I earned a B.A. in Aquatic Biology from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1983. I then earned an M.A. in Biology from the University of California, Riverside in 1986, conducting research on the ecological ramifications of different breeding systems in branchiopod crustaceans. I then went to Rutgers University in New Jersey for my Ph.D., working with Dr. Robert Vrijenhoek, again researching the ecological effects of sexual relative to asexual reproduction, this time in live-bearing fish (Poecillidae). I earned my PhD in 1991. From there, I did a short-term post-doc (1991) at Pennsylvania State University, in the Anthropology Department, studying the evolution of aging. I did a second post-doc at the Savannah River Ecology lab (run through the University of Georgia, Athens) from 1992-1994, working with Dr. Gary Meffe on life history evolution in another live-bearing fish (Gambusia affinis). I started at the University of Akron in 1994.