Here is some biographical material for anyone who might be interested.   Through the magic of the internet, my widely scattered past can come together here!

I was born in Adelaide, South Australia. At the time I was born my Dad was a medical resident – or so it says on my birth certificate. My father had been a veterinarian but at some point before I was born he decided he would rather be a doctor, so he went to medical school. I was the third child of my parents, and the first girl. I spent most of my childhood in Glenhaven, New South Wales, a small outer suburb of Sydney. I attended Glenhaven Primary School, and later Galston High School.  At Glenhaven Primary, Mr Nelson was my teacher for the fourth, fifth and sixth grades (he taught these three grades and was headmaster all at the same time) and I still remember enjoying getting him to go on "tangents" and tell us about all sorts of interesting things.  Then my family moved to Morisset, a town north of Sydney towards the city of Newcastle. We lived there on by the shores of Lake Macquarie for a while, and I finished my high school education at Morisset High School. I completed my High School Certificate Examination in 1980, and since I scored higher on the exam than anyone else in the school, my name is painted in gold letters on a board outside the headmaster’s office. I assume it is still there!

In 1981 I was an exchange student through the Rotary club to the town of Water Valley, Mississippi.  My second semester in Water Valley, I attended the University of Mississippi in neighboring Oxford, Ms. In 1982 I returned to Australia, then came back and finished my undergraduate degree at the University of Mississippi. I ended up with a BA in Sociology and a very strange accent (Australian/ with Mississippi).

Then I went to the University of Washington to study Sociology.  So why did I study sociology? Well, I had started out wanting to be a social worker, and then I realized that I would make a lousy social worker. One semester I did some research for a social work professor of mine, and I decided that I really liked doing research. So I decided to become a researcher. That was a good decision because I do really like doing research. The question, was, what field should I do research in?  At that time I happened to be a student worker in the Department of Sociology. I didn’t actually like Sociology particularly, but I was told if I wanted to do social research that would be a good field (better than social work, for instance). At one point I heard the Chair of the Department of Sociology talking about how he replied to people who asked “what do sociologists study”? He replied: “whatever they want!” This sounded like the field for me. So I took some extra classes, got a degree in sociology, and applied to a variety of graduate schools. I decided to go to the University of Washington. I had applied there because Dr. Vaughn Grisham, in the Department of Sociology at Ole Miss, suggested I go there, and it was in a library book as a “top-rated” sociology program. I lucked out, because it was a very good program for me. (I didn’t actually think that when I was there).

At the University of Washington I met my husband Joe Whitmeyer.  We have two fabulous children, Mark and Sophie.  The things I enjoy include being with my family, music, traveling, skiing, cooking, reading novels, swimming, and doing research!