Occupation: I am a CPA and currently a professor at WestConn in accounting. I’m also an adjunct professor at Mount St Mary in Newbury, N.Y. I also do accounting and taxes for small businesses.

Family: My parents and my brother live in Derby, where I grew up. My sister lives in New York.

Pets: I have a soft-coated Wheaton terrier, Bailey. She’s 4 years old. She’s named after a teddy bear in the Boyd Bear collection, because she is kind of a big fluff ball and looks like a bear. I have a blue-crowned Conure bird, which is a small parrot. Her name is Racket, and she talks. She says, “I love you,” and “Hello,” and she whistles and meows. She learned to meow from her previous owner’s cat.

How long have you lived in Newtown? I’ve lived in Newtown since February of 2005.

What do you like to do in your free time? I volunteer, and one thing I do is the Friends of Newtown, for the dog park. I like flowers, so I find gardening to be relaxing. I like to go to different music concerts and I like to watch women’s basketball and NASCAR.  I do like to read, and I like to bake, especially traditional things for the holidays.

Do you have a favorite team? For NASCAR, Dale Earnhardt, Jr, and Tony Stewart are my favorite drivers. My favorite women’s basketball team is New York Liberty.

What are your reading now? The last thing I read, because of the season, was a tax court case. I like to read fiction, though, and autobiographies. Currently, I’m reading I Slept With Joey Ramon, by his brother. No one thought he’d amount to anything, because he had OCD, but he became one of the biggest influences in the New York music scene.

Do you have a favorite travel destination? My parents have a condo  in York Beach, Maine, and I love it there. You can walk to either of two beaches. At night, there are often concerts along one beach. You see the same people there every year. We all know everything about each other, but I don’t think we know each other’s names! Everyone is so friendly. If you go in the grocery store, they give your dog a bowl of water, and that sort of thing. It’s a family-oriented place, not touristy.

What is the best thing about Newtown? I like that there are still mom and pop stores. I moved here from Stamford, so I love that there’s space between the homes and you’re not on top of each other. I like seeing people walking up and down the streets, and being able to go to Fairfield Hills to walk the dog. It’s not a metropolitan area.

Who do you most admire? I admire my mother. My grandparents were first generation Italians here, but my mother went to a private high school, and then graduated from nursing school, which wasn’t so common for women in the culture then. She then went on to get her master’s degree in public health. She still always put a meal on the table and baked and had those old values, no matter how busy she was. She always set a good example for us.

Do you have a personal philosophy? Life is short, so look at what’s important. If you have beliefs, stick with them, even if it’s not what others think. Don’t be a follower.

Do you have a guilty pleasure? Ice cream! From Ben & Jerry’s, it’s their Half-baked flavor; at the Creamery, it’s Elvis’s Dream; and at the Ice Cream Shop, it’s their vanilla soft serve. And I love to shop, especially for handbags.