As a four-year old child, her dream was to become a marine biologist. She grew up in Michigan and moved to South Dakota in her early 20s and got a degree in Fisheries and Wildlife and then moved to Utah with a Composite degree in Zoology, Botany and Geology. Her next move was to Arizona where she earned her Master's degree in Invertebrate Zoology and minor in Paleontology. That opened a job at a college in Eugene, Oregon where she began teaching Marine Biology. Shortly after, she and her two girls moved to Oregon, where she began studying the gray whales in Newport and Depoe Bay. She was lucky to be the scientist to discover what they ate off the Oregon coast. This opened a door to a graduate degree in Biological Oceanography at Oregon State University. After her discovery that the gray whales were eating mysid shrimp in Depoe Bay, OR, Jean Michel Cousteau contacted her and featured her research in his 2006 PBS documentary Gray Whale Obstacle Course.

Another lifelong dream to dive with the Cousteau divers came true! Her research was also featured on an Oregon Field Guide episode.