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Linda lives for the “wow” expressions from data users as they connect online with a census factoid, but her census career began with data collection rather than dissemination.  The rapid growth of cities and counties in California in the 1970s spawned a special census program to provide for the equitable distribution of state subvention funds, and Linda took a temporary job as a crew leader for the city of Pismo Beach.  Over the next three decades, she served as regional technician or area manager for the data collection activities of the 1980, 1990, and 2000 decennial census counts.  These jobs were interspersed with a variety of non-profit positions, from executive director of a synagogue to publicity director for a classical music festival.The American FactFinder data access tool launched in 1998, and shortly after completing her Census 2000 responsibilities, Linda left data collection behind and began her current position as data dissemination specialist for the Census Bureau. Linda has conducted more than 300 data workshops in Northern California, Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington . . . and she now gets to share the awe of her fellow data users daily.