In May 2002, I graduated from Southern Illinois University School of Law with a Juris Doctorate. During law school I clerked for Marilu Clark Shaner, the public defender in Massac and Pulaski Counties. The summer after my second year I clerked for the presiding judge in Union County, the honorable Mark Boie. I was also a research assistant for Professor R. J. Robertson. In 2000, I was the president of the Law and Medicine Society. As a member of the LMS Health Law Certification Committee, I helped convince the School of Law to offer their first certification program and to consider an LLM in Health Law. For my work with the Law and Medicine Society, I received the Donny J. Schmeder Memorial Endowed Scholarship. I was also the secretary for the Southern Illinois Psychology and Law Association. During my third year I was accepted into the Southern Illinois In of Court.

Before law school I was a forensic scientist specializing in Toxicology with the Illinois State Police. In recognition for my efforts setting up the toxicology sections in both Springfield and the Chicago area, I received a national award from the American Academy of Forensic Science in 1989. In 1993, I received my Master of Science from the University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Pharmacy. My thesis, Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Benzodiazepines in Solid Dosage Forms, was published in Analytica Chimica Acta, 288 (1994) 123-130.

From 1980 -1985 I worked in the Cardiopulmonary Department at Herrin Hospital. I performed pulmonary function testing for the Coal Miners Respiratory Disease Clinic. In addition to Holter monitoring, I assisted with cardiac and pulmonary stress tests. I was also the director of the Herrin Hospital Junior volunteers. I was also a girl scout leader.

I received my bachelors in biology from Greenville College in 1979. I was a member of the biology honor society, Tri-Beta. I was also named 1979 Greenville College Writer of the Year.

I was born December 31, 1956, in Nashville Tennessee. However, my family has lived in southernmost Illinois for over thirty years.

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