I have been a practicing Episcopalian for more than a quarter of a century and an active member of St. Thomas for roughly two years, a parish I strongly feel to be my spiritual home. At St. Thomas I have served on the Stewardship Committee, Flower Guild and as a Eucharistic Minister.

My life as an Episcopalian began with my marriage in Saint Anne Episcopal Church in West Chester, OH, an appropriate compromise for my protestant Methodist upbringing and my husband’s own strict German Catholic (they never identify as Roman Catholic). We then spent two years at Trinity Episcopal in Fort Worth TX, followed by nearly 15 years at St. Mark’s in Mendham, NJ, within the diocese of Newark. During that time I served St. Mark’s as a Senior Warden as well as vestry member for three years and the Diocese of Newark as co-chair of a task force on assisted suicide, producing a white paper for Bishop John Spong.

Currently I work for a not-for-profit professional association as director of regulatory affairs, dealing mostly with the agencies within the US Department of Health and Human Services. Immediately before this position I was Director of the AIDS Center for Hope House, a Catholic Charity organization in Dover, NJ. I also have worked as the founding dean of the graduate school and professor at Saint Elizabeth College in Morristown NJ, as a consultant to pharmaceutical companies, and as a clinical scientist in food and drug product development. My teaching career has included full-time positions at Texas Christian University and the College of Mount St. Joseph in Ohio where I was a professor of foods and nutrition and adjunct professor of chemistry.

Although a native of Southern California, I decided to explore the greater US and earned my bachelor’s degree at the Univ. of Delaware and completed a dietetic internship at the University of Michigan Hospital before embarking on graduate studies at the University of California, Davis. There I earned a MS and PhD in Nutrition with minors in endocrinology and physiological chemistry.

Legally a resident of NJ, I live in a co-op just down the street with three sweet cats: Tigger, Baby and KitKat. Douglas resides in our NJ home and our daughters Bettina and Marghet live here in DC.