Giving Thanks: 6 Key Moments That Changed My Post-Grad School Career

That's me, feeling grateful at a Javits Center event earlier this year. So many people have been helpful and supportive of my career over the long haul, but there have been a few pivotal moments where people seemed like they changed the course of things:

(6) Senate staff veteran Ellen Marshall mentioned at the end of a book club meeting whose ground rules included "no work talk" that she was leaving her job as Feinstein's education LA to follow Tim Wirth to the State Department and that maybe I should apply for her job;

(5) Journalist David Segal told a joke at a dinner party that made me laugh so hard I choked on a slice of pizza I was stuffing down my throat but then he gave me the Heimlich and I owe him much more than the occasional thank-you for doing that;

(4) Longtime Hill guru Trudy Vincent hired me as Bingaman's education LA even though I was coming off a disastrous stint working for the NYC DOE and came in applying for a health care job (and she already had an education LA on staff);

(3) Former US News health reporter Stacey Schultz bought me the book "Bird By Bird" and told me I didn't have to spend 20 years on the Hill and could indeed write for a living if I wanted to, and so I did;

(2) Former Scholastic Administrator editor Kevin Hogan brought my blog over from EdWeek to Scholastic (though EdWeek's Jeanne Marcarelli McCann took a big chance and Scholastic's Dana Truby and Wayne D'Orio have been great as well); and,

(1) Former Spencer Foundation program officer (VP?) Paul Goren helped create the Columbia Education Journalism Fellowship through which (thanks also to Stephanie Banchero's timely decision to spend a year at Stanford) I was able to write a book about the rescue of Locke High School.

Thanks to you (and many others)! If anyone feels like sharing their pivotal career moments/thanks, I'd love to hear them.