Ready? Ready.

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At the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the new semester begins in a few days. While I inevitably greet the start of a new semester with a refrain along the lines of I can't believe how fast that break passed by, I have some interesting projects afoot in 2020 that I'm excited to embrace.

The project that will occupy most of my attention, and admittedly should occupy even more of my time each week, will be my dissertation. Having completed the MS last Fall, it's now time for me to set the wheels into motion on the Ph.D. I have a very promising topic, one some colleagues have referred to as potentially high-impact science, and this coming semester I will analyze a subset of the data to verify that my idea is do-able.

I will also be working on submitting an article or two for publication. The first order of business in this CV-building initiative is transforming my MS thesis into publishable form. The format for my first-choice journal has a maximum length of 2,000 words. At current time, my thesis has 19,148 words, so I'll be doing a lot of composting.

Better get out the scoop shovel - I have lots of editing to do.

In addition to tracing white matter tracts in the brainstem and editing work, I will again be involved in undergraduate education. After a busy Fall with the Art and Science of Human Flourishing course, I'll be taking a lower-profile role in teaching an undergraduate anatomy course. This will be the third time that I've served as a Teaching Assistant in this particular course, and I anticipate that academic teaching will occupy less of my focus this semester than it has in the previous year or so.

This Spring I'll continue bringing my passions for fitness and dharma together, and look forward to rolling out the Contemplative Fitness program later in 2020. At present time, my working draft for the Mission Statement is Mind/Body Training that fosters the joyful resilience to do what needs to be done, and my Vision Statement is tentatively Resilient individuals coming together to engage with a changing world. This program will have both online and in-person components, and I'm excited to explore meditation and fitness as the means to build bridges. Stay tuned.

As we embark on a new year, let's stay in touch.

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