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Navigating Your Path - S1E3: A Conversation with Beth Marlowe · Navigating Your Path

0:04
Duane Newton: Welcome to Navigating Your Path.
0:06
Duane Newton: I'm your host, Duane Newton.
0:08
Duane Newton: Today's episode was such a delight to record.
0:11
Duane Newton: I got a chance to talk to one of my very best friends, Dr.
0:15
Duane Newton: Beth Marlowe.
0:17
Duane Newton: Beth is the executive scientific director for infectious diseases at Quest Diagnostics.
0:23
Duane Newton: And we've known each other almost my entire career.
0:27
Duane Newton: We have so many things in common in our stories, and, uh, one of which we talked about today is the fact that we both were raised in military families.
0:37
Duane Newton: Beth's dad was a helicopter pilot during the Vietnam War.
0:41
Duane Newton: Her mom was a school teacher and, uh, it provided a lot of opportunities to experience some very unique things.
0:49
Duane Newton: And she talked about how, uh, her parents and kinda their perspectives on life really convinced her that she could be anything that she wanted to be, including an astronaut, which was one of her early ambitions She also talked about growing up in a rural farming community in Eastern California and how that helped her develop such a strong sense of community values and this really strong desire to help other people.
1:22
Duane Newton: She also talked about how her experience in industry really showed how we as lab leaders need to have business and communication skills in our toolbox, no matter what kind of position we have and what organization we find ourselves working in.
1:41
Duane Newton: We also talked about how as a relatively new employee at Quest, the COVID pandemic really forged and strengthened her leadership style.
1:54
Duane Newton: I hope you enjoyed today's conversation with my good friend, Beth Marlowe.
2:00
Duane Newton: So as I talked about before, it's just like we're having a conversation and happen to be recording it.
2:11
Beth Marlowe: I love that.
2:13
Beth Marlowe: Definitely.
2:13
Beth Marlowe: It's,
2:14
Duane Newton: yeah, I think, um, it's interesting having these conversations.
2:24
Duane Newton: I feel like people really want to have them, and then as soon as you say, you know, we're gonna do it for a podcast, then the vibe changes with people.
2:37
Duane Newton: And, um, the fact that it's, it's not just, you know.
2:44
Duane Newton: Us talking to ourselves, it's us talking to a bunch of other people.
2:48
Duane Newton: It changes a little bit, but I feel like the, you know, how we do the happy hours and the kinds of conversations that go on there are exactly the kinds of conversations that I want to have in this space.
3:08
Duane Newton: And it just gives us, gives me an opportunity to dive in a little bit deeper with you individually and, um, you know, maybe go on in some different directions.
3:24
Duane Newton: And, uh, and I feel like that allows people to get to know you a little bit better.
3:32
Duane Newton: 'cause it, I feel like one of the things that is super important and why I wanted to get into this.
3:42
Duane Newton: All of this kind of stuff anyway, was to build community.
3:47
Duane Newton: And, um, part of it is seeing how you see in the past that other people have taken and, and realizing that we all go through a lot of the same things.
4:05
Duane Newton: E even though the details are different and, um, the struggles that we've had and the questions about that path or ourselves that come up along the way are, you know, we are shared by others.
4:20
Duane Newton: You know, we, we've all felt those things and, um, you're allowed to feel those things and you're, and you're not less of a person for it.
4:30
Duane Newton: And, and hopefully through that, um, it gives.
4:37
Duane Newton: And people a little more confidence to find, find a path that's authentic for them.
4:47
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
4:49
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
4:49
Duane Newton: And then,
4:50
Beth Marlowe: Yeah, I think, I think what's interesting about what you said is, um, I think what it tells me is we crave that human connection.
5:03
Beth Marlowe: Like, and we just don't get it, you know, like we used to.
5:09
Beth Marlowe: That's why like face-to-face meetings are so important.
5:13
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
5:14
Beth Marlowe: Because when you go to a conference, it's usually the conversation you had in a hall, the hallway with somebody in passing is where you kind of get those nuggets that you walk away with.
5:27
Beth Marlowe: You know what I mean?
5:28
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
5:29
Duane Newton: That's why I started, I mean, that, that, yeah.
5:31
Duane Newton: The whole impetus for the happy hour was.
5:34
Duane Newton: Taking, you know, the happy hour at the end of the day, at the conference in, at the meeting hotel.
5:39
Duane Newton: And then you're sitting around bullshitting with each other and because that's the best part.
