Born in the mid '60s, I grew up the third of four children in an army family. We lived in many interesting places, including South Korea and Germany. In the U.S., I've lived in Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Pennsylvania.
My father retired in 1983 to Carlisle and I attended Shippensburg University, graduating in 1987 with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications.
I took a job at the local Pearle Vision Center, thinking it would keep me going until I found a job in the field I had studied for. Eventually, I felt that this type of work was more to my liking than journalism, and I ended up working as an optician and manager for five years, while taking extra college courses on the side, to prepare for optometry school.
By 1992, I had completed the courses needed for admission to optometry school and passed the entrance exams, and that fall I started at the Pennsylvania College of Optometry in Philadelphia.
While in school I received special training in pediatric eye care at The Eye Institute, ocular disease training at Hahnemann University Hospital, and performed laser procedures at the Hafter Light and Laser Institute.
After graduation in May of 1996, I worked for four years for an optometrist in private practice in Carlisle. I eventually realized that the headache of owning my own business was not for me.
Since then I've worked at various optical shops in the South Central Pennsylvania area. This allows me to spend most of my time caring for patients, and relatively little on office management and paperwork.
I live in Boiling Springs. I've got a daughter who lives in Australia, and two sons who are at college, as well as a cat and a pug.
In my spare time I like working on my car, astronomy, listening to music, skiing, history, collecting ancient roman coins, riding my motorcycles, and powered paragliding.
