Salve!

I grew up in a devout Catholic family as the oldest of six children. My parents prayed with us and read us the Bible every evening, and were diligent in catechizing us. I took my faith on as my own after a powerful experience on a high school retreat, and continued to grow spiritually in college and graduate school. I attended Catholic school K-5, was homeschooled 6-8, attended Catholic high school freshman year, and then was homeschooled for the rest of high school. I took piano lessons for most of grade school and high school. Additionally, I took Latin starting in eighth grade and continuing for all four years of high school. 

 Whether to pursue music or something more technical has been a lifelong question for me. I've always been very interested in everything related to science and engineering, and I joined a robotics club in high school, and found programming very interesting and enjoyable. So I double majored in chemistry and chemical engineering at Purdue. Meanwhile, I was playing piano for Masses at St. Thomas Aquinas, the Catholic center at Purdue, as well as leading a praise and worship group for weekly adoration. I obtained my Ph.D. in computational and theoretical chemistry from UW-Madison, while directing the Sunday 6 PM contemporary choir at St. Paul's Catholic Student Center.

 After obtaining my Ph.D., I began working as the Coordinator of Music & Liturgy at Blessed Sacrament parish in Madison. I also taught one semester of chemistry courses at UW-Waukesha, and will be teaching a section of organic chemistry at Carroll University this semester. Working in music ministry has helped keep my Latin strong. I strongly believe in the value of Latin in the liturgy, as is called for by Vatican II, and my goal is for everyone to understand liturgical Latin to the greatest extent possible, so as to deepen our liturgical prayer.