I was born in upstate New York and spent much of my early childhood in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. We moved back to the states, to Georgia, when I was eight years old. When as a teenager, I qualified for the U.S. National Mountain Bike team. I competed four World Championship downhill mountain bike races as a junior: 1995 in Kirchzarten, Germany, 1996 in Cairns, Australia, 1997 in Château d'Oex, Switzerland, and 1998 in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec, Canada.
During my last year of high school, I attended North Georgia College and State University as a postsecondary option student. I took Calculus I, II, III, Intro to Political Science, Water Safety Instruction, and an Environmental Science course. My final project for my Environmental Science class was on Global Warming. I entered the University of Georgia as Genetics major but found through Organic Chemistry that I was much better at math and changed my major. I competed on the UGA cycling team and at regional mountain bike races throughout college. After my undergraduate degree I stayed at UGA for a Masters in Arts degree in Mathematics. The summer after my Masters degree I was as Intern at the Boeing Company’s Phantom Works Mathematics Department in Seattle. I continued as a PhD student the next fall. I met my husband Jamie when I was a junior in college and we got married after I passed my PhD qualifying exams.
In 2009, I graduated from the University of Georgia with a PhD in Mathematics and a Masters in Science in Statistics. I taught one year at Georgia State University and one year at Morehouse before taking a research post-doc in Milan, Italy for two years. I loved my time in Italy. In 2013, I happily to returned to Atlanta start my career at Emory. Now, I commute by bike or ride for fun on the weekends with Jamie and our kids (Ollie and Miles).
I've added a few photos below of some other elements of my life that didn't fit into the narrative above.
2006-2016
S.i.d. was my first dog as an adult. We adopted him from Labrador Friend of the South. He was once in a lifetime dog and friend. Sid loved to go swimming and hang out with us. He passed suddenly from cancer and even in his last moments never let on that life was anything less than wonderful.
2010-2019
Diesel was our Great Dane and another rescue dog. Unfortunately, we were part of his actual rescue. On a hot summer day, to save his life, he jumped from our neighbor’s second story porch. Diesel loved being a family dog and passed of old age in early 2019. We have a piece of art to commemorate our dogs who have passed. Here is D’s.
2004-Present
Lily is our cross-eyed Siamese mix cat. A friend of the family rescued Lily and the rest of the litter. We had her brother, Bacchus, for a while but he ran away.
My Kids.
Ollie and Miles are my kids. They are three years apart and seem to be happy and enjoy each others company. Miles is definitely the complement of Ollie.
Our Wedding Toast.
"But they had to crunch those numbers to see what they would show. Like an exponential equation, their love did grow and grow. And Jamie & Bree are good for America!" - there is a whole song!
Milano to Como along the Adda River
My favorite bike ride of all time is the path that starts along the Navigli in Milan and goes up to Lake Como. This picture is from one of Jamie's visits to Italy when we rode the path home. I hope to ride it one day with Ollie and Miles.