Tracy Dunn:  

It is hard to summarize a career which was not so much planned as it was like being the ball in a Pinball game. Once graduating from Huntington North I spent a year working in a local factory and warehouse. I decided to give college a try after experiencing that year. Not having done so well in high school my choices in college majors were very limited. I settled on the art program at Ball State University, thinking I had enough talent to get into commercial art. After a year, I discovered whatever abilities I did have were not going to be enough. Plus, I found that a career of sitting for any reason was not possible. I was way too hyper. So, I switched to field biology and chemistry. Not an easy switch, but I made it work at the expense of sleep and much of my social life. I ended up going to graduate school at BSU majoring in Geology and minoring in Physics (that is a long story as to how I went from Biol. to Geol.). Before completing the thesis I ended up getting married and accepting a job with the Indiana Dept. of Environmental Mgt as an environmental scientist. I continued working on the masters, and then took a right turn in my career. In 1987 I joined the NOAA Corps (the 7th uniformed service), and accepted a commission as an officer. I attended Officer Basic Training in NY and was sent to a 210’ NOAA research ship in Alaska where I served as a deck officer for two years (I drove the boat). I thought I could write the thesis while underway…. Another monumental miscalculation on my part. A ship in Alaska was not the most conducive e...Expand for more