I was fortunate enough during my freshman year in college (St. Louis University) to be taken under the wing of Prof. Edward Brooks, who was the son of the founder of the AMS. I was always fascinated by all the mementos of Charles Brooks at the AMS headquarters in Boston, near my hometown of Reading, and saying, gee, it was his son that really helped me out. It instilled in me this desire that one thing I should always try to do throughout my career was to mentor other young scientists and students. I’ve kept that as an absolutely rewarding, and fascinating goal throughout my entire life.

I’m coming from rural Jamaica, a very small place, a very poor place, and to be able to have the advantages that I’ve had and the opportunities that I’ve had, I’m very aware of that. That’s the reason I volunteer my time and I try to bring other people along the path with me, because I’m aware that there are other people who have the ability, but not the opportunity.

My Ph.D. advisor, Fred Sanders, emphasized there was never a right answer to everything, there's always uncertainty in all the answers, and the more you knew the less you knew in some respects. He was just an extraordinarily good advisor and when you were feeling down on yourself he nicely picked you up, and when you were too full of yourself, he nicely put you down. Those are very good lifelong learning processes.

I have found that my best graduate students absorbed and took advantage of advice from everyone and they knew intuitively how to bring out the best in everyone. I think that's a talent. If I see someone who has that talent, I encourage them to cultivate and apply it throughout their careers and lives.

I was at Penn State from 1991–1995, and by and large the professors I had were male. Not long before I arrived, Dr. Jenni Evans came in, and she was my Dynamics II instructor. I tried to tell myself it doesn’t matter that she’s female, and I’m female, but in reality it does—it puts a signal in my brain, “Look where she is. She’s a Ph.D., she’s teaching wave dynamics. If she can do it so can I.” That was a subliminal trigger in my head, it kept me inspired.

I worked for two people who were firsts, who were very important. Over the years I have put great emphasis on mentoring underrepresented minorities and encouraging their growth and giving them opportunities to excel, moving to higher levels of management or scientific leadership. I think that interest I have in doing that came from those roots with Charles Anderson and Joanne Simpson. I believe that if you give people the freedom to explore, provide them with the resources they need, and praise them for their achievements, people can really do excellent things.