Born in Tucson, raised in the Ozarks (Arkansas), and schooled in California (Poway, Vista, Santa Monica, San Diego). The youngest daughter of a Master Union Electrician, my father worked on every major nuclear power plant in the United States, the Santa Monica oil fields, and helped build the Vandenburg Air Force Base launch complex. My family moved with dad almost every time, mostly living in an RV or renting a nearby house. Having moved 30 times and attending 23 schools by the time I was 18, I opted for the calmer and less hectic life of a military wife, where you only have to move every 18 months or so.
Since then I've raised four boys, several dogs, and a bunch of horses, traded in my first husband for a more reliable model, received a B.S from LeTourneau University in Longview, TX, and worked for the Corps of Engineers in Galveston. In the meantime my husband was working on the International Space Station, at Johnson Space Center, after retiring from the Navy. Recently we bought a 160 acres of dirt in eastern South Dakota, which we are slowly turning into a horse ranch.
I have been involved with finance and budgeting for the Landsat Remote Sensing Program since several years prior to the launch of Landsat 7, in 1999. I currently work at the EROS Data Center (USGS), in Eastern South Dakota, as the Information Man- agement Officer for the Landsat 7 Mission Management Office.