Deborah Bain

Deborah is a fine art portrait photographer who works on location photographing children and families using natural light. She is passionate about her subjects and always looking for an assistant with dark room experience. Deborah is a former elementary education teacher and lived in Puerto Rico for a short time. She currently lives in Westford with her two photogenic daughters and her Border Collie, Lily. Her interests include the arts, bicycling, hiking, gardening and travel. She appreciates natural beauty, simple pleasures and decadent desserts. www.naturallightportraits.com.

Wendy Burke

Grew up and educated in New York. I have two wonderful children. I love to travel, especially to Italy, Spain and Ireland. Looking forward to visiting Greece and London sometime soon. I love laughing and having fun. I especially like good wine, a good meal and good conversations. I work out when I can, playing tennis and jogging along the Charles River during the spring and fall.

Cynthia Carlson

Certified work-aholic realtor. Enjoy meeting people, reading good literature, and all forms of physical challenge, especially swimming and biking. Love hiking and beach walking and the outdoors on those rare days I have off. Also like good food, great wine and the company of interesting, creative and active people.

Alisa Cohn

Idealist and relentless optimist; Executive Coach and Corporate Facilitator with my own practice in Brookline; journalism major; fanatical reader of good fiction, business books, the New Yorker and Sunday Times; love running, cycling, brunch in Boston's fabulous South End, excellent coffee, and bright colored shoes. I love New York City and London; I hate the suburbs. Expert in elegant business models, social entrepreneurship, and the Boston burrito wars. ENTJ - 'nuff said.

Frances Donovan

Principal and founder of Reaching Productions, a web design and development firm specializing in small businesses and female entrepreneurs. Vassar '95. Fascinated by intersections and liminal spaces. Poet laureate of Stamford High School, 1989. Feminist. Humanist. Finally home in Cambridge, and wishing I could buy property there. Californian by birth, New Englander by upbringing.

Frances began her writing career at the age of nine while dangling upside down from a tire swing. Her first poem, composed on said swing, celebrated the glories of springtime in New England. She went on to win acclaim for her poetry and prose from a number of sources, including the Bridgeport University New Writer's Competition and the Stamford Festival for the Arts. In 1995 she graduated from Vassar College with a degree in English.

She has served on the editorial board of a number of literary publications, including Helicon and The Vassar Review of Arts and Letters, and was instrumental in the creation of the editorial section of Chronogram, a publication based in New Paltz, New York.

Her work has been published in The Writer, PIF Magazine, and, Perimeter. She appeared as a featured reader in Fray Day Boston for two years running and continues to read her work aloud in a number of spoken-word venues, including the Center for New Words and the Zeitgeist Gallery.

In addition to writing poetry and fiction, Frances has plied her craft as a writer for a number of online publications on a diverse number of topics, including personal finance, insurance, computer software, and foreign travel. She spent five years as a content provider for About.com, a top-five media outlet.

She began the Garden of Words in 1996. Says Frances about her work, "I strive to celebrate the beauty of everyday objects and situations. Much of my poetry is about mapping an interior landscape, a world I've glimpsed through dreams and in brief epiphanies." She lives and works in Boston, Massachusetts.

Pamela Frank

I'm an International Health Care Consultant and self employed as of January. Boyfriend is Barry Chaiken. No kids, no ex husband, no dogs (but wish I had one), no mortgage, no religion (unless rock & ice climbing count), live in the Republic of Cambridge (Fresh Pond), Went to school at Univ of CO Boulder and MBA at Thunderbird for International Mgmt. Interests are Global Education (Room to Read), the Banning of Landmines (United Nations Ass of Greater Boston), world travel, climbing, and rowing. Favorite magazine is the Economist.

Heidi Hancock

Born in San Diego, grew up in DC. I provide organizational development for Boston Ballet. Career history includes: Equestrienne (teaching, training & competing in Dressage & Eventing); Actor — live theatres up and down East coast and Midwest; Arts Administrator for international museums, Broadway roadhouses, theatres, state arts councils, and dance companies. Meyers Briggs: INTJ and DISC=high D secondary C (look out!). Top places I wanna go to soonest: Argentina, Rio at Carnivale, Australia.

Catherine King

Used to trade mortgage-backed securities for Credit Suisse First Boston. B.A., Louisiana State University. M.B.A., Stanford. Modern art, smooth R&B concerts, hiking, biking, cayaking, snow shoeing. Fan of Jimmy Buffet. Live in Beacon Hill. Mother of two adult boys. Love to travel, matchmake and give cocktail parties. High maintenance — you can't afford me.

