What has your experience been like being a student at Yale vs. being an employee at Yale?
The years I spent at Yale as a student were among the happiest and most rewarding of my life. It is impossible not to be shaped by the institution, and the faculty, and one’s fellow students, and I carried those connections and lessons with me to Japan, Italy, Afghanistan, and Ukraine. Now, back at Yale as an employee—as an adult—I’m able to better understand the role Yale plays in educating America’s future leaders; leaders on a local level in communities around the world, and also on a national and global level. I’m better able to understand the historical significance of its buildings, and of its life as an institution. Having worked in different places, now, too, I’m able to testify to Yale’s generosity as an employer—a place that truly values the people who make it work and function.
How long have you worked at Yale?
I joined Yale a little over a year and a half ago (September, 2017).
What do you like most about your work?
Having the privilege to write articles highlighting some of the extraordinary research that faculty and students drive at Yale School of Medicine is a responsibility I take very seriously. Taking the work of my predecessors (John Curtis, Michael Fitzsousa) and carrying it forward so that the magazine is as efficient as possible while maintaining the high level of quality for which it’s known motivates me every day. On a more personal level, I feel supported by the senior administrators in my office, Mary Hu, Nicole Wise, and Jill Max, all of whom provide mentorship, guidance, and insist on a respectful office climate that is inclusive to everyone, even combat veterans like myself! Being able to look forward every day to coming into the office and solve a challenge is a big part of why I like my work.
How does your job affect your general lifestyle?
On a practical level, my job allows me to support a family, and to use my spare time for projects that benefit the community of which I’m a part, in Branford, on the town’s Environmental and Conservation Commission, and in the veteran community as a co-editor of Wrath-Bearing Tree, a military and trauma-themed publication.
How did you begin your career?
My career in writing began in the military, when I saw how meaningful narrative journalism was to paratroopers and mountain infantrymen who were participating in a counter-insurgency that didn’t have an endpoint in sight or much of a purpose that anyone on the ground could see. After I left the military I went into journalism.
What steps would you recommend one take to prepare to enter this field?
There are many different paths one can take. Especially these days, with social media and the mechanics of online publishing, if one wants to edit or write for any type of publication, I’d recommend finding a subject in which one is interested, becoming competent as a practitioner in that field, become competent as a writer, and then stick the two together. Anyone can start a blog.
What skills, abilities, and personal attributes are essential to success in your job/this field?
First: integrity. Second: flexibility. Third: curiosity. Fourth: optimism. Fifth: facility with social media and the rest of the online world.
If you could do it all over again, would you choose the same path for yourself? If not, what would you change?
I’m very happy with where I’ve ended up, lucky to be alive, incredibly lucky to have met such a wonderful wife, and wouldn’t change a single thing.
What are you hoping to accomplish as Co-Chair?
Prior Co-Chairs Chris Mihok and Santo Galatioto, and current Co-Chair Michael Radynski, have all done a great job of getting YVN to be a regular part of the Yale community. If I can help continue that tradition by expanding outreach and participation, I’ll feel like my time as Co-Chair was successful.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Thank you for this opportunity!