Adrift at the Dock
Observations from a geriatrics and hospice researcher about staying afloat professionally while parenting, partnering, and grieving
Supports and Resources
I am an interdisciplinary social scientist and faculty at UCSF studying policies and care for aging, dying, and grieving - and a parent to a young child. The core of this website started as a weekly email to colleagues and mentees at the start of the pandemic in 2020, as a source of solidarity and community. At the time, we lived on a floating home. Over time, the website has evolved. In my posts, I share what I’ve learned about making forward progress despite and amid crises.
These practices come from unfortunate experience. I’ve told the stories of the deaths of my father, stepfather, and other family and friends in an essay in JAMA (associated podcast) and another in Health Affairs (associated podcast). I argue that we need more structural supports for death, dying, and bereavement. In the meantime, we muddle through as individuals in community.
The richest of the blog categories are the weekly reflections from March 2020 onward. There are also thematic posts around productivity, mentoring and being mentored, work-life integration, and navigating grief. I think of these as recipes for life as an academic researcher - description of things that work for me that you can try, adapt, or skip based on your interests and needs. I’ve aggregated my recommended resources under the “resources” tab.