Sidney Klawansky

Physician Researcher: chemo-prevention of cancer. Lecturer, Harvard School of Public Health. Fascinated by paradoxes: George Washington, slaveholder, as champion of liberty. Could paternal family origins in Southern Lithuania account for love of Samba, Bachatta and Merengue?? Former player, Boston Rugby Football Club. Favorite race: 200 meter sprint. M.D., U. of Pennsylvania; Ph.D., physics, M.I.T. A Jewish Ramanujan??-working on theorems of historical interest and new ones for encryption.

Feng Lin

Market research manager at Millennium Pharmeuticals. Grew up in China and came to the States in 1991. Studied Biology at college and received my MBA from Kellogg (Northwestern University). Love travel, nature, musicals, ballet, art/culture, singing/dancing and everything fun!

Robin Lindsay

I work at Verizon Communications and aspire to a career in media/public relations. I like skiing in the winter, gardening, hiking, and camping in the summer. I enjoy discussing literature (medieval and Victorian), philosophy (Platonic/Boethian world view), classical music, art, computers (I build them), and cooking. I have a bachelor's degree and graduate certificate from Harvard Extension (literature and writing).

George J. Maalouf

Principal and Founder, Chemical Simulations Group. Grew up in Boston, married with two children. Ph.D. in molecular biophysics from Harvard University, B.S. in chemistry from MIT, and attended the Boston Latin School. Held senior positions in the biotech and computer industries. Many varied interests including theatre, musicals, computers, traveling, science, fine food and wine, museums, movies, and teaching.

Marianne MacDonald

Single and hope the right man is looking for me!! Born in Casablanca (under Rick's piano) and then lived in London and Paris, where I still live when I am not living in Boston (Back Bay). I love dancing, classical movies, theatre, music (classical and blues), swimming, walking, people and not taking myself too seriously.

Christine Gracie McIntosh

Serious about enjoying life and being as positive as a person with her feet on the ground can be. Lover of dogs, horses, laughter, champagne, and great company...love the town and the country. Totally comitted to lifelong fitness and personal growth.

Peter Moller Neergaard

Relisher of life. Danish of origin. PhD in computer science (AKA certified nerd) and truly like the science of computers (I can empathetically discuss it at 2am). Internal consultant for Ab Initio (market leader with a high-volume data processing platform). Long distance runner (3 marathons under the belt), hiker, and squash player. Love theater and most music from classic rock to classical. Greatly interested in politics. Single and always ready to go for a drink.

James Rolke

I've been told by those who know me that I am an extremist and for better or for worse, they are right. I have an almost inexhaustible supply of energy and thus am always on the go. I love to exercise, especially run. I run on average about 80 miles per week. Since this takes some amount of time, I would love to meet people to run with on occasion. I also bike, hike, kayak, occasionally sail, snowshoe, xc ski, even play frisbee. Okay, you get the picture. And if any one would like to join me for this that would be awesome as well.

I'd be dishonest if I said I didn't want to meet new women to date (and if the chemistry is right start a relationship). Having said this, I am from the old school of thought regarding the requirements of being a gentleman. Additionally, I am romantic (at least I think I am!), I like to take long walks, enjoy quiet conversation, have a picnic, work on a puzzle, dance, cook dinner, go out to dinner and occasionally do something completely off the wall like hold hands or kiss in public!

Here's a little more detail about who I am, if you want the more of the picture then please feel free to say hello at the party. I'm in my mid-thirties and I am a firm believer in the idea that if something can be imagined then it can be created. I guess that is why I am a scientist. I have degrees in Chemistry and Biology. These days I am the manager of process development at a small biotech company based in Boston and Cambridge that is developing an anti cancer drug based on a natural product. I have always worked for small start up companies as these provide the greatest challenge and job diversity. It is never the same day twice!

When I am not exercising or working I am usually having fun in a different form. This might include listening to live music, trying out a new restaurant, playing my violin, reading, people-watching, enjoying a nice sundae or spending time with my daughter.

Lucienne S. Sanchez

A neonatologist (a pediatrician who specializes in newborn intensive care) and the Director of Newborn Services at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Lucienne is a graduate of Williams College and Tufts University School of Medicine. She was previously involved in postdoctoral research at Massachusetts General Hospital's Cardiovascular Research Center and is an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. For several years, Lucienne was involved in research in the area of medicine that pertains to pulmonary hypertension in the newborn. She was the recipient of The Best Abstract Award of the American Heart Association for her work on nitric oxide and phosphodiesterase gene regulation in the lung.

