About Me

I am a first-year doctoral student in the Social and Health Psychology program at Carnegie Mellon University, under the advisement of Dr. Vicki Helgeson. My research questions involve the relationships of psychosocial, behavioral, and cognitive factors with the abilities of individuals with chronic diseases to adhere to their medical self-care regimens. I am also interested in the relationship between stress and successful metabolic control. My overarching goal is to contribute to the body of science that assists in the prevention of chronic diseases and in increasing successful health outcomes and quality of life. I am working toward a career as a university professor and researcher.

My interests outside of school and work include reading, writing, running, cycling, foreign language and linguistics, playing piano and flute, philosophy, hiking, the outdoors, talk radio, small venue live music, performing arts, theater, appreciating good and creating bad art, alternative medicine, history, exploring Pittsburgh, spirituality/new age, word/board games, and continuous education, to name only a few. I have two cats, and am a proud Phi Mu alumna. The next two hobbies I want to develop are playing the guitar and sewing.

Non-Academic Experience

Summary

I started out my post-college career as a Manufacturing Engineer for Texas Instruments in McKinney, TX. Through the years my career morphed into a computer programmer for both desktop applications and the web, and eventually I moved into project management. I have extensive programming and management experience, and have found that I use these skills no matter where my life and career take me. I also have experience as a book store manager - a job that I held to work my way through a new Bachelor's Degree as the first step toward achieving my dreams of a new career. I have worked for many of the top companies in the country, and have run my own independent consulting and service businesses throughout the years. I experienced the dot.com boom and bust of the late-90's/early 2000's first hand. My experiences are rich and varied, and provide me with a unique perspective on every project with which I am involved.

See my Professional Resume for more detail on my non-academic work experience.

Technical Skills

I am a database expert and am fully trained and experienced in relational database design and reporting. A close secondary specialty is web site and web application development. The following are some selected database, development, design, and analysis tools with which I feel competent.

Experiment Dev/Analysis Tools

Presentation, ePrime, SPSS, Director

Programming Languages

Visual Basic, (X)HTML, ASP, VBScript, JavaScript, SQL, XML, MatLab, Lingo, Python

Operating Systems

Windows (95/98, NT, 2000, XP), Mac OSX

Databases

Oracle, SQL Server, MS Access, Sybase, Paradox, MySQL

Design Tools

Fireworks, Flash, Photoshop, Director, Dreamweaver

Other

MS Office, MS Project, Visio, CSS, OOP, Endnote