Roller Skate Week

Looking forward to a week is always different than looking back on it. Nonetheless, the week from December 9 through December 17 was what I call a "roller skates" week. Skating, which is slightly faster than running and takes less effort, from task to task, from location to location, from meeting to meeting.

The highlight of December 10 was the little holiday party we had for the KRISP project. We managed to have about an hour of sweets, small present exchange, and photo ops. (see the KRISP blog for the group photo)  It was also a day of problem solving with a couple of my MPH advisees. A mix of paperwork, encouragement and a little hand holding. All in all, a busy, productive, fun, smiling day.

Monday and Tuesday (December 13 and 14) were more unique. For the past month, I served as chair for a search committee to hire a new faculty into our department. After vetting a few applications, we invited the two best candidates to visit with us. The daylong process involves interviews, a presentation, and informal lunch in the commons area. Making the process public and inclusive made the faculty feel as though this was a real opportunity to hire a junior faculty. This may seem obvious, but in these economically bad times in Illinois, hiring a faculty feels like an sweet treat. The foresight and planning of our department chairperson made this hire possible. Each day with the candidate went smoothly. My own preference for one of the candidates was aligned with the consensus of the search committee and faculty who met the candidates.

Right after the last of the meetings with the candidate, I hopped in the car and drove 3 hours to Peoria. I needed to do this because on Wednesday morning Kathy and I were doing a training session with the public health nurses at Tazewell County. I arrived at Kathy's house as she was finishing baking the goodies for the morning meeting. The feds prohibit any purchase of food, so the treats of baked good and fresh fruit will come out of our personal pockets. (I understand the the restriction, but really...)  The public health nurses seemed engaged and ready to have us come back next month.  As soon as that meeting was finished, I had to drive back to Chicago and attend to the candidate selection.

I spent Thursday and Friday in the office working on KRISP budget, trainings and meetings. Whew....