Kate Starbird, a former star at Lakes High School and Stanford who played for the Seattle Storm, talked about her career and life after basketball Tuesday in a live chat with readers.

Q: Can you talk about what you're doing now?

Starbird: I just defended my dissertation Friday, and I start my new job next month as an assistant professor at UW at the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering.

Q: Do you still play?

Starbird: Not very often, but I did play on the most unfair women's rec team in Colorado last year. We had three former pros and two former college players. Sometimes we only fielded four players and those were close games :)

Q: Who is the best player you faced?

Starbird: My all-time favorite has always been Teresa Edwards — who scored 40 points on me in an ABL game :)

Q:What was your dissertation about?

Starbird: My focus has been focused on the use of social media during crisis events. And recently I've been thinking about designing tools to support "digital volunteers."

Q: What does it mean to be selected as one of the Storm's Women of Inspiration?

Starbird: Actually, it means a lot. It was hard for me to transition away from basketball and find my way in a new direction. At one point, a few years ago, I was at a Storm game and saw the women of inspiration announced there — and thought that I wanted to do something off the court that deserved a recognition like that. Not sure I'm ready to say I deserve it, but I'm proud of where I've come in the last five years — redefining myself.

Q: Talk about Title IX and what it meant to women generally and you personally.

Starbird: Title IX is THE reason that I was able to earn a college scholarship and play basketball professionally. The impact of that legislation is so intricately woven into who I am, it's hard to come up with a simple reply.

Q: One-on-one in your prime with Lauren Jackson — what's the final score to 15?

Starbird: Lauren Jackson was the best player in the women's game for YEARS. So, me in my prime against her at 31 w/ a sore hip — she still wins — 15-8. I don't get any rebounds.

Q: What's harder — what you're doing now or playing back-to-back pro games?

Starbird: They just don't compare. As a pro, I worked about six hours a day, 5-6 days a week. As a researcher, I work everyday, somewhere between 10 and 12 hours. One exhausted the body — the other exhausts the brain.