I am often asked how to combine having a family and an academic career, particularly how do you decide the best time to start a family. My standard answer is that you simply make it work when you decide you are ready. My daughter was born when I was a graduate student, and being a mother was then part of my post-doctoral experience, early career at an regional comprehensive university, and now mid-career at a research intensive university. I often describe my career as planned serendipity and will describe some of the stops along my career path and how that has influenced, and been influenced by, being a mother.

Planned serendipity: Creating a path to combine being a professor and mother

248th National Meeting (2014)

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