Since the second grade Linda wanted to work internationally in health care. She was inspired to become a nurse because her father, grandfather and great grandfather were all general practitioners in Vermont. She wanted to work internationally because her mother was born and raised in India by parents that taught at Gordon College in Rawalpindi. Her mother told her stories of her life there and brought many international students to spend summers with her family at Lake Dunmore.

Linda got her nursing degree from the University of Vermont and spent several years getting hospital and public health experience. In 1974 she trained as a Nurse Practitioner in Women’s Health Care and became the first nurse practitioner for Planned Parenthood in Bellingham, Washington. She went on to become an instructor in Seattle to train other nurse practitioners and then worked for the State of Washington to design and implement a quality assurance program for all FP clinics in the state. After getting her MPH degree from UCLA, she started a 30- year international career which she loved!  She writes about her career in her book “Building A Better World Together. A Career in Women’s Health.”

Linda has always loved outdoor sports whether in Vermont, Washington State or the countries in which she worked. Her father taught her to ski as soon as she could walk. He was the “bone doctor” at the Middlebury Snow bowl on week-ends and took the whole family skiing with him. She started slalom and downhill ski racing in 5th grade, continued through high school and was on the UVM ski team for two years. Her father also took her skating on frozen lakes and rivers. Summer activities were spent at their camp on Lake Dunmore where she learned to swim, sail, and water ski. Hiking is a year-round passion. In Thailand she learned to play tennis; in Kazakhstan she skied, skated, sailed and kayaked; in Malawi she learned to play golf and continued playing golf in Uganda and Tanzania. However, sailing and kayaking became her main sport in Tanzania. Now in retirement, she has discovered micro spikes for winter hiking, bought a kayak for exploring lakes and rivers and loves walking and identifying wild flowers, trees, mushrooms and amphibians with her family and friends.

Pets have always been an important part of her life, her family always had black Labradors and cats.  Growing up, Linda raised an injured robin which would perch on her head and a flying squirrel which enjoyed scaring friends by leaping off the top of curtains. In Thailand she cared for an injured parrot and raised rabbits, in Kazakhstan she bought her Russian Blue cat named Sasha at a flea market, and in Malawi she became owner of a beagle, called Snoops. They accompanied her to many countries. They both died of old age before she returned home in retirement. She now has two cats, Sage and Sunshine who chase each other around the house.

Linda’s greatest strength is connecting and networking with people from all different cultures and backgrounds, and this is what she loved most about working internationally. She feels so fortunate to have been able to work in Asia and Africa, in seven countries on a long term basis, and five countries short term. She returned home at age 70 in December 2016 and four months later was diagnosed with cancer.  She was told that she had a 17% chance of living past 5 years. She grieved the loss of her international career and possibly her life. Her counselor at the UVM medical center advised she write her memoirs. She wrote these memoirs with the help and encouragement from a lifelong friend and many new friends in her hometown. In 2023, she celebrates surviving over 6 years by publishing this book which she has dedicated to her amazing mother, father and grandparents. She wants the proceeds to go to the nursing scholarship fund created for her mother, Jean Andrews by the Porter Hospital Auxiliary in Middlebury, Vermont.