Her parents, Jan and Sol, had known each other since childhood and married while finishing their college degrees at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Jan, Kim’s mother, has a background in early childhood development and has worked as a teacher, a child care administrator, and a day care center director. She has most recently returned to the classroom teaching four- and five-year olds, and enjoys being back in the classroom with her kids. Kim’s father, Sol, retired from the US Army ten years ago and now devotes much of his energies to his interest in genealogy. Her parents have made their home in northwest Arkansas, a few hours from their childhood home.

Shortly after her birth, her family moved to Manhattan, Kansas where they lived for two years. In 1973 the family moved to Salina, Kansas, where Marty, Kim’s brother, was born in 1974. (Marty has since grown up to the very non-little-brother calling of Air Force A-10 pilot and is happily married to his lovely wife, Shannon, whose wedding Kim and Shar enjoyed on the beach in Costa Rica in 1999.)

In 1977, when Kim was 6 years old her family moved to Bremerhaven, Germany on their next assignment with the US Army. This was her parents’ second tour in Germany (their first being in the late 60s); they introduced their children to the joys of travel early on, traveling Europe as a family. Moving and traveling a great deal, and having been raised on a farm, Jan had mixed feelings about household pets (primarily because of the workload that inevitably falls to the parents), but finally caved in to Kim’s and Marty’s pleadings – hence, the family experienced a string of apartment-sized pets, primarily a gerbil, goldfish, and fighting fish.

In 1980, the family relocated to Watervliet Arsenal in New York, where Kim and Marty enjoyed the benefit of the small, close-knit community of families and spent time roaming the grounds of the US’ oldest arsenal.

When Kim was 12 years old the family returned to Germany to live in Heidelberg, this time in southern Germany. Once again they took advantage of the opportunity to travel, including a memorable trip to Soviet Union (this during tail end of the Cold War, when American blue jeans and Newsweek magazine were contraband). They lived in Heidelberg through Kim’s sophomore year of high school, when they once again moved partway around the globe.

In 1987 Kim’s family moved to California’s Central Coast, where her father was assigned to head the ROTC division at California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo. After many years in military quarters, the family bought their first house in the small town of Atascadero and, as promised, got a dog, Dixie, an adult Golden Retriever/Irish Setter mix. Kim’s interest in photography was kindled in high school, where she took several photography courses and worked in a photography store weekends and summers. She enjoyed her last two years of high school in sunny California and graduated top of her class in 1989. She decided (she suspects to her parents’ initial chagrin) to attend the University of California Berkeley beginning Fall 1989.

More? Dust the cobwebs off Kim's personal web site