About Me:
Although my given name is David, I go by my middle name name "Shea". I grew up always being called
Shea, and it seems to have stuck.
I was born and grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico. My parent's names are David and Roxy Vick, and Lynn
Shoemaker. All three of my parents live in Albuquerque. My father is a former ER doctor turned software
consultant working with the University of New Mexico. Basically he plays around with robots all day long
and somehow gets paid to do it. My stepmother Roxy is a pharmacist who recently started working for Target.
My mother is public school teacher at La Cueva High School. She specializes in special education and biology.
She and her dog Maggie are both avid lake-goers.
I was a secondary school student at El Dorado High School. In 2000 I graduated and started my undergraduate
career at the University of New Mexico. In 2004 I graduated from
Rice University with a degree in mathematics. If asked to name the two most inspiring/influential professors
I had while I was an undergraduate, I would reply: Dr. Daniel Finley
at the University of New Mexico, and Dr. Frank Jones at Rice
University.
After graduating from Rice, I enroled as a graduate student in mathematics
the University of Pennsylvania. Assuming it's somewhere close to the summer of
2006, I've been here at Penn for about two years now.
I also have a wonderful wife named Monica Vela-Vick. She recently graduated with her law degree from the University of Michigan. Now she spends her time serving the community as an assistant city solicitor working for the City of Philadelphia.