SELF PORTRAIT

Melissa Taverner

■ A BOOK I RECENTLY READ AND LIKED WAS: “Mosquito: A Human History of Our Deadliest Predator,” by Timothy C. Winegard.

■ MY MOST PRECIOUS CHILDHOOD MEMORY: I was probably 5 or 6 and I was at the beach with my whole family. My dad was the one who would take me into the water and there’s a picture of me and my dad and he’s holding my hand, right as the waves are breaking.

■ A MEAL I FIND COMFORTING: Potato soup and fresh bread.

■ THE TRADITION I LOVE MOST: Professionally, commencement. People are graduating with a degree and they’re going to go off and do awesome things. Personally, Christmas — our family has Christmas crackers, with dad jokes and hats and things.

■ THE BEST TIME OF DAY FOR ME: Early morning. I love mornings because I love the fact that the sun came back. Mornings are beautiful to me. It’s like there’s still good that’s going to happen.

■ MY FAVORITE PLACE ON EARTH: The Sangre de Cristo Mountains in southern Colorado.

■ THE BEST ADVICE I EVER GOT: A dozen people over the course of my life have said, “You need to calm down. It’s gonna be OK.”

■ IF I COULDN’T BE A COLLEGE PRESIDENT, I WOULD BE: Teaching biology somewhere and working with students to help them develop their research projects and work on lab reports or prepping the next micro lab.

■ ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Collaborative