Pandemic and the Student Parent: A Discussion with Brooke Lombardi

The Academic Life

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In this episode you’ll hear: realities of the shutdown with two young children; the internal reckoning when things beyond our control force a change in course, timeline adjustments and impacts on research as well as lessons learned and finding beauty in life amidst deep challenges.

Our guest is: Brooke Lombardi, M.S., a social worker and Ph.D. candidate at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brooke researches perinatal health, specializing in the intersection of sexual victimization and the perinatal health care needs of women. Her dissertation is focused on the connection between lifetime experiences of sexual victimization and perinatal mental health disorders, such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety. She has co-authored papers related to perinatal health, human trafficking, and substance misuse in the perinatal period. Brooke is also a birth doula, adjunct faculty member at Elon University, partner, and mother to two.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. Dana met Brooke as a live-in Resident Director (RD) and Brooke was an undergraduate Resident Assistant (RA) on staff. They stayed connected after Brooke graduated, and over several years, a beautiful friendship unfolded.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

• Inside Higher Ed article: “Surviving the Pandemic as Grad Student Parents”
• The Chronicle of Higher Education article: “Covid-19 and the Academic Parent”
• Inside Higher Ed article: “A Double Whammy For Student Parents”
• Institute for Women’s Policy Research report, Student Parents in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Heightened Need and Imperative for Strengthened Support
• Interview with authors of You’re Doing it Wrong: Mothering, Media, and Medical Expertise (RUP) on NBN Gender Channel

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