I’m the graduate student services advisor for the Department of Integrative Biology and the Endocrinology Graduate Group. I assist the graduate students as they navigate getting their PhDs at Berkeley – from admissions all the way up through graduation. The faculty advisors and faculty mentors enable the students to do incredible scientific and scholarly feats. I enable the students to do incredible personal feats such as meeting deadlines and filling out paperwork properly.
Way back in 1999, I transferred to UC Berkeley as an undergraduate in Integrative Biology. I joined the Biology Scholars Program (BSP) and became a student curatorial assistant in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ). I like to say that I loved Berkeley so much, I couldn’t leave. When I graduated, I was hired as a Senior Museum Scientist in the MVZ, and managed the Prep Lab for 10 years and also founded their undergraduate program. After that, I beefed up my resume with experiences in marketing and online education, science education and outreach, university administration, and fundraising. I had a lot of fun exploring different career opportunities – I even did a stint as a summer intern for Alameda mosquito abatement! But ultimately, I missed working directly with students and came back “home” to Integrative Biology.
4 Quick Questions:
- What motivates you to get out of bed and come to campus each day? Making a difference in people’s lives
- How long have you been on campus? 20 years!
- What do you like best about working at Berkeley? All the amazing people I get to meet (staff, students, faculty).
- If you could do it all again what job would you rather have? Ring master of a traveling cockroach circus (but with Dermestids instead of cockroaches)
4 Quick Facts:
- Left handed/right handed? Right
- City of Birth? Littleton, Colorado
- Cat or dog? Bunny
- Motto? Before helping others, put your own oxygen mask on first