Occupation: I’m a stay-at-home mom, and I’m the volunteer coordinator of the new Animal Center of Newtown dog rescue program.

Family: My husband is Stephen, and we have one son, Arri, who is 7 years old.

Pets: We have four dogs, all rescues. Stella is a 12-year-old pit bull; Sweet Pea is a 15-year-old pit bull; Oliver is a 3-year-old pit bull; and Jack is 8 years old. He’s a dog we picked up on the streets of Brazil, so who knows what kind of dog he is.

How long have you lived in Newtown? We moved here in 2000, and lived here until 2002. Then we moved to Brazil for two and a half years, before moving back to Newtown.

What do you like to do in your free time? I spend time with my son and I love gardening. But most of my free time is spent on animal welfare stuff. I’m a sculpture and ceramic art major, but I haven’t been doing much art lately. I do like to read when I have the time.

Do you have a favorite book? The most recent book I read was The Liar’s Club, by Mary Karr. I’m a big fan of memoirs. Otherwise I’m reading animal welfare and political stuff.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? We go to Block Island every summer, and overseas quite often. Turkey is one of my favorite places, Istanbul especially. I spent a good chunk of my childhood there, and my mom’s from Turkey. And I loved Brazil, too. It was amazing.

What is the best thing about Newtown? The community is really nice. I always tell people about the Main Street Halloween and the Tree Lighting. It’s the sort of storybook activity you’d see in a movie. It hasn’t lost it’s charm, and still has that small town feel to it.

If you could spend a day with anyone, who would you pick? Sue Coe. She’s the one who got me involved in what I do now with animal welfare. She’s an artist from England, whom I heard talk when I was a student at UConn. Things were never the same for me after that. A lot of her art work centers around animals and animal welfare.

Do you have a personal philosophy? My basic philosophy is to do what I can to make a difference in things I’m interested in. That “Do Unto Others” sort of thing.

What makes you laugh? My son! He is a ham, an absolute ham! I get a giggle out of him on a regular basis.