The earliest stage in the lifecycle of the Bug Lady has been traced to the Midwest in the early 1990s, where elementary students near the Illinois State University campus were presented with live insects from the ISU Entomology Lab by an inspired graduate student.

Wings unfurled, she expanded her range as Associate Director of Education for Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences in Peoria. Bug Lady appeared frequently in school outreach and after school enrichment programs, summer camps, senior homes, and occasionally on the local news. In 2001, she served as President of the Peoria Academy of Sciences, reviving the Entomology section and encouraging girls to pursue careers in science.

She then migrated to the west coast, not unlike the Monarch butterfly, to bask in the California sun and tend to her newly hatched larva (baby Sophie). “In my mind and my heart, I’ve always been the Bug Lady, not so much for the knowledge I’ve acquired regarding insects, but more for the feeling that I’m in a constant state of metamorphosis – ever changing.”

Now, after a long diapause, the imago of Bug Lady has recently been sited in Alameda summer programs along with her assistant, Bug Gurl. She is taking flight in cyberspace to share her love of insects, science and life in general with enthusiasts of all ages.