After high school, I went to Texas A&M. I found a husband, Phillip Roger Kramer from Norwood Minnesota and we were married in Fredericksburg on December 4, 1993. I received my BS in Biochemistry and Genetics in 1995. I worked for one year with Dr. Mary Estes at Baylor College of Medicine in the Department of Virology. I helped Phil's parents on their dairy farm for 4 months while Phil finished his PhD in 1996. Phil got a post-doctoral position at the National Institute of Health, so we moved to Maryland in January of 1997. We bought our first house in Kensington, MD in October of 1997. It was a cute little Cape Cod with 26 steps to the front door. We were lucky to find such a wonderful house in such a great neighborhood at that time. I worked for 15 months at the University of Maryland in the Department of Agriculture and Landscape Architecture for Dr. Jose Costa. I learned all about barley. I tell everyone that we were trying to make better beer. I started my graduate work in Chemical Engineering in September of 1998. I had to take most of the upper level undergraduate chemical engineering courses. I loved the challenge and simplicity of mathematical solutions to real world problems. In 2001, I received my Master's in Chemical Engineering. In 2002, I received my PhD. I got to smash bugs. I love creepy, crawly bugs. We were trying to find a cheaper, better way to make drugs using the caterpillars. We used the little green inch worms that you find on cabbage sometimes. In 2001, Phil got an assistant professor position at Baylor College of Dentistry. He moved to Dallas, Texas in December of 2001. I moved to Texas in May of 2002. I started my job at Baylor College of Dentistry in June. I am the Core lab manager. We bought our second house in August. We were lucky that our first house sold so well. The price difference between Maryland and Texas is amazing. Our house here is huge. We finally have furniture in every room. You can get lost in it if you aren't careful. My brother stayed with us for a few months. That made it nice because that meant that the upstairs was getting some use. Now, Phil and I have it all to ourselves again. We are just busy trying to get Phil tenure. We have multiple projects going on. We are mostly studying how estrogen affects diseases in women. We are also trying to develop a treatment that will allow people to keep their natural teeth longer.

I like to fish, if anyone knows a good place to fish here in Dallas, I would love to know. Phil and I also like hiking. I like to cook, sew, garden and read. I love Star Trek. Yes, I am still a geek, but geeks rule in the real world.