Having decided on a life of public service, Kristina Marty pursued public administration immediately after graduating college—first in a masters of public administration program and then in various practitioner roles, mostly focused on health and human services agencies. After these work experiences, which included a little research, she decided to go back for her PhD and looked at public administration from the academic side. Starting in a tenure track position and a newborn and felt the crush of trying to do it all but somehow she kept things together. At a certain point, however, she learned that all was not as it seemed and the marriage that she was relying on dissolved.

The lessons she learned from dealing with this unexpected and unwelcome wrench in the plans taught her a lot about what to do when your first choice outcome is no longer in the set of realistic options. And when health became something more than academic for her, she relied on the lessons learned with her earlier dose of adversity.

In this episode, find out from Kristina how learning what you can and can't control can ultimately guide you to a little serenity and gratitude.

About This Episode’s Guest

Kristina Marty is a mother and cancer survivor Kristina Marty who also currently serves as Senior Associate Dean in the College of Community and Public Affairs, and Professor of Public Administration at Binghamton University. As she suggested, if you have young people in your life, learn more about the HPV vaccine at cdc.gov/hpv and encourage them to get the vaccine, if eligible.

For another story about learning fundamental lessons from adversity, listen to our episode with Doug Asano.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com

Intentional Serenity: Kristina Marty on recognizing the available options and letting go of the others

Roads Taken