Bio

I was born and raised in New York City; Manhattan, to be precise. My mom started taking me to the Metropolitan Museum of Art when I was 4 years old. We would go once a month and in the beginning would only do one room per visit. As I got older we would do more and I would get to chose a sticker booklet on my favorite artist. By the time I was in 6th grade, I knew I wanted to be an archaeologist. I loved history and was fascinated by the Greeks and the Romans. In 7th grade I started taking Latin and decided I wanted to be a Roman period archeologist. But in 8th grade my American history teacher who was from England started to tell us stories about Roman sites in England and I then decided I wanted to be a Romano-British archaeologist! Throughout high school I would spend time in NYC's museums looking for Romano-British artifacts and then when I went to college I spent every summer in England on sites that had Romano-British occupation levels; studying the pottery and trying to determine its function. I went to Connecticut College and got a B.A. in European History and Asian Studies. I then went to UCLA where I received both my M.A. and Ph.D. But my focus had changed slightly - I was still interested in ceramic function but for my Masters I looked at pottery from a pueblo in Arizona and for my doctorate I studied a site in Rome. In both instances I developed biochemical techniques to be applied to archaeological problems.

My studies of art and archaeology/anthropology have led to my teaching both disciplines since 1982. As an archaeologist, I look at works of art as cultural artifacts and therefore want my students to understand the context in which they were created. That is as important as understanding an artist's style and technique. I teach a variety of classes at Cypress, depending upon departmental need, from Introduction to Art, Art History -Prehistoric to Gothic & Renaissance to Modern, Asian Art to Contemporary. I teach Anthropology and Women in Art at Orange Coast College.

When I am not teaching, I am either traveling or cooking. Cooking is my hobby. I even have an ancient Roman cookbook. I watch the Food TV network religiously, trying to get new ideas and tips. My husband and 2 daughters are the beneficiaries of my cooking efforts as are our 3 cats. One of my mottos is "Life is Short, Start with Dessert!"