Roads Taken

Guest Jenny Land Mackenzie grew up in Vermont and figured she would likely return there one day. However, her college career—filled as it was with all sort of creative explorations and outdoor adventures—set her up to delve into one passion only to have it lead her to another passion. This began when her interest in the history of clothing led her to an internship at a museum led by a mentor who would ultimately spark a passion for organic farming. The love of the land led her to other gardening adventures which led her to teaching adventures. Teaching led to a break for her own schooling, which led to more teaching and the development of a family life. Passion for her family ultimately led her to create the type of teaching and writing career that fills her soul.//In this episode, find out from Jenny how planting seeds for tomorrow’s bounty can sometimes nurture your own sense of place…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest//Jenny Land Mackenzie lives in Vermont's Northeast Kingdom with her husband—with whom she teaches at St. Johnsbury Academy—and their twins. Along with having a soft spot for organic farming, hiking, singing and the history of fashion, Jenny enjoys the process of writing in all genres. She is the author of The Spare Room, a historical novel for middle grade readers, as well as the non-fiction volume Teaching Rules! 52 Ways to Achieve Teaching Success. In 2015, Jenny was the grand-prize winner for that year’s Reader’s Digest Poetry Contest for her poem “After the Death of Their Child,” inspired by the infamous Lindberg baby. The following year, she won another top honor, as her poem “Morning E.R.” was selected by the Telegraph newspaper as the winning entry in the poetry contest to celebrate Queen Elizabeth’s 90th birthday.

Read Jenny’s award-winning poem, “Morning E.R.” about Queen Elizabeth II. 

And to see examples of the homemade Halloween costumes Jenny mentioned, see this year's dragon and gnome.

For another story about being called to one thing and following another to find your way home, listen to our episode with Michelle Erickson Waters.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

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 Amel Ahmed ventured to college from an urban immigrant community and she spent much of her college career trying to figure out what was happening—academically, socially, culturally. She realized that she found comfort in embedding herself in the liminal spaces and really probing them, using the eye of an astute ethnographer and sleuthing historian. By the time she was ready to leave her undergraduate experience, she had a laser focus on continuing to study the Middle East and how ideals and systems of democracy could be spread there.

In her first semester of grad school, however, a professor made a comment about the very notion of democracy that took her right back to asking what was happening and how that informs the way you approach the ideas that are at your core.

In this episode, find out from Amel how asking the fundamental question of “what are we really doing here” is often the only way to know where we are headed…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Amel Ahmed is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She specializes in democratic studies—approaching the work from historical and comparative perspectives, focusing on both Europe and the United States. She is particularly interested in elections, voting systems, legislative politics, party development, and voting rights.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

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 Luke Brown had a long-standing desire to become a professor. Though both English and physics seemed plausible at one point, he was pulled into the study of history through a classics course. His senior year of college, he thought he had it all figured out: he got engaged to his college girlfriend and he was applying to graduate school. He ended up getting married, but he also got rejected from every history graduate program to which he had applied. He got back on track a year later, but ultimately let go of the PhD he'd thought he'd been destined for.

In pulling away from the program and academic life completely, he found himself in an identity crisis. He landed jobs that were enjoyable, but in a different field and not quite what he had in mind for himself. Of course, when he reflects on things—especially his wife of more than 25 years and three children—he recognizes that life isn’t all about one’s career.

In this episode, find out from Luke how adjusting your expectations and giving yourself grace to find a new identity can take a bit of time …on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Luke Brown continues to hone an eclectic set of interests and currently lends his talents to help organizations use technology to operate more effectively. While he's continuing to figure out who he'll be when he grows up, he is working on putting his three kids on paths of their own. He lives with them and his wife in Minneapolis.

For another story about career expectations being mismatched with reality, listen to our episode with John Strayer.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

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 John Peoples had never considered himself a science person, let alone one to follow the pre-med track. He had only a sense that he was independent and wanted to help people. After an off-term spent caring for his ailing grandfather and hearing his grandmother's stories about caregivers in their family, he began to reconsider a career in medicine. He returned to school and fleshed out his history major with pre-med requirements. With not quite enough time to finish and take the MCAT before graduation, he enrolled in a post-baccalaureate pre-med program in New York.

