My two great passions are art and nature. I grew up in Northeast Ohio playing along the streams and paths of a nearby forest, drawing, and stitching together fabric scraps in my Godmother’s sewing room.  I studied art and art history in college, but spent much of my adult life as a biologist, examining the ecology and reproductive behavior of small South American monkeys. I earned a Ph.D. from Kent State University in Biological Anthropology, and I hold an International Diploma from the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew in London. I taught at Northeastern Ohio College of Medicine and in the Department of Biological Sciences at Kent State University.

In mid-career I resigned my tenured professorship return to art and stitching full time. Since then I have mounted 4 solo shows in museums and galleries, and my work has been represented in many juried shows in the US and Europe including Artist as Quiltmaker, Quilt National, Quilt=Art=Quilts, Best of Ohio, Form Not Function, Focus Fiber, and others. My work was invited to be included in Color Improvisations, which toured Europe in 2010 through 2013, in the Inaugural Exhibition at Edison Price Gallery in New York City, and in Material Pulses, which is touring the US through 2023. My quilts are part of many private and public collections including the Marbaum Collection at the San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles. I curated several shows for the Butler Institute of American Art, and wrote reviews for Fiberarts Magazine. Recently, my practice has been featured two journals, Patchwork Professional Winter 2022 issue and Art Quilt Quarterly Vol. 28 2022.

Natural phenomena remain a major inspiration for my artwork.