BOUNCE Episode III: Adversity and Support Networks

Welcome back to the third installment of the featured BOUNCE series, in partnership with the Okanagan Mental Health Task Force! BOUNCE will introduce different real-life vignettes of people's experiences with mental health in higher education. This episode features special guest speaker Dr. Deborah Sloboda. "Dr. Deb Sloboda is currently a well-known researcher in fetal and maternal physiology. If you don’t find the advice, “don’t be a superwoman” helpful, Dr. Sloboda would agree with you. She defended her thesis in her third trimester, then moved to Australia to do her postdoctoral fellowship. Having her baby in a different country was a challenge in itself, but the bigger ongoing challenge was being seen as a whole person who has a life outside of the lab. At the time, Dr. Sloboda was the only female PhD in the department. Everyone in the lab was outwardly accepting of her, however, there were many subtle, but profound differences in how Dr. Sloboda was treated. Despite it all, Dr. Sloboda was able to persist through it with the help of her support network (whom she still relies on today." MacPFD Spark is excited to feature the first three BOUNCE episodes over the next three weeks - be sure to check back often for more content to help you grow and enhance your career and mental well-being in academia! Featured Guest(s) - Dr. Deborah Sloboda Interviewer(s) - Dr. Catharine Munn