I can still see my first grade mathematics teacher as clear as day—flash cards and all. It was then that I fell in love with mathematics. Math was fun! I always thought of it as a game, and even more so when I studied algebra. Throughout my educational career, I enjoyed mathematics and was very fortunate to have excellent teachers who helped me build a solid mathematical foundation. With a very strong high school background in mathematics, I enrolled at Bowdoin College, not sure of what I wanted to study. It was during my first college semester of calculus that I decided to study mathematics. I pursued the algebra and number theory track as a mathematics major and also a major in Spanish.

Upon receiving my BA, I began my career with the Department of the Navy in the Centralized Financial Management Trainee Program. This program is an intense two-year internship run by the Navy Comptroller. As a budget analyst trainee, I was assigned to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, MD. I worked on the initial mathematical model for the Capitation Budgeting Methodology for Military Treatment Facilities. This model included extensive algebraic formulas used to determine the cost of health care on a per capita basis for each military hospital. After successful completion of the trainee program, I worked at the National Naval Medical Center as a budget analyst.