By the time I left my doctoral seminar today, I felt a jolt of excitement for and inspiration around my doctoral program at UW - a feeling that has eluded me for the last few weeks to month or so.
Thanks to my good friend and colleague David Pigott, who ended his phenomenal presentation considering opportunities where global health metrics and implementation science intersect (a truly unique arena provided by our program), I once again remembered why I chose this program (and ultimately did so twice). I chose it for its interdisciplinary nature; for its range of options and topical areas; and importantly, for its capacity to substantially elevate my research abilities and leadership to a new level. And to get there, well, it was never going to easy.
Statistics - particularly of the bio variety - and my brain have never meshed well together. I liked math in high school and I love quantitative research, yet statistics has continued to muddle my neurons for years. Prior to starting the PhD proram, I had essentially made it pretty far in my career without making much headway on the foundation, let alone more advanced knowledge, that is critical to most effectively leading research projects or teams. I wanted - I want - to get better at statistical methods and modeling, even though I know I will never be a stats wizard like many of my colleagues and cohortmates. And as mentor once told me, it's very rare to meaningfully learn new things without struggling. I just need to deliberately practice remembering all of this, even if it's for a few minutes each day. Otherwise, I'll risk missing out on a lot of important experiences and opportunities during my program if I keep cycling through the first four stages of statistics grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression) without carving out more acceptance.
Today I learned...
About some of the interesting implementation science methods and measurement efforts being spearheaded by UW's Professor Bryan Weiner. We actually share a similar background - fierce foci on clinical psychology followed by realizations that the clinical setting didn't quite align with our dispositions - and I want to learn more about how he's bringing behavioral science into health systems frameworks and evaluation.
Today I'm grateful for...
Katie Harris, who has been incredibly generous with her time and expertise as I aim to evolve into less of a bull in an program evaluation china shop. Relearning how to be a student and researcher again hasn't been the most smooth-sailing (let's just say my ship is prone to capsizing and I'm frequently grabbing my bilge pump), but Katie has helped to steady me (and my analyses).
Today's best part was...
Geeking out about malaria treatment coverage measurement and trends with Annie. Second place goes to running with bike lights wrapped around my ponytail ("I'm a bike...but not!") and finally starting to feel better from the nasty head cold that took me down this weekend slides into third. The latter would rank higher if I hadn't lugged around an entire tissue box to classes; I guess there's always tomorrow.
Thanks to my good friend and colleague David Pigott, who ended his phenomenal presentation considering opportunities where global health metrics and implementation science intersect (a truly unique arena provided by our program), I once again remembered why I chose this program (and ultimately did so twice). I chose it for its interdisciplinary nature; for its range of options and topical areas; and importantly, for its capacity to substantially elevate my research abilities and leadership to a new level. And to get there, well, it was never going to easy.
Statistics - particularly of the bio variety - and my brain have never meshed well together. I liked math in high school and I love quantitative research, yet statistics has continued to muddle my neurons for years. Prior to starting the PhD proram, I had essentially made it pretty far in my career without making much headway on the foundation, let alone more advanced knowledge, that is critical to most effectively leading research projects or teams. I wanted - I want - to get better at statistical methods and modeling, even though I know I will never be a stats wizard like many of my colleagues and cohortmates. And as mentor once told me, it's very rare to meaningfully learn new things without struggling. I just need to deliberately practice remembering all of this, even if it's for a few minutes each day. Otherwise, I'll risk missing out on a lot of important experiences and opportunities during my program if I keep cycling through the first four stages of statistics grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression) without carving out more acceptance.
Today I learned...
About some of the interesting implementation science methods and measurement efforts being spearheaded by UW's Professor Bryan Weiner. We actually share a similar background - fierce foci on clinical psychology followed by realizations that the clinical setting didn't quite align with our dispositions - and I want to learn more about how he's bringing behavioral science into health systems frameworks and evaluation.
Today I'm grateful for...
Katie Harris, who has been incredibly generous with her time and expertise as I aim to evolve into less of a bull in an program evaluation china shop. Relearning how to be a student and researcher again hasn't been the most smooth-sailing (let's just say my ship is prone to capsizing and I'm frequently grabbing my bilge pump), but Katie has helped to steady me (and my analyses).
Today's best part was...
Geeking out about malaria treatment coverage measurement and trends with Annie. Second place goes to running with bike lights wrapped around my ponytail ("I'm a bike...but not!") and finally starting to feel better from the nasty head cold that took me down this weekend slides into third. The latter would rank higher if I hadn't lugged around an entire tissue box to classes; I guess there's always tomorrow.
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