Q: How long have you worked at Rice?
A: Three years and three months.
Q: What is your favorite part about working for the university?
A: I love this institution; I’m an alumna who had an incredible experience here as an undergraduate, and I am passionate about the mission. Rice is simultaneously dedicated to shaping future leaders and conducting groundbreaking research, and it excels at both.
Q: What do you want people to know about living in Houston?
A: Houston provides anyone the lifestyle they want from it: vibrant social diversity, arts, sports, food, schools, music and social services. It is larger than life in many ways.
Q: What do you do in your downtime?
A: These days I’m deep in the grind of parenting kids who are old enough to have too many activities and not old enough to drive themselves. Other than providing taxi service, I like to dig in my garden during daylight hours and catch up on good fiction or cross-stitching after dark.
Q: What’s your favorite spot on campus to show someone?
A: I love showing people Alice Pratt Brown Hall because once you point out that the building is meant to be reminiscent of a piano keyboard, it’s something that can’t be unseen. Close second would be the owl shape of George R. Brown Hall. The thoughtfulness of the architecture at Rice is absolutely one of the many things that makes it special.
Q: What’s the most exciting time of year for you as it relates to Rice?
A: O-Week. As a student, I was an O-week coordinator at Martel College in 2005, a massive project that really helped me appreciate the work of so many offices on this campus that make student life happen.
Q: What’s the one thing that makes Rice special to you?
A: I got married in the chapel on campus.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your job?
A: Every day is a little different submitting research grant proposals about different topics to different sponsors with different guidelines, but the overarching trend is toward developing expertise in this area. It’s also really rewarding when a complete proposal is put together as a beautiful, comprehensive package and ready to be sent out for review.
Q: What are your most memorable accomplishments?
A: Definitely co-founding Moving Waters, a Houston nonprofit that provides mobile shower service to people experiencing homelessness. It was a labor of love that started with a kernel of a dream in a living room, then countless hours creating a road map and business plan, and then recruiting other people and charitable foundations to believe in our mission and vision before officially launching service in May 2021.
Moving Waters provided its 25,000th shower in time for its fourth anniversary and is still going strong.
Q: What are your hobbies and interests outside of work?
A: I like to cook, garden, swim, cross-stitch, read and spend lots of time with my family and friends.
Q: What advice would you give to new employees?
A: Ask questions. If you don’t know the answer or where to look or how to approach something, there is someone on campus who does or who will help work through it with you.
Q: Would you share a bit about your background and career journey?
A: After graduating, I taught high school English in Houston ISD for Act I of my career, but I took a break after a couple babies to stay home. I returned to the working world via the nonprofit world — even starting my own — but academia called its siren song, and I’m back here and feel like I belong.
Q: What’s your favorite lunch spot or snack?
A: If I could live off of popcorn and coffee, I would. Happy for just some microwave popcorn and home-brewed drip coffee.
Q: What’s your secret talent?
A: My internal timer. Honed in my years in the classroom to time a lesson from bell to bell, if I’ve set a timer and wandered off, I always check in with less than 10 seconds to go and not before that.
Q: What’s one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?
A: Chill. Things aren’t always linear and don’t always look like progress, but that doesn’t mean that the space between isn’t important. In fact, it might be the most important stage.
Q: If you could be Sammy The Owl for a day, what would you do?
A: Catch a performance at the music school and pose with all the instruments.
Q: How would you describe your experience as a Rice employee?
A: Stretching. I continue to learn new skills, information and processes all the time, and there isn’t a clear end in sight for the potential for growth and development.
Q: Where do you see Rice in 25 years?
A: Rice will continue to meet the future just ahead of the curve and will continue to grow, but hopefully not too much more. Like the buckyballs Rice is famous for producing, being small and mighty is one of its strengths.
Q: What’s your favorite memory from your time with Rice?
A: Too many to recount, but just walking the campus fills me with indescribable warmth.
Q: Describe Rice in four words or less.
A: Organic, unconventional, daring, home.
Q: What else have we not talked about yet that merits discussion?
A: The Rice values — responsibility, integrity, community and excellence — aren’t just words. They really embody what it is to be student, staff and faculty at Rice.