My 10-year plan never included completing my PhD and running for elected office at the same time, but I’ve never been averse to a challenge.
I’ve always been a scientist: in fifth grade my best friend and I swabbed our school lunch tables to see what bacteria grew there. Our teacher, principal and any other adult who came to the science fair that year were horrified. And I will always be a scientist: my decade of formal training entrenched strong neural connections of scientific thinking and an appreciation for large data sets. But lately, I’ve come to believe that being a scientist is about more than experiments and data. Being a scientist means speaking truth in public and empowering leaders to make scientifically informed decisions.
