Roads Taken

Guest Mary Romano was sure she wanted to be a doctor. But she really loved Latin and Greek and didn’t want to give up everything for her medical dreams too soon. So she majored in the classics and stayed on the pre-Med track. When others were getting into medical schools—or letting their med school dreams go, Mary did neither. Without a place to land, she went back home and regrouped.

She ultimately went to medical school in the Caribbean, an experience in itself. And returned to the U.S. for her clinicals and hospital placements in the U.S. Having known she wanted to go into pediatrics, she honed in on adolescent medicine as the place she would be most happy, seeing patients but also educating them daily. As her career advanced, the teaching roles became more diverse for a wider set of audiences—from med students to young doctors to policy makers. This is all the more true now that she has built a practice and center for transgender and gender diverse adolescents and children. From educating the patients and their parents to making sure legislators understand the science and lives behind their bills, she is always busy.

In this episode, find out from Mary how finding a way around barriers and removing them for others plays on the same skills and personality…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Mary Romano, MD, MPH, is Associate Professor of Pediatrics  and Adolescent Medicine at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where she helped to cofound a center serving transgender and gender diverse children and adolescents. In addition to seeing patients through clinical service, she also provides education and training to gender diverse youth, their parents, and the providers that serve them. She lives in Nashville with her husband and their two children.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Guest Erika Meitner was raised in a household where reformed Judaism revolved around justice and social action. As a first-generation American, her immigrant parents expected her to go into a medical career or something established. Raised with an eye toward social justice and a voice to say something about it, though, she was drawn to both the arts—particularly creative writing—and religious studies in college and spoke up for women's rights and other issues. Upon receiving a fellowship to study in Jerusalem after graduation, she studied Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism, and biblical and literary translation and considered rabbinical school.

To pay off her undergraduate loans, however, she worked as a consultant during the run-up to Y2K. When she realized she was spending all of her spare time reading, she knew that wasn't the life for her and went briefly into teaching middle school. The call to both religious studies and creative writing were strong, though, and she applied for master’s programs in each. Just as she was readying herself to return to Israel, she got off the wait list at UVa’s creative writing MFA program.

Knowing the road to established poet and academic would take some time, she kept a strong of Plan Bs going—from writing residencies and another master’s degree in Jewish studies to summer teaching stints and management consulting projects. These and other experiences that relied on her ability to solve problems through her interpersonal communication skills only made her writing richer.

In this episode, find out from Erika how answering the really big questions of our time requires interpersonal skills developed over a lifetime.…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Erika Meitner is a poet, a parent, and a teaching artist in the academy, currently at Virginia Tech where she is Professor of English in the creative writing programs.  Her latest collection of poetry, Holy Moly Carry Me, is the winner of the 2018 National Jewish Book Award in poetry, and a finalist for the 2018 National Book Critics Circle award in poetry. In addition to her poetry, she also creates large-scale documentary photo/text projects on urban environments and conducts ethnographic research with coastal communities dealing with the impacts of both development and climate change. Her sixth book of poems, Useful Junk, is forthcoming in Spring 2022. You can find her work at ErikaMeitner.com.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Guest Ken Lee had not really thought he would be a lawyer; he went to law school as a means for kicking life’s decision-making down the road. After a summer job at the Attorney General’s office in Boston and a course of study that pointed him to litigation, he had a couple of views of paths he could take. He started in litigation at a number of firms but found, over time, that he didn’t find much joy in it. He figured that if a partner position came, he would continue the toil. The partner job did not materialize and, instead, he was let go. He took that as an opportunity to try out the public side and took a job back in the Attorney General’s office, where he felt much more connected to the work.

As he found his footing again professionally, his family of four got news that they would soon be five. Their surprise addition made Ken rethink how he wanted to be spending his time and what the optimal job-household divide was for their family. He made the decision to quit his job after the baby came so that his wife could spend more time pursuing her medical career.//The challenges of stay-at-home parenting loomed large but an even greater challenge loomed silently. A chance visit to the optometrist led to the discovery of a brain tumor.

In this episode, find out from Ken how handling what comes at you is sometimes all there is to do…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Ken Lee is former Assistant Attorney General in the Massachusetts Attorney General's Office and worked previsouly at both Eckert Seamans Cherin & Mellott and Goodwin Procter LLP. He is now a stay-at-home dad in the the Boston area, where he lives with his wife and three children.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Guest Morgan Flatley had a job in non-profit consulting after college, but felt motivated more by seeing the female owner run her own small business than the content itself. After traveling a bit and taking personality inventories from her parents’ home, she realized that she loves being around people and ideating creative solutions. This led her to the advertising world, business school, and a career in marketing.