She was previously employed at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, DC as associate neonatologist and Associate Director of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). She was in the Netherlands for one year as a consultant to European Centers regarding ECMO.

Lucienne is on the Board of Horizons for Homeless Children.

David Schimmel

Working on a comedic dating show for TV, based on people's neuroses and idiosyncrasies - ask me about it if you might like to participate. Don't be afraid, it's COMEDY. Lived in Russia and the Middle East, worked on the Howard Stern show, fascinated by people, love setting people up on dates, made several matches already. Love making people laugh, especially my therapist. Mark Schonfeld IP lawyer at Burns & Levinson. Single. Enjoy skiing, traveling and running. Spent first 8 years in Europe, then grew up in Manhattan. Also lived in Israel. Have one daughter. Speak very basic German, high school French and Hebrew. Like theater, movies, music, and politics.

Naomi Stephen

Having spent most of my professional life working in academic/non-profit organisations, in my social life I tend to prefer talking to business people, engineers, lawyers, musicians, doctors, researchers — in short, anyone who doesn't do what I do. I have been informed that I'm "relentlessly inquisitive" about the work of others, though I don't like gossip about others' private lives and don't engage in it.

I read lots (taught writing at Harvard in an earlier life), have fun with the IgNobel awards once a year, and prefer physical activity like tennis or dancing or skiing to couch potato-ism — though curling up warmly with a beau and a video is one of the great pleasures of life, as is really interesting conversation that ranges through shoes and ships and sealing wax and cabbages and kings. (OK, and why the sea is boiling hot, and whether pigs have wings. Name that poem.)

Since I spent first 12 years of my life barefoot in tropical Queensland, Australia (Great Barrier Reef territory), I have freckles and a love-hate relationship with shoes, and still require large doses of sea salt in warm weather — sailing, swimming, beach-walking, snorkeling, whatever. Love my motorcycle and almost any kind of live music performance — classical, blues, jazz, rock. Not the kind of rock where the lead singer drinks beer and spits it over the audience and people jump up and down on your toes, however. Besides having a shockin' sweet tooth, I'll joyfully eat anything except Brussels sprouts and sea urchin, with a particular liking for big red wines and good cheese. But Champagne is by far my favourite food.

Terri Theiss

Southern born and bred - graduate of University of Virginia Business. Development Consultant - Dovetail Interactive. Curently working my way about Europe on horseback.

Zoe Finch Totten

Lively, joyful, eclectic. Always true. Entrepreneur, editor, midwife. Shared custody of two children, one cat, ten chickens; sole custody of one beta fish. Celebrate the genuine in everything, deep and wide connections, the seasons' details. Committed solo runner. Vassar '85, Yale '94. Verde ver du bist: become who you are.

Mark Tracy

Mark is Director of Formulation Development at Alkermes, Inc. where he is responsible for the development of novel injectable and inhalable drug formulations used in treating diabetes, alcoholism, infertility, and schizophrenia. Mark is a member of the team that developed and scaled-up the first sustained delivery system for protein drugs approved by the FDA and commercialized. He also leads product development teams, academic and industrial collaborations in pharmaceuticals, drug delivery, and biomaterials, and assesses new product opportunities. Mark joined Alkermes after receiving his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Stanford University. He holds a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Stanford and a B.S. summa cum laude in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois. He also completed the MIT/Sloan Greater Boston Executive Program.

Mark has published many journal articles and has more than 15 patents in the areas of drug delivery, pharmaceutical scale-up and manufacturing, protein formulation, and polymer and colloid science. He has organized several symposia on drug delivery and biomaterials at recent meetings of the Controlled Release Society, Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, and Materials Research Society. Mark was elected to the Board of Scientific Advisors of the Controlled Release Society in 2002. He is an adjunct associate professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Northeastern University and a lecturer at Brown University, Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, and Harvard University. Mark is a member of the Industrial Advisory Board, Northeastern University Molecular Biotechnology Institute. He is a co-founder of Cureworks, a start-up with Harvard colleagues working on an improved vaccine for malaria.

Mark enjoys learning and trying new things. As a result, he has developed a variety of interests including (to name a few) travel, singing, history and genealogy, wine, outdoor activities like hiking and canoeing, and many sports such as golf, tennis, weight-training, volleyball, and running. Within the last year or so, his travels have taken him to Sardinia, Hawaii, Georgia, Chicago, and most recently Australia. He enjoys singing and performing with the Brookline Chorus. He also supports a variety of community organizations including the MFA and the Brookline Chorus. He is single and enjoys meeting new people.