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Carla Boulianne - Kate Kelebek

Background and Interests

I am a former feature writer for Parenting a Gifted Child. I relish combining personal parenting and childhood experiences, thorough gifted education research analyses, and gifted resources. I strive to provide information that gifted children and their families can put to work, both at home and while navigating schools and gifted programs.

As a mother of three, I occasionally throw in my two cents worth on other Partners & Parents issues such as family meetings, effects of praise on performance, and positive discipline. My kids attend a school that was founded on the principles of positive discipline more than 20 years ago. Recently, I had the honor of attending a semi-private coffee chat with Dr. Jane Nelsen, author of Positive Discipline. I am fired up about her methods because I see the amazing results every day in our home and school.

I am a graduate student in Integrative Microbiology and Biochemistry. I study the evolution of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the cystic fibrosis lung, primarily using whole genome analyses, bioinformatics, and molecular techniques. I was previously a National Science Foundation Fellow in the Special Pathogens Group at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia. My focus was the molecular evolution of infectious diseases such as Hantavirus, Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever, and Rift Valley Fever. My favorite aspect of the work was assisting on outbreak analyses and the unexplained deaths program. My undergraduate work at the University of Idaho and a graduate rotation at Emory University focused on antibiotic resistance evolution using plasmid model systems.

I took a seven year leave from a very rewarding research career to raise my three children, who are now ages four, six, and eight, but recently returned to my graduate studies. I merge my biology training and love of words to make science more accessible to readers while maintaining a high standard of informational accuracy. Recent health topics include aneurysms, hair transplants, and dementia.

As an avid reader of the Wall Street Journal and de facto attorney and accountant for our family, I also dabble in business topics. Read my recent articles on real estate, federal taxes, business management, and the stock market. I've worked as a law firm office manager and have passed my state's credentialing test for real estate agents, so these topic perspectives are based on my personal knowledge and experience combined with top notch research.

I'm also the classic children's literature and poetry reviewer for Best Children's Books.

I am an oDesk Certified Online Article and Blog Writer.

(KQED/NPR reporter Peter Jon Shuler recently interviewed "used gift maven" Carla Marie Boulianne and others for a segment on "Holiday Giving in a Recession." The interview request stemmed from her article "Eco Friendly Christmas Gift Giving: Shop Used for Green Holiday Presents.")

Peer Reviewed Scientific Publications

Shoemaker T, Boulianne CM, Vincent MJ, Pezzanite L, Al-Qahtani NM, Al-Mazrou Y, Khan AS, Rollin PE, Swanepoel R, Ksiazek TG, Nichol ST Genetic analysis of viruses associated with emergence of Rift Valley fever in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, 2000-01 Emerging Infectious Diseases. 2002 Dec;8(12):1415-20.

Wichman HA, Badgett MR, Scott LA, Boulianne CM, Bull JJ. Different trajectories of parallel evolution during viral adaptation. Science. 1999 Jul 16;285(5426):422-4.