett High School. This year, I teach Chemistry and Physics in the Universe.