What was your first job and what did you learn from it?

The summer before college I held my first two official jobs - by day I conducted research for the Connecticut Association of the Boards of Education (CABE), and by night I was the midnight shift waitress at Bickfords House of Pancakes. I learned many things through these experiences. From CABE, I learned what it meant to be part of a professional team. Even though I was an intern, they took an interest in me and challenged me professionally. With guidance from researchers there, I published my first academic research paper. At Bickfords, I learned how difficult it is to earn a dollar, why education is important, and how to make really good omelets.

Who is your hero, mentor or person you most admire? Why?

There are a number of people that I admire. I have the deepest respect for my parents' accomplishments. They both have accomplished great things personally and professionally while creating a powerful and loving family dynamic. The mastery of this balancing act is one of the most difficult to sustain. I also admire my former boss, Shahaf Gal. Dr. Gal is one of the foremost experts in online community building and the integration of technology into professional and personal settings. Of course, I am constantly learning about technology and life from my husband Hamilton.

What are you most proud of (either professionally or personally)?

I am most proud of the online community I am currently working on. Cambridge Information Network (CIN) [http://www.cin.ctp.com] is living proof that online communities can bridge professional gaps and bring people together to do asynchronous problem solving. Prior to joining CIN, much of my work with online communities was researching their possibilities for global learning and self-sustainability. Now, with CIN, we have more than 1400 senior IT executives sharing professional dilemmas from around the world. We even have a member from Croatia! I am proud that there are so many pioneering CIOs willing to collaborate, and I am proud to be part of the CIN team who built this community.

What advice would you give to young women who want to enter your field?

The advice I would give to any young woman who wants to enter a science or technology field is to plan on working very hard and smartly as equity is not yet universal. To anyone interested in becoming an online community builder, it is important to understand the background and roots of online communities based in the sociology and psychology of technology integration. Become familiar with The Well and other grassroots online networks, study the works of Shoshona Zuboff, Vygotsky, Chris Argyris and Don Schon, Dick Roupp, Lucy Suchman and Sherry Turkle. And, most importantly, take a leadership role on a network and become an active member. There is no substitute for experience.

What is your favorite book?

I am a big fan of Chaucer, George Elliot, Margaret Fuller, Robert Lowell and Tom Robbins. There are too many wonderful books to choose just one.

What is your favorite Web site?

http://www.cin.ctp.com (of course!).

What do you see as the single most interesting element of your work?

Crafting the relationship between people and technology is the most interesting element of my work. As an online community builder, the biggest challenge is how to create a private and interesting online space to help people connect using technology as the vehicle. This is a deeply interesting puzzle from a social, technical and research perspective.

What was your darkest moment (professionally) and what did you learn from it?

One of my darkest professional moments was when the LabNet network's virtual doors were Closed (it was a network I helped launch). LabNet was an online community of math and science educators dedicated to enhancing teaching practice through professional collaboration. It was funded by the National Science Foundation as a collaborative experiment. This was a low point for me because it showed the all too common lack of collaboration between research and the business world. Academic research offers some distinguished scholarship, but the field often fails to successfully shepherd good research experiments into a positive financial and professional gain. Meanwhile, the for-profit sector can benefit from the findings of deeply explored research questions, especially in the science and technology domains.

What do you do to relax?

Read, play tennis, ski, travel to remote destinations, garden, knit sweaters, work, spend time with friends and family, and play with Justin, my new nephew.