In 1975 I graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where I majored in painting, printmaking and art education.  Since 1979 I've worked in museum exhibition, first as Head Preparator in the Print and Drawing Department at the Art Institute of Chicago, then I moved to D.C. in 1987 where I worked as Chief Preparator at the Corcoran Gallery of Art until 2006.

     I first practiced Aikido in 1978 at the Midwest Aikido Center in Chicago, then under the direction of Akira Tohei Sensei.  After several years practice, and twenty years later, I started practice again at Aikido of Arlington in Arlington, Virginia in 2000 under Yvonne Thelwell Sensei. I tested for Nidan at Pat Hendricks Sensei's seminar hosted by Aikido of Fairfax in 2009.