Being a college medical school faculty and researcher was a highlight of my life. I trained at all the best schools: Masters from Texas Southern University, PhD from Purdue, Postdoc at Washington University, Harvard, MIT and the Whitehead Institute. I was even a Radcliff Ingraham Bunting Fellow while I was postdoc at MIT and the Whitehead Institute. My mentors taught me the joys of research and I LOVED IT! Research was my life (and it still is, just from a little different perspective). I ate, slept and drank research. There was never a desire to do much of anything else with my life. What a contribution I was making by conducting research! I recall the many nights I stayed at the lab until 2am running a gel or waiting on some other experiment’s next step. It was so exciting – to be the only one in the world who knew the results of this finding. What an opportunity, indeed, to make a contribution to science, and to possibly the world. Who knew – maybe one day I’d find something that would lead someone to a Nobel Prize!"A Solar Plexus Rearrangement!"

My mentors encouraged me to continue in science and not be distracted by pharmaceutical invitations – after all, a pharmaceutical or government position for that matter would restrict my experimental research freedom by demanding I work on "their projects" instead of what I truly wanted to work on or felt there was significant data and technology to pursue as a novel, hot hypothesis. And I was successful. As an Assistant Professor, I had three grants, one postdoc, two technicians, from 1-5 students depending on the annual seasonal schedule. Life was a blast! Science was King and Queen! As I began to be invited to give talks on my research and to become a member of national peer review panels, I began to feel established as a valued faculty member, accumulating services and academic deeds worthy of promotion. I was soon promoted to Associate Professor and kept working as hard as ever because I loved what I was doing.

One day, one of the Peer Review Committees I served on invited me to become a part of their peer review staff as a Scientific Program Director. I did not believe that was a viable option for me because I LOVED being at the bench. Besides everything I was ever taught during my training as a scientist told me that to work for pharmaceutical, government agencies or private organizations for that matter was "copping out" of the great and wonderful world of "Discovery Through Real Research."

Nonetheless, as a scientist, I had to investigate the offer. I quickly learned from a colleague who worked there that their beginning salary for this position was almost twice what I was happily making at the bench and all of a sudden, I had to think about that. I thought about it for two months (they allowed me this extended amount of time to think about it because they really wanted me to say "Yes." As I progressed further through the interview process, I became more aware of all they were offering, including some administrative freedom and limited required hours at work. They were making me an offer I couldn’t refuse! But still, I did not wish to be considered a "traitor" by my academic colleagues. What could I do? I thought about it.

This organization was offering me a salary about twice what I was making in an HBCU (Historically Black College or University); they did not match my retirement fund in TIAA-CREF, but they would allow me to continue to contribute to it on my own. They had other retirement packages, such as paying a certain percentage of my salary for the rest of my life. They only required that I work 37.5 hours a week! What was that? I normally worked twice that in the lab! This would be a vacation! (Little did I know that the tide would turn on hours at this not-for-profit agency in a few years due to research promotion needs.) They would require that I be at my desk at certain hours during each day of the week, but not necessarily during the weekend, unless I was traveling on Agency business. It sounded wonderful! What was I overlooking? My students who needed me, my postdoc who depended on me and my freedom. I said "YES!" I brought things to a close and moved.

I cried the first two years in the new position because I missed the bench so much. Living in an efficiency apartment while I looked for a home comparable to the one I had at around the same price was not an easy task in a big city. Each week I felt as though I was on an extended conference trip or course and that at any moment I would pack my belongings and go back home (my old home). I recalled familiar habits of having a laboratory, like coming back from the airport and going to the lab first on the way home. No more --- because now I had no lab. There was something peaceful and distinctly mine then in the lab, and yes, I do still miss it.

However, I am definitely living the good life, still making a needed contribution and doing something I love –just in a different way. My exposure is to a different crowd of people, dedicated volunteers, high-end donors living a different style of life, hoping themselves to make significant contributions, touching communities who yearn for the science behind the research in terms they can understand, and the miracles research can bring. I might never have been exposed to this new world, if it were not for this transformation to my current not-for-profit position. And now, it’s all good.