Biography Ellen Wedum was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, where her father and mother (both physicians) were working at the U. Cincinnati Medical School. The family moved to Denver, Colorado, when she was two, and then to Frederick, Maryland, where she grew up.   In the 1950's--long before the cultural enrichment brought about by the computer and Internet--there wasn't much stimulation, especially for an intelligent girl, in a small-town southern high school. Frustration with this situation led Ellen to take physics and chemistry together in the eleventh grade so that she could skip her senior year and enroll at UC Berkeley, where she graduated with a BA in chemistry. She met her husband, Don Conley, a Vietnam War veteran who was studying to be a child psychologist, while working on a masters in chemical physics at the University of Oregon.   After her husband died in an accident, Ellen completed her masters and then took some time off to study yoga and travel the world. She still maintains an interest in yoga and considers it to have been beneficial to her physical and spiritual health.   A second masters, this one in physics from the University of Nevada in Reno, was followed by several years of work in industry, first as an R&D project engineer for Perkin-Elmer ETEC and then as a senior scientist with EG&G Corporation in Santa Barbara, where she began to attend the local Quaker (Friends) meeting.   An interest in teaching motivated her to return to graduate school at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. It was at this time (1992) that she first ran for public office. As the Democratic candidate for Congress, she got more votes than President Clinton in that conservative district.   After obtaining her PhD in physical chemistry, she taught for several years before retiring to Cloudcroft, where she is an active member of the Otero County Democrats. She is currently focused on her campaign for the New Mexico House District 59 seat and has been touring the three counties in the district, visiting with and listening to the concerns of the residents. Water management and forest management are very important in the large but sparsely populated mountainous areas of Otero and Lincoln counties. About seventy percent of the people in District 59 live on the west side of Roswell. Creating jobs that pay a family wage, finding ways to deal effectively with methamphetamine production and related problems, and providing constructive activities for youth are issues of concern there.   Ellen has also been keeping an eye on the activities of the current legislative session, in particular the capital outlay projects and the wage legislation. For a list of the capitol outlay projects for each county and other information, visit her website at www.oterocountydemocrats.org/wedum59.htm.