Not sure he wanted to commit to the long hours of the medical school and ultimate doctor life right away, he found a way to use both his growing medical interests and his Spanish language in a clinic in California. Ultimately, he set off to med school, perhaps later than most. And he found ways to incorporate his desire to work more directly with individuals, families, and communities in need of care.

In this episode, find out from John how listening to people’s stories and coming to understand people's needs can sometimes lead to your calling…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

John Peoples is a bi-lingual board certified pediatrician who practices at Central Oregon Pediatric Associates in Bend, Oregon. When he is not working with families to build a strong foundation for children’s educational, developmental, and mental health needs, he is likely off hiking with his wife, son, and crazy dogs.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

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 Patricia Herrera was on the premed path, happily thinking of herself as a STEM person. A chance encounter with Latinx theater in a freshman seminar led her to take to the stage and realized she loved it. She infused her science studies with healthy doses of theater opportunities but always thought of those pursuits as a hobby. After a term-long immersion experience with peers who were thinking about the stage as a profession, she received advice from a counselor: You don’t have to do what others expect but rather what makes you happy. She changed majors to theater and what would now be termed Latinx studies, and had to “come out” to her parents with a new identity as an artist.

As she gained experience in acting, directing, writing, and the academic side of things, she couldn’t decide which part of the theatrical enterprise most intrigued her. So she applied to graduate programs in all areas and found ways to keep active in the performing world while also analyzing that world in her academic studies. Ultimately, she found a landing spot where she could continue to do both.

In this episode, find out from Patricia how centering your community’s stories in your work can help you give voice to your own…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Patricia Herrera is a community-engaged artist whose mission is to create a more just world through theater and the arts. She is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Richmond, which has been her academic home for over a decade. Her teaching, research, and community-based projects explore the social inequities experienced by underrepresented communities, especially in the places that she calls home. Find out more about her work at drpatriciaherrera.com.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

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 Joseph Marcheso was six or seven years old when he found out that being an opera conductor was something someone could do. From that moment, he knew he wanted to be one. So going to an Ivy League school was somewhat of an insurance policy in case he decided to let go of his dream. When his dream didn’t change, it became a bit of a liability as it disconnected him from the musical world for a number of years.

Through persistence, he built the connections and skills that he needed by conducting at a smaller theater in New York and then participating in a master’s program in San Francisco. When he got the opportunity to conduct at Opera San José Opera he realized that he’d found the type of place he could call home. With that came the realization of other dreams that seemed even less likely to come true.

In this episode, find out from Joe how matching your value to someone else’s needs and vice versa can keep you content if you let it…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Maestro Joseph Marcheso is a world-class conductor most recognized for his affiliation with Opera San José, where he has served as Music Director since 2014. He has also been a member of the conducting staff at San Francisco Opera and boasts an extensive and impressive repertoire of over 60 operas. Though he still travels to many of the world’s opera houses, he lives in Berkeley, California, with his husband and their young son. Find out more about his latest musical adventures at josephmarcheso.com.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

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 Tiernan Sittenfeld had glimpses in high school of not only the grandeur of America's landscapes but also the degradation that was happening within them when she saw clear cuts up close. She was drawn to understand how we can best conserve these lands and the communities linked to them and took advantage of the first opportunity to earn an Environmental Studies certificate in college and take an international study program in Kenya. Those experiences, and a term spent working on a state senate race, made her see the overlap between conservation and politics.

She began her career as an organizer leading student communities and expanded into more general audiences, exercising her public speaking skills and community building skills along the way. When she needed to decide whether to pursue a law degree, she realized she’d found a place where she could grow all sorts of skills and tackle bigger and bigger challenges.

In this episode, find out from Tiernan how organizing and connecting with others can sometimes help you find your own voice…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Tiernan Sittenfeld currently serves as Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at the League of Conservation Voters where she has worked for the past 17 years, tirelessly advocating for sound environmental laws and policies to help protect our planet and the communities that are most impacted by climate and environmental change. She lives in Washington DC with her husband and two sons, where she has been named by the National Journal as one of the top 50 people changing the game in Washington.

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

For another story about making a career fighting for better environmental policy, listen to our episode with Kira Lawrence.

