December 2006

Welcome to Lucialand

Hello, and welcome to Lucialand! I hope that over the next few months, you will be interested, informed, and at least mildly entertained by my life, my thoughts, and my occasional lapses in sanity. I am thrilled to be able to share all of this with you!

About me... I grew up in the western US, migrating to and fro between New Mexico, Colorado, and both Northern and Southern California. I consider California home, however, and hope to remain here for the duration. Where else can you have skiing, the beach, professional sports, wine country, the great outdoors, and the city so close? Not to mention the weather (being a fair weather girl myself, I do not miss Fort Collins winters).

If life is a highway, it seems that I chose Highway 1 over Interstate 5. I went to UC San Diego to do my undergrad work, then on to Colorado State for veterinary school, and became an equine veterinarian. I did two internships in equine medicine/surgery (yes, two, see comment re: "lapse in sanity" above, as one internship is usually enough to put one quite over the edge). I realized that the things that I wanted out of life, and out of my career in particular, were not conducive to remaining in veterinary medicine, so I made the difficult decision to leave vet med and pursue a career in human medicine.

To this end, I started my career in research here at Stanford. From here, the road may fork a few times... I can decide to remain in research, go back to people medical school (Lucia's Law of Economics #1: You can never have too many doctorates, or too much student debt), or pursue a career in academic or biomedical administration. Or I could work at Starbucks, but somehow I don't think anyone wants to see me on 5+ lattes per day.

I am now a postdoctoral fellow in the Pediatrics Department, Neonatology Division. I am currently working on a mouse model of Neonatal Chronic Lung Disease, in which I study the effects of mechanical ventilation on lung development. When human neonates are born very premature, they must be put on ventilators in order to breathe, sometimes for months. CLD is the most common complication of being on these ventilators, and one of the main features of the pathology is a failure of alveoli and capillaries to form normally. The goal of our lab is to find out why lung development is so adversely affected by mechanical ventilation, which in turn could lead to a treatment or prevention strategy for CLD.

Outside of the lab, I am involved in many fun things. I am a co-director and co-instructor of a new elective that we are just getting off the ground for Stanford medical students, called Medicine and Horses. In a nutshell, we hope to teach medical students how to develop their skills in communication, teamwork, focus, confidence, and bedside manner.
http://www.horsensei.com/programs_medicine_horsemanship.html

I am also on the Postdoctoral Advisory Committee for the Stanford University Postdoctoral Association (SUPD), so I get to be involved in all sorts of interesting goings on pertaining to postdocs here at Stanford. Additionally, I am the Stanford postdoc representative for the University of California Council of Postdoctoral Scholars, a group of postdocs from California universities, who get together to discuss issues related to postdocs within the campuses, within California, and nationwide. It has been a fascinating learning process, and has allowed me to meet some wonderful people from our campus as well as others.

I think everyone should be involved in something like the SUPD. Postdoctoral fellowships may train us very well in our respective fields, but generally teach us almost nothing about leadership, networking, and service to our colleagues. Involvement with the SUPD has really made me feel like I have had an incredibly well rounded experience here at Stanford, gaining an education not only in The Great Field We Call Science but also in How The World Works (University Edition).

Another great organization that I am involved with is the Palo Alto chapter of the Association for Women in Science. I am one of the Stanford postdoctoral representatives for the mentor/mentee program, and this has been another great opportunity to develop wonderful relationships, and help my fellow women in science.

I took up cycling last spring, which has been AWESOME! I broke my leg two years ago, and it has been too painful to run ever since (I ran NCAA, Div. II in college). A friend of mine who races has always wanted me to get into cycling, so with the broken leg I was out of excuses. Plus, in case you haven't noticed, we are in a cycling Mecca here (reason #3589 to live in CA), so I figured I'd fit right in. I wasn't sure how best to train on the bike, and knew that it is a highly technical sport, so I wanted to get some good instruction under my belt. What better way to get started than to join the Leukemia and Lymphoma Team in Training? A close friend of mine had just made it through chemo for Lymphoma, so I also thought it would be a good way to honor her. I made some great friends, and am now addicted. My coordination is less than perfect so I have hit the pavement a few times, but hey, what fun is riding if you're not getting free macrodermabrasion treatments along the way? Losing 16 lbs in 14 weeks wasn't bad either.

Here I am after completing our 100 mile ride for the Team in Training in Hololulu, Hawaii.

Other extracurricular activities include riding my horse and exploring the culinary paradise that is the Bay Area (reason #2 to live in CA). So, as you can see, I've got many irons in the fire, but all of them are totally worth it, even if it does mean I have not had time to do any Christmas shopping yet. Oh no! Christmas shopping! Gotta go!