Who I am - phrases that describe me:
Say "Yes!" to life. Seize the day. Push the envelope. Life is a gift - and it is short - therefore, excellence should be pursued on all levels, enhanced by conviction.

My personal challenges:
Embrace challenge! I'm cultivating a love of science and attempting to share this passion with young women through acting and public speaking (I was invited to speak at a White House science meeting in 1995).

My career challenges:
Embrace challenge: the constant practice of overcoming fear and mediocrity by forgetting self and learning the discipline of the craft.

My career:
I play a starship captain on television's "Star Trek: Voyager" - the first female starship captain in the history of prime-time, and I am passionate about her and life in the future.

Likes/Dislikes about career:
I like best the change, the challenge and overcoming what is small, embracing what is creatively big and important. I would change its attraction to power and money into an attraction to simplicity and truth.

Influences:
My greatest influence is my mother who told me to take the journey, question all things, read voraciously, love totally and with abandon, and develop a passion for a skill and a craft.

Future goals:
My goal is to live, however briefly, a life of service and to live it in the company of people who are better, bolder, braver and bigger than I am.

My thoughts about space exploration:
I play at living in space, 80 hours a week. It has naturally piqued a tremendous curiosity and interest in the real thing.

Personal information:
I come from a large Irish-Catholic family, the oldest of eight. I am now the mother of three. We travel, cook, read and talk into the night about all these mysteries.