You have been visiting my home page, so you know that I am a biology instructor at Bellevue Community College, which is located in Bellevue, Washington, east of Seattle.

I started my teaching experiences as a pre-schooler, with pencils for students, so I guess I have always been either a student or a teacher. It's fun to share things with others, and teachers always get to share what they know (or think they know) with their students.

I was raised in Michigan, and graduated from the University of Michigan with a BS in Biology. I attended the U of M Biological Station in Pellston MI for two summers, one of the best experiences in my education. My field experiences led me to pursue a MS in Botany at the University of Washington. When I started looking for a teaching position, I was fortunate to have an opportunity at BC, and here I am, too many years later to count. (OK, I taught my first class at BC in 1971, which is also the year that Piffer, the perfect Siamese, came to share my life for 17 years.)

In addition to my Botany and Biology classes on campus, I taught Biology 130, a Nutrition course, online from fall, 1997 - winter, 2003. The online experience was a different and rewarding way of reaching students, but I wanted back in the classroom full-time after being "tethered" to my computer for six years.

For many years I shared my home with my Burmese cats, Abbey and Molly. Abbey was named after Edward Abbey and Molly was named after Aldo Leopold. We nurtured our Ginkgo trees and an assortment of cactus, fed birds and squirrels in our back yard, and tried to keep the Azolla garden from freezing in the winter. Abbey spent much time at my Macintosh computer (as do I), and used the keyboard frequently.

Two Tonkinese kittens, Tonka-P and Bluxahn, joined my family in March, 2007. bringing "life" and much distraction into my home. They are fascinated with most everything and spend much of their day "reorganizing" our home to satisfy their immediate preferences. Tonka-P enjoys dimming the computer screen and adjusting the volume control while I work.