February 24, 2021 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. Back then we children played outside most of the time, and we explored nature. My early interest in the natural world led me to study science as I got older. My mother was a teacher, and a great role model. She valued education, and told me and my four siblings that if we studied we could become whatever we wanted to be. All of us ended up graduating from college.
Where did you go to school and in what subject did you get your degree(s) in?
I attended St. Augustine/ Father Bertrand High School in Memphis. I studied hard and graduated as class valedictorian. I went on to Xavier University in Louisiana, where I earned my B.S. degree in biology. Later on, I attended the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and received a master’s degree in zoology and ecology. I then earned a Ph.D. in fisheries and genetics from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
How did you come to work at the Northeast Fisheries Science Center?
After graduating from Xavier, I was recruited by a representative from the Department of the Interior to work for the summer at the Milford, Connecticut lab. The lab was then part of the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service. At the end of the summer I was asked to stay on. I was the first full-time African American woman hired at the lab and soon became a fisheries biologist. When NOAA was created in 1970, the lab was transferred to the Department of Commerce and became part of NOAA Fisheries and the Northeast Fisheries Science Center. That was more than 50 years ago, and I am still here!