This month, Natural Selections features Dr. Bonnie Kaiser, Director of Scientific Outreach in the Science Outreach Program
Country of Origin: USA

1. How long have you been living in New York? Our family moved here from Chicago in the fall of 1982. We lived in Faculty House while the co-op we were to move into was still being built. We moved with minimal furniture so our daughters could start in their new middle and elementary school. That Thanksgiving, I returned to Chicago to move the rest of our furniture, my father-in-law, and our summer home stuff—all into our new apartments.

2. Where do you live? Yorkville—a short walk to work.

3. Which is your favorite neighborhood? Can I have three favorites for different reasons? 1. Yorkville—it’s my neighborhood, I live and work here. 2. TriBeCa—my daughter and her husband live there. 3. Upper West Side—lots of stuff to do.

4. What do you think is the most overrated thing in the city? And underrated? Nothing is overrated. Everything is bigger here. We’re a lot of people squeezed onto a rather small island after all. New York City teachers are the most underrated. Of course, I’m fortunate to work with highly self-motivated K-12 teachers in public, independent, and parochial schools, and over the years we’ve seen amazing improvements in student learning and in the professional growth of our nearly 100 teachers such that many are now principals of their own schools.

5. What do you miss most when you are out of town? I’m never away that long and usually am visiting family or friends somewhere, so I don’t think about it.

6. If you could change one thing about NYC, what would that be? I’d improve public transportation.

7. Describe a perfect weekend in NYC. Having my other daughter and my son-in-law’s parents come in from out of town and all of us getting together. We’d all have brunch, then we girls would do mani/pedis and go walking/shopping in SoHo, do Mommy & Me yoga, and then all join up for dinner.

8. What is the most memorable experience you have had in NYC? It has to be 9/11. One daughter had just moved back to NYC and had just started working at the World Financial Center. It took her several hours to walk home. I was so relieved when she rang the bell of our apartment. My other daughter, who had just graduated from law school and had just passed the bar exam was celebrating by traveling around the world. It was four days before she connected on a 24-hour odyssey–truly trains, planes, and taxis–for us to welcome her home waving little American flags at JFK for her safe arrival from Bangkok. We were all so happy to be reunited after the 9/11 ordeal.

9. If you could live anywhere else, where would that be? La Jolla—we used to spend summers there from ’83-’87.

10. Do you think of yourself as a New Yorker? Why? Certainly. Why not?