Hillary Hutchinson

For over thirty years, I have been listening to people's stories and helping them figure out their next best step in life, both in and out of academia. I have worked for a variety of organizations, from government to non-profit, to small business and large university institutions, and along the way have received three degrees: a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from George Washington University (1982)and two masters degrees from the University of Texas at Austin, a Master of Arts in Social Anthropology (1984), and a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration (2006). I made a conscious decision to leave a nearly completed PhD program of studies in Higher Education Administration when I decided it was not taking me where I wanted to go in my life.

In my own academic career, I was always interested in looking for cultural and mythical themes appearing in people's stories as they searched for their own answers to a meaningful existence. This can be especially difficult when dealing with major life transitions such as relocation, coping with parenthood, change of career (especially in the case of academics after putting in years to get to a place they thought they wanted to be, only to discover otherwise) and life-threatening experiences.