When Volunteering Shifts: Career Moves, Community, and Unforeseen Events

Twenty years ago, fresh from graduate school, I joined the ASM International Emerging Professionals Program and was elected Vice Chair at MS&T 2006 in Cincinnati. I helped grow the group into the Emerging Professionals Committee and forged lasting professional connections and friendships through subsequent meetings. After doing rotations on two other ASM committees, my ASM volunteer activity waned. In this talk I reflect on the nearly two-decade journey since. Along the way I will discuss shifts in technical focus, encounters with activist investors, involvement in community farming, major life events (births and deaths), and an unexpected FBI raid to explore how volunteer service, career, and life intersect and evolve.