I have a zig-zag career, as I have worked in academia, private consulting, marketing, and TV documentary production. My academic background is in health behavior, so I studied all the influences on people’s health decision-making. Some of our early work focused on why people were refusing to get vaccinated and how policy could address this phenomenon. While this was years ago, it has been fascinating to see how the politics of this question has come to the forefront in the last year. When I was an associate producer for PBS documentaries about the need to reform our health care system and our electoral system after the 2000 presidential election, we thought these critical problems would be addressed by Congress soon and so in both cases were eager for them to air so they wouldn’t be obsolete. We need not have been concerned since, with the exception of the Affordable Care Act, very little has changed for the better in either area.

Besides the work, the people who work at Princeton look out for one another. I recently had a dog walking-related injury and Princeton colleagues whom I work with, and several whom I don’t, reached out, sent flowers and cards wishing me well in my recovery. Out of all the zig-zagging of my career, the community at Princeton is unmatched.