After high school, I attended Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois. I studied psychology with emphasis in neuroscience, and sociology with emphasis in criminology, and graduated with degrees in these fields. While in college, I worked in a neuroscience lab where I participated in drug and stress studies on rats. Some of the work our group performed was published in a neuroscience journal. I also worked for Barnes and Noble for several years during college. I married a fellow 'huskie' while at NIU, and have been in the northwest suburbs ever since. We have a daughter named Alice Olivia. I have been working on the mental health unit at Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee, since 2006. When my daughter is old enough to attend kindergarten, I will also return to school to continue to study neuroscience and psychology. By our next reunion, I hope to be working as a clinical neuropsychologist.