That's a great question, and it's one that I'll try and answer succinctly. Um, where am I? Today is perhaps where I start. I worked for the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. I'm the associate dean off the online campus, and I've served in various different administrative and faculty rolls over the past 13 years. Now with university, uh, I'm originally from Ireland. I was, ah, high school teacher in Ireland before I decided to go to graduate school in the United States. Psychology was a passion of mine, and I decided that I should really pursue it in a country that uses psychology and it's everyday life. So I took a chance. Like many international students on, duh, studied psychology, studied school psychology, integrate what I had done before with my a new idea I had about psychology with Children in schools, and I worked in public schools for a number of years. A school psychologist near Chicago Onda, uh, I was always teaching part time at the university level after I finished my doctorate, and then eventually I was approached by the Chicago school to come and teach with them full time on Duh. So I decided eventually to do that because I thought that I could train more school psychologists in that way and make a bigger impact on the field. And then I was invited to take on various different administrative roles for a number of reasons. I think different skills as you're going along in your career. Different skills emerge. People can see different strengths come up and they'll give you feedback about what's helpful, what you're doing well or what's helpful to the organization. And so I think that's what happened with me. People would say Yes, you're a good psychologist or yes, we really enjoy your passion for the field. But you know, you're also really good at getting people who disagree with each other to come to the table and problem solve. And I thought, Oh, that's conflict That's very difficult. I don't know that I enjoy it, but over time I kept getting this kind of feedback that oh, people will follow your lead if you engage in problem solving. They really enjoy when you try and bring them together, or when you try and engage in leadership. And so that's sort of how I ended up in leadership by listening to feedback. Bye. Seeing opportunities. I know a lot of young women are always asking themselves, um, I ready for that opportunity. Am I good enough for that next step? Can I really take a leadership role? And for young women in particular, it's something where they doubt themselves. And I would say one of the experiences I had was of someone saying, You know, take a chance, see if you could develop into the role. And many times I feel so grateful for people who have given me the opportunity who have seen something in me responding to people who said, I think you have skills in this area. I think you're really good at this. Would you like to try this opportunity? That's been a very shaping experience for me, and so as a result, that's how come I'm here. I originally served on our Chicago campus, is the dean of academic affairs, and then I had the opportunity to join the online campus, and I thought at the time, this is now. Six years ago, I thought, Wow, I really need to learn about online teaching, online instruction. This is a new wave. I'm not so comfortable with us, and I decided, if I am not comfortable with that, I need to learn more about it. It is the wave of the future. And so I have the opportunity to join our international psychology program and to join the online campus at our university. And I ended up. They're six years ago, and here I am today is associate into the online campus on being an online person. I could live anywhere, and I now live in Puerto Rico. So that's where I am today. Andi, that's kind of a brief summary of how I got here.

quite another great question. So one of the things I like about being on associate campus teen is that no day is boring and no two days are the same. So I handle a lot of different types of responsibilities and decisions every day. The responsibilities ca NBI about helping to develop a new program. They can be about specific problems that a faculty members having They could be about issues about policy. They could be student complaints. They could also be about opportunities in the community to respond to a community need or to give a talk like this. You know, Thio help people understand how to fulfill their career goals on DSo, figuring out sort of which one to manage first, what the top priority is, what to tackle today and what to leave until tomorrow often comes down to student needs. First student needs air always my top priority and then ensuring that the team is empowered to solve problems themselves independently. It's probably the next priority for me and then making sure that we're not breaking any laws and making sure that we're really fulfilling the promise that we've made to the community about the types of programs we have in psychology or in behavior analysis or in public health or leadership, making sure that we're following through on our commitment and our vision be another priority. So those air sort of the ways in which I determine on an average day, what's most important? What do I tackle first next? Sometimes there are crises that arise that need to be, you know, tackled immediately. And it's making that decision as it comes up. This is an important thing. Um, my hours every week end up being dependent on a couple of things. Number one, the importance of the issues that need to be dealt with. Sometimes I get more time to work on developing a new program or developing a policy, or I have more time to work with departments on issues on problems that they're trying to solve. Or sometimes I actually get some time to work on webinars or presentations for conferences or connecting with international colleagues. And, you know, like any job when you have fashioned for it, you could spend 40 hours on it, or you can spend 80 hours on it, you know, so trying to maintain a work life balance is what determines my my weekly work hours. I'm very excited about what I do. I really enjoy the opportunities that arise for me. And so trying not to spend all day and all night on the job is important because, you know, the healthier my work life balance, the better able the better. I am able to really think intelligently and problem solved with reflection. You need rest in orderto work well, and so that's probably what I would say about that.

um, the challenges, I think in in academia and in universities are often that there's more than one perspective on an issue. You know, when I'm problem solving something, it's not that this person was right and that person was wrong. And therefore we just need to follow the policy, the policies air often written, you know, to suit the circumstances and to guide the programs and guide the personnel in the scenarios that we can imagine at the time. But oftentimes situations arise that we didn't imagine that no one has thought of. That's a unique situation like a pandemic. And so the major challenge is to problem solve under new circumstances. And oftentimes there isn't a past experience or a past record of this problem to refer to where you can see. Ah, this is what the policy says. The policy addresses this situation specifically. Oftentimes, you have thio extrapolate from what the policy says and how to apply it equally to this situation so that everyone is treated fairly. The other major challenger pain point is that everyone is trying the best they can with what they've got. You know, typically, people raise a complaint or try and resolve an issue in full conscience and trying to do the best they can. And so generally it's not that one person is right and the other person is wrong. So understanding both perspectives can be quite the challenge. And then trying to ensure fairness for everyone under the circumstances can be difficult. Another challenge in universities is trying to figure out how to do things that are very difficult. So, for example, trying to train psychologists or public health specialists online can be difficult. How do you really know, without meeting a person face to face, whether they'll make a good psychologist or a good counselor, that's very difficult. That's a real challenge. Are you really sure that they're going to be a very skilled psychologist? A very appropriate counselor, you know, and ensuring that you're doing the best that you can possibly do to develop those skills in an individual is tough. So the approaches that we use are to make sure that we're reading the best research out there, that we're watching what other universities air doing that we're taking chances to really develop new approaches onboard, working with our students to say, you know, here's where we really need you to be. Let's try to be the best that we can be. And so we often engage students in brainstorming around what their programs looked like. Student feedback is extremely important to us. And so we ask them after every class, How was your experience? How was your learning experience? How was your experience with the instructor? How was your experience in training? What could we do better? What did you what did we do that was surprising to you? What would you like us to do? More of what would you like us to do? Less off. Um, and other other examples of what we do with students are really just finding opportunities to get general feedback from them, not just about their learning programs, but also about their experience in part of the as being a part of the community of the university. You know, being in a degree program is not just our taking courses. It's also about meeting other people who will be your future colleagues, meeting professors who are leaders in the field and figuring out whether we're building community and helping to contribute Thio. The profession is important and so really getting students and faculty and staff together to here, even difficult feedback is an important piece that helps us a lot.