Sunday, August 30, 2009

Marty Speaks

I try in this blog to talk a lot about Marty, what she thinks, how she is doing, what her perspective is. At times I will try as I find the files to let her speak for herself. This little ditty comes from 2003 as she is starting a new career.

Bio Sketch -- Marty Kinard, Ed.D.

Once upon a time (1954) in a land far away (Dalhart in the Panhandle of
Texas) a child was born to two peasants who toiled in the fields from dawn
to dusk to feed their family. (Ok, they weren't peasants, but Texas
agriculture does involve toiling dawn to dusk.) The peasants looked at this,
their second child, and said "we shall call her Marty, for this means 'mouth'
in our ancestor's tongue." Marty grew strong and healthy and, living out the
destiny of her name, found both pleasure and talent in all things "oral."
While growing up, music and singing were passions, as was debate, and lengthy
conversations with friends. Given a bit of an adventuresome nature, Marty
learned to "talk her way" out of many interesting jams. While challenging,
the peasants found their child to be a source of humor and delight.

At 17, Marty left the family land and headed South to Texas Tech in Lubbock.
Continuing the oral focus, she majored in Speech Pathology -- and received
both Bachelors and a Masters degrees during the mid 1970s. During this time
she met a frog named Larry --- one kiss later (another oral miracle!), her
prince appeared and the two were married in 1976. The prince began an
"electrifying" career with Texas Power and Light. While Marty was "shocked"
by the number of moves required by the prince's career, she "charged" ahead
and followed him to four different regions of the land (Paris Tx, Muenster
Tx, Hillsboro Tx and Waco Tx). During this waltz across Texas, Marty
continued to work as a speech and language therapist.

In 1979, a male child was born to Marty and the prince (the child, Matt, is
now 23, a professional student who is currently a Teaching Assistant while
working on a master's degree in Mathematics at Texas Tech, Lubbock). They
looked at this child with favor and said "we shall call him Matt, which in
our ancestor's tongue means 'grow up, get a job, and support yourself.'"
Three years later, a female child was born (now 20 - Erin, a sophomore at the
University of Texas in Austin). Marty and the prince looked on her with
favor and said "we shall call her Erin, which in our ancestor's tongue means
'you have enough shoes, don't roll your eyes and watch the tone of your
voice.'" Both children thrived and have been great sources of pride for
Marty and her prince.

While working part time as a speech therapist and then as a college
instructor, Marty spent the majority of her time from 1979-1988 as a stay at
home mom to preschoolers, Matt and Erin. Alas, when the youngest child
reached the age of attending full time school -- Marty was faced with the
need to redefine how she spent a large portion of her time. (Woops, there
goes the ticket to the soaps, diet cola, and twinkies all day!) In a dream
three possible paths presented themselves as visions of the future. Marty
could get a full time job as a speech therapist (a path that looked rather
dull at the time). She could have another child (why push your luck here?),
or she could go back to school (duh,,, although not too lucrative, this was
certainly the most interesting of the three options). In that Marty was
living in Hillsboro Texas at this time, the nearest major university was
Baylor -- 30 miles to the South of Hillsboro in Waco Texas. Once again, the
legacy of her name prevailed, and Marty managed to talk her way into a full
scholarship from Baylor to pursue a doctorate in educational psychology -- a
fortuitous decision in that the family moved to Waco in 1990. The pursuit of
the doctorate in Educational Psychology ended successfully in 1993, as
attested to by the "Dissertation Circles" -- (those dark half moons under the
eyes).

With degree in hand, kids ensconced in school, and husband thriving in an electric world -- Marty began a full time career in the field of
medical faculty development -- the mysterious appeal of which is that no one
really knows what it means when you say you do faculty development in medical
education. The flip side of the mystery is that the job market for this focus
is pretty limited -- oh, say about 5 positions in the great state of Texas --
who is proud to cast all of its votes for the next president of the United
States.... (whoops, got off track there -- a few loose associations cropping
up here!)

Essentially, for 12 years Marty taught physicians how to be effective faculty
members in their respective medical schools or residency programs. In this
role -- Marty directed a nationally recognized year long fellowship program
which selected 7 physicians per year -- and transformed them from competent
medical providers to competent educators of future medical providers.
Marty's area of specialty was teaching effective one-on-one teaching skills. This is captured by the circuitous notion of coaching coaches about coaching.
In this area, Marty individually coached about 200 physicians as they worked
teaching medical students and residents in clinical settings.

In May of 2002 -- Marty left the 12 year stint in medical faculty
development, and began to look for a way to reinvent herself professionally.
Having successfully coached many physicians, working with deep pathology
seemed like old hat -- and Marty decided what she really wanted was a way to
work with people's potential. A short time later, a series of seemingly
random events landed her in a workshop on coaching. A couple of dollars later
-- she was spending time on the phone with a group of fellow
"seekers."

(----There will be a paragraph inserted here in a couple of years ---- )

As a successful coach -- Marty looked on her life with favor -- she said
"ah... this is good -- I have a group of new friends and colleagues, I am
doing something I love that has enormous flexibility, that provides a sense
of connectedness and satisfaction, and that produces reasonable financial
gain. I can now go live happily ever after."

And she did ..............

THE END

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