I began my working life as a sociologist, teaching and doing research at Boston University on the work of women, especially those in female-dominated occupations. Fifteen years later, I began working as a researcher for the Massachusetts Nurses Association(MNA) and transitioned into a negotiator and labor representative. 

I retired from the MNA after twenty-six years, I moved to Hanoi, Viet Nam with my husband. There I taught English and lectured about nursing in the US. On returning to the US, I lectured on collective bargaining and taught a women's labor history course at the MNA.  The result of that class was Playing on Our Sentiments, a documentary about how the nurses at Hale Hospital won their first union contract in 1967. 

 

Four years ago my husband and I moved to Brookline from Newton where our daughter attended public schools. Since then I have become active in Brookline Mothers Out Front working on the town's composting and green electricity programs. 

 

I am also an active member of the Board of Directors , Newton/San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, Sister City Project and its Free High School for Adults.  More recently I organized an interracial, intergenerational discussion group originating at the Brookline Library.