Welcome to our blog!
I am hoping that this will be a place that we can get to know each other and share what we have learned and discovered on our adventures in Western Washington.
This is an informal place but we want to be welcoming and respectful of all people and all ideas. We are a community and sharing and respect will help us build a place that we feel comfortable to learn. Okay? I am hoping that you can help me make this a cool blog that you like to post to and visit. Please share any ideas you have for this blog in your personal blog posts!
Your Blog assignment #1 is super easy. Simply introduce yourself (again) to your classmates. Please include a photo so we know what you look like since we will only meet you face to face a few times.
Then tell us a little bit about yourself. Photos and videos are always fun to see if you have some to share. Tell us what interests you about Western Washington and what you would like to learn more about. I will do my best to address as much as I can.
Okay, let me start!
I am Gwen. My real name (in case you have not noticed) is Jennifer but there were a lot of Jennifers the year I was born so I have gone by Gwen since high school. My last name is difficult to spell and so I usually have "bugheart" in my email. The name bugheart also came about when I was in high school, long before I decided to study insects. It's a long story and a strange coincidence.
I go my BS in Entomology and Microbiology with minors in French and German at Washington State University. Then I worked at UW and UNC for several years in labs working with butterfly evolution. Finally I decided to go to graduate school and I ended up at University of Maryland in the Entomology Department working with Pedro Barbosa (most awesome advisor ever) on Insect Ecology of forest insects. My PhD was in Behavior, Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics. I worked on tritrophic interactions. This means I was interested in how the plant that insects eat influences things that eat the caterpillars- in my case that was parasitoids that lay their eggs inside caterpillars and eat the caterpillar from the inside out - like in Aliens. I did a lot of teaching in graduate school, including teaching biology, ecology, entomology, genetics, and plant-herbivore interactions. When I (finally) finished my PhD, I moved with my partner from Washington to DC to Switzerland for my post-doc.
I worked at the University of Neuchatel on Lima bean beetle evolution - how beetles that eat beans adapt to the highly toxic (cyanide!) wild lima bean. I lived in Switzerland for 4 years and spend 3 months every winter in Oaxaca, Mexico- a tiny costal town called Puerto Escondido.
It was pretty awesome but a lot of work. I spend a lot of time in the field but also had time to surf and lay on the beach. Science & surfing was living the good life.
I moved back to Seattle in 2014 to be close to family and return to what I call the Switzerland of the USA - the Pacific Northwest. My favorite place in the USA.
I have always loved to teach so I was excited to get a position here at Edmonds Community College. I have mostly taught at universities but I love the students best here at EdCC. The students (you!) are awesome and make it fun to come to work.
When I am not working my favorite things to do are thrift shopping for vintage stuff...
collecting...
go to music shows, usually on capitol hill, where I live, or downtown, and of course I am always running around in the forest or on the beach looking at things and picking up things...
and getting excited about all the cool organisms that surround us.
Anything else you want to know about me? Just comment below.
Now it's your turn!
Tell us about you.
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