I am a native of Athens, GA, and graduate of Princeton and Duke University Medical School. I divided my medical career between Duke and Carolinas Healthcare System in Charlotte. I retired from the latter in 2008 and currently work as a medical consultant doing disability determinations for Social Security and overseeing continuing medical education for the NC Medical Society. An acquaintance abandoned some Cattleya plants on my porch about 40 years ago and the disease caught hold. I joined the Triangle Orchid Society in Raleigh in 1980 and the NC Piedmont OS in Charlotte in 1994 and am back with the TOS now. I have been involved in NC and SC shows for over 35 years. Starting out as a clerk at shows in the 1980’s several of us in Triangle were encouraged to enter the judging program and eventually 5 members of TOS became accredited AOS judges, most of whom are still active and we have recruited many more. I was asked to join the Education Task Force of AOS in the late 1990’s which led to more and more trouble: Chair of the committee, Chair of Judging in the Carolinas Center, National Judging Training Coordinator, AOS Trustee, Vice President and now Honorary Vice President and Emeritus Judge. Throughout all of this, my major interests have been medical and orchid education, leading to several articles in Orchids magazine, a judging webinar and travel around the US speaking to societies like yours through which I have met and re-met many orchid friends. I guess my first love in orchids was Cattleyas but more recently I gravitated to a wide variety of dendrobiums, especially the spatulata or antelope group, the bigger and taller the better. My plants have received 56 AOS awards and recently three of my own hybrids received AOS awards: Den. Alex Gallis, Den. Sara Gallis and Rct. Savannah Hope Gallis. I registered three other hybrids by others that have received AOS awards: Rlc. Lisa Taylor Gallis and C. Susie’s Valentine and Den. Susie Gallis (currently offered in the H&R Catalogue).