loyd.net

"There's a frood who really knows where [her] towel is!"
—Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, s.v. "Towel"

"...I never travel without my towel."
—Amahl and the Space Visitors

Nora was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, grew up in New Orleans, and finished high school in Avinger, Texas (a tiny town in northeast Texas).

She received a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, with a major in Music Theory and Composition, and elective studies equivalent to a minor in Computer Science. She stayed around and received a Master of Music degree from Hardin-Simmons, also in Music Theory and Composition. Then she wandered over to Florida State University, where she became a doctoral student at the School of Music (now College of Music), studying Music Theory, with electives related to computing and cognitive science.

After finishing coursework, but before getting around to those pesky comps (let alone a dissertation!), she got a job in the Office of Budget and Analysis at FSU. As Coordinator of Budgeting, her primary responsibility for many years was for the University's salary budget. She represented the Office on the OMNI project team (also known as Project AIM and the Enterprise Resource Planning department), implementing PeopleSoft (now owned by Oracle Corp.) at FSU. She has remained to provide on-going support, with primary responsibilties involving Commitment Control. Her job has inspired her to write PeoplePoems and led to her being officially proclaimed (or, at least, her supervisor has called her) poet laureate of the ERP department. In order to get something on her resume other than a music degree, she returned to school part-time and completed the Master of Science degree at the College of Information (now the School of Library and Information Studies at the College of Communication and Information) at FSU.

In that former life as a music student, she was made a member of the honor society Alpha Chi, and the music honor society Pi Kappa Lambda. She is a member of Sigma Alpha Iota, an international fraternity for women in music, and was a charter member when the Tallahassee Alumnae Chapter was reinstated.

Nora is an elder and active member of First Presbyterian Church in Tallahassee. She sometimes sings with the Tallahassee Community Chorus.  She enjoys being out on the water, especially windsurfing (even if badly), which led her to join the Shell Point Sailboard Club.  She talks a lot at Garnet and Gold Toastmasters and Aspiring Speakers Toastmasters clubs of Toastmasters International. Nora shares her home in the woods between Tallahassee and the beaches with her cats.