My Story

I’m originally from Estacada, Oregon, a small logging town in the foothills of the Cascade mountains. I’m the youngest in a tribe of three sisters. At age fifteen I met Tom, the handsome guy you see to the right. I was hopelessly smitten.
We tied the knot as college students (he was a math & computer science major, while I studied the natural sciences). Next up was a move from the deep green forests to the hot, dry Sonoran Desert in Tucson, Arizona. I worked in technical support and as a technical writer for AOL (makes me feel so old to say that!) while Tom earned his PhD. He then signed on as a math professor and we found ourselves in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina - something we never imagined! It’s been twenty years now and I still have culture shock sometimes.
We struggled with the the two-body problem for a number of years after landing in the Grand Stand; I held a variety of positions in customer service and adminstrative asssitant. At long last I found my calling in survey research and was determined to build a career for myself.
I worked on my Master’s in Survey Research part-time while working full-time as a survey researcher in higher education. It took m five years, but I made it happen! In 2023, I was honored with the Master of Arts in Survey Research Academic Excellence Awards in the School of Public Policy at the University of Connecticut. While still maintaining my university position, I’m eager to build an independent survey research practice; I’m especially interested in serving community organizations, non-profits, and small businesses.
Tom and I are pet-parents to four beautiful, quirky cats: Pippa who is both bossy and blind; Alma, her sweet shy momma; Tilly the cat-dog; and one-eyed and squirrely Gelly (pronounced like what you put on toast). For fun we explore the region, pursue our passions of book-binding and weaving, and spend waaaaayyy too much time scrolling social media.