The pace of work sometimes demands we function at 110%, juggling multiple high-stakes projects and priorities, all with unflappable composure

In 2022, my husband and I became first-time parents. While we were overwhelmed with joy and excitement when welcoming our son into the world, we learned quickly that we were not immune to the juggling act of being full-time working parents.

Successful people find areas of interest, develop those interests into a passion, and keep going despite inevitable setbacks.

Empathy has no script. There is no right or wrong way to do it. It's simply listening, holding safe space, withholding judgment, emotionally connecting, and communicating that incredibly healing message of “you are not alone.”

I grew up visiting Iowa’s field campus, the Macbride Nature Recreation Area (MNRA), home to my earliest memories of exploring outdoors. It is the place with the “little house” in the forest, in which my sister and I would peer out the window at the bird feeders, counting the songbirds and making up names for each one we saw.

As a college dean who began my position on March 1, 2020, and then closed all in-person activities 13 days later, I’m often asked to comment on the topic of resiliency. Resiliency is the ability to recover from traumatic or cumulative stresses. Early research on resilience emphasized the role of genetics – as in “some people are just born resilient.” However, more recent research shows that some people become more resilient over their lifetimes – suggesting that there are things we can all do to bounce back more quickly and effectively.

Dr. Scott Peck writes in his book, The Road Less Traveled: “Life can be difficult. Scratch that. Life is difficult.”

Workplaces can be like families and neighbors in that we typically do not get to pick who is a part of these groups. Often these relationships work marvelously and sometimes they can be difficult, stressful, and even contentious.

As I reflect on my experiences working in health care over the last few years, I can’t help but think of the exhaustion the staff at University of Iowa Health Care has felt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through witnessing that exhaustion, I have gained an even greater sense of pride and appreciation for health care workers around the world.

I love working in higher education. It is a privilege to work for the greater good with people I respect and admire. My work gives me joy, energy, and a great deal of satisfaction. I’ve also seen higher education be a highly challenging place to work. Higher education inherently values “performance and delivery” as part of its culture, e.g. getting that big grant, working through the weekends, earning that award, and so on. This value can leave us with a feeling of stress that never ends because we may feel our work is never good enough and because we always have more to do.