I love Julie Foudy. The retired member/captain/co-captain of the Unites States Women’s National Soccer Team, former president of the Women’s Sports Foundation, member of the National Soccer Hall of Fame, founder of the Julie Foudy Sports Leadership Academy for girls and the Julie Foudy Leadership Foundation, and television analyst for ESPN and other media outlets is an accomplished leader and inspirational force for girls and women in sports, and beyond. To me, she is in the mold of Billie Jean King, my childhood hero*. She sees sports as an opening to make the world more fair and more just. She’s just someone to admire.
But that’s not why I love her. At least not in total. I love Julie Foudy because she is funny. She is fun. Her podcast, Laughter Permitted, that she co-hosts with Lynn Olszowy, is at times snort-laugh-worthy. And her guests are a list of interesting women leaders from the sports world and more. I first listened to the podcast a couple years back, but my overall podcast listening has fallen off of late and I’d forgotten about it. But with the recent Women’s World Cup airing on some channel (FOX) that she’s not affiliated with, I found myself feeling like something was missing. It just didn’t seem like soccer without Julie, to me. And that’s when I googled and was reminded of the podcast! It was a goldmine of fun, hearing Julie and Lynn talk with so many of the 99ers. Just a hoot. And the bands. The stress-busting strength bands – I have adopted these into my own stress-relief routine. Thanks for the tip, Jules.
One feature of the podcast is called, “High, Low, Cheer,” an activity Julie says she did with her kids around the supper table, asking them to share a high (good thing), a low (not so great thing), and a cheer (a thanks to someone who supported/helped them) during that day. On the show, guests are asked to share these as they relate to their respective careers. I was thinking it’s a nice activity to add to these Friday blog posts (or at least my own Friday afternoon reflections on the week). So here goes:
High
In December of 2019, I was asked to serve on the National Library of Medicine (NLM) Board of Regents Public Service Working Group on ClinicalTrials.gov Modernization. That’s a mouthful. It was a one-year appointment, with the possibility of a second year. In February 2020, I traveled to Bethesda where the group met in person for the first (and last – thanks COVID) time. Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health at the time came and met us. So did Dr. Patty Brennan, the Director of NLM. We met the ClinicalTrials.gov team, got our charge, and began the process of dreaming about what the modernization of such an important – but dated – resource would mean. It was a real honor to be asked to take part, particularly as I realized I was there to represent the medical/health sciences library community, as well as the patrons we serve (clinicians, biomedical researchers, patients, and caregivers). Today, 3-1/2 years later, we held our final meeting. It proved to be a bit longer of a commitment than anticipated and I didn’t get to travel to Bethesda regularly as I’d hoped, but the work we did as an advisory group was so interesting and so rewarding. When the new site launched earlier this summer, I felt pride in knowing I had the tiniest fingerprint on it. It’s a good feeling.
Low
While I fortunately do not have longterm COVID in the physical sense, I’m certainly feeling the longterm effects of how much it changed my world. We work so differently today, scattered to the four-corners of our private worlds. I don’t see my colleagues every day – some I don’t see at all. And there seems a sense of us being adrift as a staff – lacking vision, leadership, focus, something. And it isn’t just my work place, not even just the library here at the medical school where I work. People in other departments have shared the same at times. As do friends and folks I know outside of work. It’s just this weird feeling, like people have just checked out. The political and social climate sure doesn’t help, either. Unmoored. That’s what it feels like to me. We’re all unmoored, drifting about, not quite sure what’s coming next. It brings me down sometimes, this week particularly so.
Cheer
I got TWO invitations this week to speak to early career and/or library school students over the next few weeks. I was first invited to be a guest speaker for the first members of the North Atlantic Health Sciences Libraries, Inc. (NAHSL) Health Sciences Librarianship Apprenticeship Program. This is such an innovative program and I’m delighted to get the chance to talk to the two apprentices in September. Shout-out cheers to Rachel Lerner (Quinnipiac University), Rebecca Morin (Tufts University), and Eugenia Opuda (University of New Hampshire) for leading this effort and thinking of me as someone to share some wisdom (or at least a laugh or two). It’s appreciated!
I was also invited to be part of a Collaboration and Leadership panel that will speak to students in the Data Services Professional Education (DSCPE) program at Simmons University’s Graduate School of Library Sciences. Along with 3 other leaders in our field, I’ll get to share my journey to leadership, some of the services we’ve developed and implemented here at my library, and how we partner and collaborate with other groups at the institution. I was invited by my former library director and boss, Elaine Martin. Elaine is one of the professors and directors of the DSCPE. She’s also fairly instrumental in my being where I am today, in terms of a career in research support, scholarly communications, and data services librarianship, since these services all began under her watch here at LSL. It’s nice to give back. Thanks for the ask, Elaine.
So that’s my “High, Low, Cheer” for the week. I hope it prompts you to reflect on the same for your past week. And if you need a good chuckle, check out that podcast because laughter is permitted there. Happy Friday!
*Billie Jean King is STILL my hero. I once did a job interview where I presented a “Top 10” of individuals who I’d like to be a personal librarian for (because everyone needs a personal librarian). BJK was numero uno.
A Librarian by Any Other Name 
Hmm…Nora’s starting soccer this fall and you now have Julie’s leadership academy on my radar! Thanks, Sally!