I smiled when I thought about describing my “typical” day or week because there is nothing “typical” about the mix of teaching, research and service involved.

 

Teaching involves classroom instruction (which I love), but much of my “teaching” happens outside the classroom when advising graduate students who just “drop by” to talk, to ask advice about their papers or practica, job opportunities, or life. Teaching also happens in my mentoring of the post-doctoral students with whom I work directly each week; with my project staff; and with junior faculty with whom I have formal mentoring relationships, at both UNC-Chapel Hill and NCCU.

Research obligations in a typical week include leading three large community-based, health-behavior intervention studies: one in 40 beauty salons with more than 1,200 African American women enrolled; another in four African-American barbershops; and yet another in 17 community colleges (and more than 1,200 employees) around the state. Each week, countless issues arise with these complicated and exciting projects. We have weekly team meetings with project staff and work with advisory boards. While the projects are running, my job involves keeping our funding stable at the same time federal dollars are shrinking. My typical week involves grant writing (last year I submitted six proposals requesting more than $6.5 million in federal dollars); planning for grants; meeting with funders; and writing manuscripts to help secure grants. I also collaborate on studies with other colleagues at UNC and nationally. I serve on several expert panels at the CDC, direct the Evaluation Unit at the Prevention Research Center, and have a joint appointment at Lineberger Cancer Center.

Service responsibilities take on many dimensions: Service to the university (member of oversight committee doing CQI for the PRC, Faculty Welfare Committee, the UNC-system Health Care Steering Committee, STEWAC advising on worksite wellness for state employees); to the School of Public Health (faculty mentoring committee, school-wide awards committee); to my department (awards chair, master’s program leadership, MPH comps committee, and soon, leading the MPH program); and to professional organizations (APHA, SOPHE, SBM), where I have leadership positions. My service to our local/state community is linked to the connections that my funded research provides – in each beauty salon, barbershop, and community college, UNC now has a relationship and a true presence.

 

In a “typical” week, I rarely work fewer than 60 hours. My son will confirm this. Allocating time between teaching, research, and service is a fairly even split; except that research “wins” when a grant deadline is looming; teaching “wins” when I am grading midterms, finals, or reading master’s papers/dissertations. I worked in the private sector, and at the federal, state, and local level before I became an “academic.” There is nothing like this workload anywhere else I have been; but I would not change it either. This job is a privilege because it allows me to give (to students and to the community) and to continue to grow and learn – and there is nothing “typical” about that.