Wonder, when used as a verb, means to be curious to know something. When used as a noun, wonder refers to that delicious feeling of surprised delight when we encounter the unexpected, lovely, or inexplicable. Both types of wonder are core elements of me. I am enchanted by a good story and relish telling one. But I did not always know that I wanted to be a writer. I did know, though, for as long as I can remember, that I loved to read, learn, and tell whoever was willing to listen about my latest discovery.
Although I find wonder in people, places, art, history, and culture—really everything—my special connection to science was initially forged when my adventurous fifth grade teacher sent us home with preserved, dead frogs and challenged us to “disarticulate” the skeleton, clean the bones, and “rearticulate,” or reassemble the skeleton. Doing this task entailed boiling the bones to remove the muscle and other soft tissues. My mother agreed to sacrifice a pot—she was never going to use it for food again! —so I could clean the frog bones. My older brother was so grossed out by the boiling frog and bones that I liked to believe he was a little scared of me! I felt excited and powerful. I decided to become a scientist.
I finished grade school, went to high school for 3 years, and then attended college, earning my Bachelor of Science degree in biology at Manhattan College, which was located nearby where I grew up in the Bronx. Next came graduate school at Princeton University where I earned my master’s degree and Ph.D.
My first job after graduate school was as a research associate at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. I was a real research scientist! I loved it…. for a while. The longer I worked in the lab, the more I began to feel that I had something else to offer besides the results of my experiments.
I turned my sights to teaching. Neither of my parents went to college. My education had opened an amazing world to me—so much bigger than the one my parents experienced. Learning transforms a person. I had received such a gift and I wanted to give back by helping to open this world up to other curious students so that they could learn, develop, and grow into their best selves. Choosing to become an educator was one of the best decisions I ever made.
My areas of specialty and courses I taught in my years as a professor include cell biology, genetics, developmental biology, microbiology, evolution, biochemistry, history of biology, and history of medicine. I have taught biology to first-year, sophomore, junior, and senior biology, health science, biochemistry, and non-science majors. I love to teach and for me, writing is another way to teach. The best teaching is, in my view, all about telling a good story and inviting students to discover. I think the best writing also seeks to tell a story and to invite discovery.
As part of my responsibilities as a professor, I engaged in scholarship and published my work. Early on in my career, my publications were reports of my scientific research. As my interest in teaching and story-telling grew, the focus of my published papers shifted to teaching techniques, methods, and resources. I enjoyed making these professional contributions, which I knew were helpful for other educators. But I came to realize that my “as long as I can remember” love of reading—especially non-fiction—was calling to me ever more loudly. In 2005 I saw an announcement in the American Biology Teacher; Chelsea House Publishers were seeking authors for some biology series they were launching. Along with my resumé, I sent a letter that expressed interest, and they hired me to write Causes of Cancer, a title in their Biology of Cancer series. Causes of Cancer was published in 2007. I was on my way! Since that first book in 2007, I have published seventeen more.
In 2020, I decided to leave my teaching position and to turn my attention to writing full-time. This decision was also one of the best I ever made. I have a lot of stories to tell, and I cannot wait to share them!