Over the years she has had opportunities to work on some of the world’s most iconic brands. After a decade in product management for Gatorade, she was tapped to head up marketing for McDonald’s USA and, more recently, to become CMO for the global organization, all while being a mom to three small children. Brand after brand, she continued to surround herself with good people, try to do hard things, and have fun doing it. But things get a little crazy when the brand you serve is known by nearly everyone on the planet.

In this episode, find out from Morgan how listening deeply and knowing who you are are key for people as well as brands…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Morgan Flatley has had a career in brand management and marketing that has included some of the world’s most iconic brands. After more than a decade spent at PepsiCo, working for ten years on Gatorade, she was named chief marketing and digital customer experience officer for McDonald’s USA and just recently promoted to global chief marketing officer. Morgan was named by Forbes to its World’s Most Influential CMOs list for two consecutive years, rising to #6 worldwide in 2021, and has also been recognized with Adweek’s most prestigious "Brand Genius" honor. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three children. 

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Guest Shawn Snipes Gasparini loved science and thought she would be a pediatrian so that she could be a role model for other kids with diabetes or kids of color. But when she started taking electives in English and film studies, she knew she was pursuing medicine for people other than herself. She changed her major at the end of junior year and left college bound for NYU film school.

She deferred for a year to make money and get a little experience so she could launch herself fully into film and storytelling. Along the way, she got the opportunity to become an assistant to Martha Stewart in the heyday of her Omnimedia empire. Shawn knew that in staying she would get exposed to lots of aspects of media and learn more about marketing, which she was starting to get interested in. She let go of the film school dream and started working in advertising and then as in-house marketing profession for some world-class brands. Though not every job provided her what she needed in the life and home department. So every so often, she’d have to call out to the universe and believe that the change she needed would happen.

In this episode, find out from Shawn how saying what you want and acting when it comes can sometimes manifest what you need…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Shawn Snipes Gasparini started her career in the media world as an assistant to Martha Stewart. She has spent time on both the agency side of media as well as the client side, predominantly for consumer packaged goods. She is currently at healthcare giant Sanofi, where she is senior manager of business intelligence and media analytics.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Guest Karen M. Smith DeBolt always rocked a put-together look—an important expression of her cultural and individual motto “Dress well, test well.” As her Colombian mother had made clear, in looking the part you could eventually feel the part. This was key for Karen who didn’t really feel as though Dartmouth was the right choice for her until she met her tribe of women friends sophomore year who she knew had her back.

After graduation, she understandably expected to live a fabulous life in New York City, working for Chanel. When that didn’t materialize, she found her way into McKinsey and Company, first in recruiting and later—after a stint in organizational consulting at another firm—executive development. Despite the hectic always-on-call pace, it was a kind of high style and high flying that she loved. When she found her husband, they were happy as the couple that traveled everywhere with no strings tying them down. But even though motherhood was never something to which she aspired, it came for her. And despite her best early efforts to make sure it would change nothing of her fabulous, hard-charging existence, a forced leave made her reassess.

In this episode, find out from Karen how uncovering new aspects of yourself can lead to both growth and fulfillment…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Karen M. Smith Debolt (not to be confused with our classmate Karen E. Smith) has found many ways to reinvent herself after years in organizational design consulting and executive development. She lives in Chicago with her husband and only-child son. She continues to make herself greater each year. 

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Guest Mariya Rosberg felt as though she had lived a somewhat sheltered beginning of life. At college, she leaned into everything that could expand her world, from languages to travel and found herself particularly drawn to ideas around gender equity. She married classwork in gender studies with real-world applications both on campus and abroad. She always felt the pull to adventure and believed she would just follow her free spirit into the life of a wanderer.

After a little independent travel, she landed in the only spot that made sense to that free spirit: Manhattan’s West Village. She steeped herself in the city’s history and the romantic notions of having a shared lived experience with countless other free spirits. Yet she also felt she needed to “get serious.” She answered an ad in the newspaper and began a life in management consulting. Interestingly, she was able to feed her wanderlust through her international clients and started putting some sort of structure to her life. Adding motherhood to the mix allowed her to confront the gender issues that had long interested her. Eventually she was able to marry this with her business life and mentor others who were trying to do it all.

In this episode, find out from Mariya how sometimes listening to that which calls you to venture out and applying it closer to home can do a world of good…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Mariya Rosberg has over 20 years of experience serving leading investment and universal banks in the US, Europe, and Latin America. She is currently a partner at Oliver Wyman, where she is head of Americas Corporate and Institutional Banking and also helps drive crucial decisions for the future of the firm, particularly mentoring colleagues navigating parenthood and consulting. For these and other Herculean efforts she was named a Working Mother of the Year by Working Mother magazine. She lives in Westchester County with her husband and their twins.

