Hometown: Birmingham, Alabama.

When did you become a member of UMRA?  2015

What was your very first job? I was hired as a work study student my freshman year in college. I worked for an English professor and graded freshman English assignments. I was grateful for my high school English teachers who gave me the skills to be able to do this as soon as I got to college.

What was your occupation when you retired from FT work? Full professor in the Department of Family Social Science, College of Education and Human Development.

What was your first car? I didn’t own a car until I married. I loved the one we bought, a 1968 Ford Torino, deep blue and very fast. However, we were living in Mineral Wells, Texas, at the time and the car did not have air-conditioning. In the middle of the front seats there was a long metal bar. It was so hot one day that the bar blistered my back. Not such a great car after that!

If you could learn a new skill, what would you like it to be? Learning to ride and be safe on a touring motorcycle. The idea of taking road trips and back roads on a motorcycle seems a wonderful way to explore the world. But in my 50s, I chose photography over a motorcycle. I decided it was safer, but, as it’s turned out, maybe not less expensive, to focus on building my photography skills.

Do you have a favorite place on the U of M campus? When I visited during my interview in 2003, I saw the Peter Woytuk sculptures of the bulls on the St. Paul campus. I immediately felt at home, and the charm and beauty of the St. Paul campus has always delighted me. Many of my happiest memories have been in rural places, visiting family farms in northern Alabama during my childhood and working with my husband and his family on a dairy farm in southeastern Pennsylvania.

What is something you currently enjoy doing with your time? I have been an amateur photographer for many years, focusing on nature and landscapes. I love the way I can get lost with photography. Whether I am in the field shooting or at home working on post processing, I relish the way the rest of the world falls away for a time and only the tasks at hand remain.