We were a “Westinghouse” family, and thusly, given a tour of the US which served to instill a comfort level with new places and people. However, I mostly remember growing up in California and then went on to several years of college at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. I spent my junior year abroad in Vienna, Austria and finished up at Syracuse in NY with a major in Art and minor in Biology. Armed with a Master's degree in Medical Illustration from The Johns Hopkins University Medical School in Baltimore, I worked for 25 years at a variety of academic medical institutions producing surgical illustrations for publication, medical animation, and classroom teaching.