Fun

I am married to John Carroll, who is also a professor at IST. We co-direct the CSCL, often co-supervise students, and work on many other projects together. Amazingly enough, we have been together and collaborating on research since we were both at IBM Research in the early ’80s.

We have one daughter, Erin Carroll, who recently graduated with Honors from Penn State, with a major in Sociology, and two minors in IST and Community Engagement. She was active in Penn State’s student-led community service and a founding member of Students Engaging Students. She is currently part of the highly competitive Teach for America program, a national program that prepares and places recent college graduates in low-performing urban schools. Erin is teaching pre-kindergarten in the San Antonio Central School District, wish her luck!

My family also includes a couple of non-humans. Number one pet is Kerby — aka the perfect dog — a yellow lab who at 12.5 years is starting to slow down, but still loves to go on hikes and walks in the Pennsylvania Game Lands whenever she gets the chance. Number two pet is Cassidy — aka the little sister– who just turned two, and has brought a whole new level of “activity” to her big sister Kerby. Earlier this year we said good-bye to Colette - aka the fight cat - who was Erin’s cat and finally moved to Texas to be with her.

Other Stuff

Singing much of the year in my church’s Chancel Choir. Thanks to Ned we sing an amazing variety of works, have lots of fun learning them, and usually sound pretty good!

I love to travel, especially abroad, and especially with Jack. Some of my favorite places are England, Scotland, Mexico, and Spain. Lucky for me I was on sabbatical in Spain for January-July 2010, visiting the University Carlos III of Madrid. Sad to say, my Rosetta Stone never worked out, so still no hablo espanol…

Sports, Sports, and more Sports:

• A dedicated fan of the Penn State Nittany Lions, every sport, every season, all year long!
• Rooting for the Yankees, who continue to field an awesome team and would be assured of even more victories if they can just get their pitching staff working.
• A founding fan(!) for the State College Spikes, a minor league “short season” team that shares the fantastic Medlar Field at Lubrano Park with Penn State’s baseball team. I love Ike-the-Spike and Bob the Baseball Dog!
• Still cheering on the Virginia Tech Hokies. But what on earth will happen to Michael Vick now?
• I will never give up on the New York Giants - and for my patience they rewarded me mightily at Super Bowl XLII and are doing surprisingly well in 2010. Who says Eli can’t keep up with his big brother?