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

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 Cameron Turner had come to college with a full-sized drafting table and a dream to become an architect. He had to build his own academic program, augmenting his studio art major with an engineering minor and internship experiences at a variety of architecture firms. Going through corporate recruiting, he got an opportunity to work at Microsoft and figured it would be an experience for a couple years. The company sought his design skills, however, to help make its productivity products more robust and elegant and put him on a path within product management and user experience design and those couple of years proved to be longer than he expected.

After and MBA and a masters in statistics, he applied his skills toward his own businesses and pivoted toward the world of big data and AI. But his desire to remain close to the customer and approach their challenges with a design lens hasn’t changed from his days of dreaming of architecture.

In this episode, find out from Cameron how creating new worlds is sometimes less about what you construct and more about how people feel at home in what you build…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Cameron Turner is Vice President of Data Science for Kin + Carta, who acquired Datorium, one of the companies he founded. He is an executive data science leader, applied AI specialist, and serial entrepreneur with a track record of digital transformation and build out of new data-driven businesses. He and his family continue to soak in the sunshine in Palo Alto. (246)

For another story about making a career at Microsoft after thinking it would last only two years, listen to our epsiode with Keshav Puttaswamy.

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 Keshav Puttaswamy was excited to be able to dabble in the full liberal arts curriculum of college and found an interest in computer science. When he had the opportunity to intern at Microsoft in a rather new role of product manager he took it despite not knowing what it would entail. He ended up learning a lot about not only computer science but also how the business worked and had fun doing it. But it felt didn’t feel like a mainstream route for either a computer scientist or a business person so he thought about other roles in each field. Ultimately he decided to take the offer to work at Microsoft, but he figured it would be for only two years and then he’d get into something more “normal” in the business world.

Those two years turned into twenty when it became clear that his skill set was well suited for product management and seeing how the variety of projects he got to work on was vast. But the desire to change came again when he thought about providing his children the opportunity to live abroad, as he had been afforded by his parents.//In this episode, find out from Keshav how feeling years to be long or short is sometimes related to the pace of change and sometimes to how right things feel…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Keshav Puttaswamy is a near lifer at Microsoft. He spent the first 20 years there in product management leadership roles and currently leads the collaboration and workplace experiences there, helping to deliver transformational digital experiences for Microsoft employees that serve as a blueprint for customers’ own digital transformation journeys. During his family’s two years in Sydney he led the server and enterprise-focused data center products for Atlassian before boomeranging back to Seattle. In addition to the travel, Keshav also enjoys cricket, cooking, and cocktails. (307)

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 Suzanne Leonard joined the staff of The Dartmouth, but realized the pace of a daily paper didn’t give her time to spend with the stories or the words she was writing. A work-study job at the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine gave her a taste of a different pace that suited her better. A double English and psychology major, she found the perfect internship, working as an assistant at Psychology Today and left college convinced she would work in magazine publishing. Landing at Fitness magazine, she didn’t end up feeling comfortable with either the content or the paycheck. She took advice from her professor father that she might want to consider graduate school, applied, and found herself—and her people—in a master’s program in Wisconsin. Realizing she was better suited to write about magazines than for them, she pursued her PhD in literature and worked across a variety of media, ultimately concentrating in gender, media, and popular culture.

When she realized that the winds of popular opinion were blowing in ideas about what constituted “appropriate” curricula for schools across the country and particularly her middle-class town in Massachusetts, she realized that she her knowledge of critical race and gender theory needed to be applied to the debate and she ran for an open seat on the school committee in her town.

In this episode, find out from Suzanne how moving from doing what you know to casting a critical eye toward it can sometimes make more impact…on Roads Taken with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Suzanne Leonard is Professor of English and the Director of the Graduate Program in Gender and Cultural Studies at Simmons University. She is on the board of Console-ing Passions, an organization devoted to the study of Television, Video, Audio, New Media, and Feminism. Her recent books include Wife, Inc.: The Business of Marriage in the Twenty-First Century (2018); and the edited volume Imagining We in the Age of I: Romance and Social Bonding in Contemporary Culture(2021). She is an elected member of the Winthrop School Committee in Winthrop, Massachusetts, where she lives with her husband and daughter.

Mentioned in this Episode

Suzanne wrote a piece, "Knowing the Dead," for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine about her work-study job prepping class secretaries to write obituaries. Read the piece from the DAM archives.

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]