Rebecca Mitchell

BIO

I’m a visiting assistant professor in public health research and candidate for Georgia State House of Representatives. I have four children, ages 5, 4, 2 and 2.

Twitter: @rebecca4georgia
Instagram: @rebecca4georgia

Rebecca Mitchell

“I’m fighting to make sure our state is taking care of everyone else’s little people.”

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I am one of those people who speaks on the “alternative” career path panels that PhD students read as ‘not making it’. I did make it… just not to where I had naively imagined I would go. I’m a mom of 4 (5, 4, 2 and 2 yo), a scientist, and a politician. My career path allows me to work, raise children, and be a partner to a tenure track spouse.

I remember the day I realised we could not combine our children’s needs and the requirements of two tenure track faculty positions. I will not lie, I cried.

I was in my first trimester of pregnancy with what I thought was my third child, but turned out to be children three and four. I had turned down a tenure track offer from a university which had trained so many of my peers and mentors because I felt I could not manage moving countries, starting a tenure track job, trying to breastfeed twins, and navigating both a three and two-year-old.

I left my entire definition of self that day and picked up ‘mom scientist’, which now fits me entirely. The glory of children is that even when they’re really, really hard, they are still magical.

I now work 75% as a visiting assistant professor in nursing/computer science doing the public health research I love, and I work the rest of my daytime hours helping my little people find their place in the world. Since I live in Georgia, I’m also fighting to make sure our state is taking care of everyone else’s little (and grown) people by running for state house.