About Me

I am originally from the Los Angeles/Orange County area in Southern California.  I went to Nathaniel Narbonne High School and graduated with the class of 1999.  My education continued at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), where I completed my B.S. degrees in Chemistry and Biology and my M.S. in Chemistry.  I worked at UCI from August 2004 to June 2008 as the General Chemistry Lab Manager and instructed several courses.  In June 2008, Charlottesville became my home.  I drove across country to follow my husband who was doing his graduate studies at UVA.  At UVA, I taught chemistry lab courses and summer outreach program through the School of Engineering.  I have also taught in the Summer Enrichment Program (SEP) teaching polymer chemistry to middle school students.

My husband and I have settled here and we are happy to call Charlottesville our home.  Our first son was born on  Pi day (3/14) in 2009 in Charlottesville.  He loves playing soccer through SOCA and Tae Kwon Do.  Our second son was born on April 12, 2016.  During the summer of 2017, we moved back to California to be closer to our families.  As we transitioned back to living in California, we have been able to enjoy the local State Parks and other festivals held throughout Southern California, like the Avocado Festival at Fallbrook. My husband and I are still avid runners and do long-distance runs on The Strand from Redondo Beach to Playa Del Ray and back. On those long distance runs, our boys typically join us on their scooters for a family adventure.

Some interesting facts:

• I am from California.

• I was born in Manila, Philippines to an Irish/Spanish-American mother and a Chinese/Spanish Father.

• I speak fluent Tagalog.

• I was an exchange student to Nagoya, Japan and studied there for the summer after my sophomore year in high school.

• I have 3 masters (M.S. in Atmospheric Chemistry, M.A. in Chemistry, and Master in Teaching).

• During my 5th year as an undergraduate and my first 2 years during graduate school, I worked for 24 -our fitness as a personal trainer.  I helped people attain their fitness goals by developing their personal fitness plans and supporting them every step of the way until they attained their goals.

• While in graduate school, I was bitten by the running bug and started to train for long-distance races.  First, I ran 5Ks and 10Ks until I found them to be easy and not challenging.  After 2 years of running 5Ks and 10Ks, I did my first half marathon and then my first marathon 6 months later.  Still, those became too easy and I did my first ultra-marathon a year later.

• While going to grad school at UCI, I used to commute 50 miles to and from UCI and home on my road bike three times a week.  With that much bike riding, I did my first triathlon during my 2nd year of grad school.

• After hurting my hip and back in 2012, I went through physical therapy and am now able to run.  I have started running 5K and 10K races again.  Recently, I have been able to participate in the OC Half Marathon.