Mentioned in This Episode

"Research Shows People Become Increasingly Unhappy Until Age 47.2. Here's How to Minimize the Negative Effect of the 'Happiness Curve'" by Jeff Haden in Inc.com based on research by Dartmouth's David Blanchflower, published by National Bureau of Economic Research as a working paper entitled "Is Happiness U-Shaped Everywhere? Age and Subjective Happiness in 132 Countries."

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Guest Adam Wollowick figured he would go to medical school but also brought a love of art history with him from high school. He took on an art history major along with his pre-med classes and bounced from fraternity basement to library, living the “work hard, play hard” ethos. With a father in orthopedics, he followed in that practice when he realized he liked working with his hands and selected spine surgery because it was the hardest thing he could try. At every turn, though, he wondered if medicine was really for him. Colleagues kept telling him just had to get through med school or residency or internship and it would be fine. But it never did feel fine. Despite being good at his job, he was miserable.

When he noticed that his hospital system was acquiring other orthopedic practices and no one was running it as a business, he thought he could do it. He asked his hospital to pay for an MBA. And a few weeks in he realized this is what he really wanted to do. The hospital started getting cold feet and didn’t want him to leave surgery. So he took a risk and quit without a new job. Ultimately, he landed with a company doing mergers and acquisitions in the spine space and felt he’d found more meaning and fulfillment.

In this episode, find out from Adam how listening to your own “should” can have healthier outcomes than someone else’s…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Adam Wollowick is Senior Director of Business Development at Stryker Spine, working in mergers and acquisitions in the spine and orthopedic space. He is also a mentor at NYU's Endless Frontier Labs, an accelerator for early-stage science and technology-based startups. Previously, he worked as a spine surgeon at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, NY and held the title of Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine also in the Bronx. 

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Had Dartmouth offered a course of study in architecture, guest Julie Kline Dixon may have taken it. At an early age, she would cover her school notes with sketches of floor plans and seemed drawn to the field. She had sat through one day of the sole architecture course she saw offered, but dropped the course when she realized it was mostly focused on the structure of bridges and that didn’t appeal to her.  When, as a history major, she approached graduation, she didn’t have an idea of what she was going to do. Still, she couldn’t shake the idea of architecture. She found a pre-professional program in architecture and design the summer after graduation and finally felt at home. She worked at a small firm in Cambridge and decided to apply to architecture school, which she did at UVa with an emphasis on historic preservation.

At the same time, she met her husband and committed to a life with him on a farm in rural Virginia. As such, she needed to figure out how to make a life in architecture fit into that reality. She realized, in time, that she could marry the two and build a successful practice focused on rural residential projects while raising her own growing family from her farmhouse. Taking the time to listen to the rhythms of farm life, she began incorporating that into her approach to making spaces for others.

In this episode, find out from Julie how making space for people is often about much more than the structural components…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Julie Kline Dixon is founder and partner of Rosney Company Architects in Charlottesville, Virginia, specializing in beautiful rural residential work. She lives on a farm in the middle of nowhere Virginia with her husband and their three feral (but now well grown) children.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]

Guest Soraya O’Brien Jollon started her career in management consulting but realized that there were elements of corporate life that didn’t suit her. She also realized that she wanted to do something that made people happy and she was also a bit of a control freak. Enter event planning.

She found she liked all the things that make most people panic, dealing with other people's emotions and with the stress around planning stemming from such uncomfortable topics as family, religion or money (or all three). She started her own company in New York City where she planned cross-cultural and interfaith weddings, same-sex weddings, and more—all events for people with interesting stories and challenges figuring out how to navigate who they are as individuals and in partnership and with families. Yes, she was picking out napkin colors, but it was really all about building connection and negotiating inter-personal dynamics in service of celebrating life's highlights. At a certain point, she took a look at her own family situation and asked out loud how she wanted to be celebrating life with the one's she loved most deeply. The answer led her to an unexpected place.

In this episode, find out from Soraya how listening to what people need can create connection and lead to new adventures…on ROADS TAKEN...with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode's Guest

Soraya O'Brien Jollon is currently Chief Strategy Officer for Wedsly, a digital wedding planning start-up, where she can use her industry experience and not have to attend an event every weekend. For more than a decade, she ran the New York-based SORAYA weddings, gatherings and destinations. You can stiil find her work on her beautiful website. She now lives in Stockholm, Sweden with her husband and four children.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Email the show at [email protected]

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at [email protected]