What do you do here at Wright Lab?
I currently support the Relativistic Heavy Ion Group (RHIG) in Wright Lab West, and Wright Lab as a whole. I provide day-to-day support to students, researchers, faculty, and visitors by making travel arrangements, planning events, monitoring facilities issues, updating the RHIG website, maintaining the RHIG publication list, and lots of other related activities. I provide backup for the other two administrative support staff in Wright Lab when they are out. I also provide administrative support for three different Physics Department seminar series.
What is the most unique and/or exciting experience you’ve had here at Wright Lab?
Although it was a very sad occasion, I had the privilege of meeting a 1960’s Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory (WNSL) graduate who later became an astronaut – Joe Allen – at Dr. Allan Bromley’s memorial service in 2005. What an interesting and delightful person! I was also able to assist the Public Relations office in securing a video of former President George H.W. Bush to play at the service (he could not attend), as Dr. Bromley was a Cabinet-level member Science Advisor to Bush in the 1990’s.
What is something that people might not know about you that you’d like to share with the community?
Hmmmm….there is probably a lot! This is actually my third career. Many of you may know I have a degree in Psychology and spent my first ten years out of college working with adults with developmental disabilities in both residential and vocational settings in the greater Washington D.C. area. I then moved to Texas for a while, where I worked as a radio jingle product manager in Dallas. I was in charge of selling, scheduling, and producing jingle sessions for radio stations all over the world. I was lucky to meet some stars that visited the studio, including Vanilla Ice, Don Henley, and Ed McMahon. I then moved to Connecticut and started working at Yale in 2002, and the rest is history!
P.S. I was also a major groupie for the rock band .38 Special for YEARS. I love their music, and helped transcribe all the lyrics for their website, and was even a pen pal to the late bass player, Larry Junstrom. I think I’ve seen them perform about 100 times, and have met and socialized with them all on many occasions. Great group of guys!
Where do you like to work remotely?
I don’t have a whole lot of choices, as I am working with a desktop machine and not a laptop. I worked at my dining room table for the first couple of months, but have now set up a table in the living room because I missed being able to use my dining room! It’s nice, as I sit near the windows (except when the glare affects my Zoom calls).