5:44
Duane Newton: And you know, those random meetings, you know, in the poster session or you know, getting some food somewhere and you run into somebody and I can't, you know, we've had those kinds of conversations innumerable times in those settings.
6:03
Beth Marlowe: Oh yeah.
6:04
Beth Marlowe: Oh yeah.
6:06
Duane Newton: And that's, I think, you know, that's where the relationships develop and, um, and especially for people early in their career, you know, they might see you at the, you know, see you walking through the conference hall or, you know, standing by a poster.
6:27
Duane Newton: But, um, you know, there's a little bit of that.
6:31
Duane Newton: Introversion or intimidation or in, you know, how approachable is this person.
6:37
Duane Newton: And so creating a space where, you know, we can be ourselves, our authentic selves and allow other people to see that and experience that, I think helps to create a greater sense of community.
6:51
Duane Newton: And then, you know, you're gonna be, you're gonna be seen as the real Beth, you know, not their perception of who you are.
7:01
Duane Newton: Yeah.
7:01
Duane Newton: And they know, they've gotten to see who you are and hear who you are and, and like who you are.
7:07
Duane Newton: And you know, they want to get to know you better.
7:09
Duane Newton: And, um, that's always, I think that's another, you know, a tangential part of it, you know, doing this is the postdoc program that I went through, created that kind of community be, or that kind of community was created because of the person that our director was and how she Oh yeah.
7:31
Beth Marlowe: You had Marilyn, right?
7:32
Duane Newton: Marilyn was, um, you know, she had that effect on us all because She,
7:37
Beth Marlowe: she was amazing.
7:38
Beth Marlowe: I didn't, I, I wasn't even her, like, she wasn't even advised by me, but the few times I interacted with her I was like, she is amazing.
7:46
Beth Marlowe: She, she's, yeah, she's amazing.
7:50
Duane Newton: So what have, have you seen, what, what is the transition?
7:57
Duane Newton: Uh, well, lemme take a step back.
8:01
Duane Newton: Let's start with, you know, how you got to where you are.
8:04
Duane Newton: I think that the, um, in University of Arizona and UCLA as a postdoc and industry roles and his first industry role in gen probe and working in a major health system in Kaiser, going back to industry.
8:28
Duane Newton: Now in a, a large reference lab, I, I think you've been in every environment except for the small community hospital, you know, out in the middle of nowhere,
8:38
Beth Marlowe: Jack of all trades, master of none.
8:40
Duane Newton: Uh, no, you're that
8:41
Beth Marlowe: be me,
8:42
Duane Newton: you're Jack.
8:42
Duane Newton: I mean, you have to be jack of all, we all have to be jack of all trades and master them all.
8:46
Duane Newton: I mean, I think that's, give yourself some credit, but, you know, the, that's quite, uh, a varied experience had, you know, I'm really interested in kind of even before that and
8:59
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
8:59
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
9:00
Duane Newton: Where you know, where you grew up and
9:02
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
9:03
Duane Newton: What that life was like and how you can even got interested in science and going down that path.
9:11
Beth Marlowe: Yeah, sure.
9:12
Beth Marlowe: Um, so you and I are both military brats, I think you know that.
9:16
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
9:17
Beth Marlowe: And so, um, anybody who grew up in a military family, you we're just built differently.
9:23
Beth Marlowe: Right.
9:24
Beth Marlowe: You know, it's like, talk about resilience.
9:26
Beth Marlowe: I mean, I, oh, I should have done this before the podcast, but you know, the number of times that we moved, right?
9:33
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
9:34
Beth Marlowe: And changed schools before I even got to high school.
9:38
Beth Marlowe: Right.
9:39
Beth Marlowe: But you know, when you're born and raised on military bases, my dad was an army aviator.
9:44
Beth Marlowe: He flew helicopter pilots.
9:45
Beth Marlowe: He flew in Vietnam.
9:46
Beth Marlowe: My mom was a school teacher.
9:48
Beth Marlowe: Um, I'm super lucky to have the parents that I had because my mom was always, I can remember my mom putting my roller skates on me.
9:58
Beth Marlowe: She'd sit me on the washing machine, she'd be putting my roller skates on me, and she'd say, you don't have to marry the doctor.
10:03
Beth Marlowe: You can be the doctor.
10:05
Beth Marlowe: You know, and my dad, who was this big burly pilot would say, you know, his words were probably a little bit different, but gosh darn it, you can do anything you want.
10:19
Beth Marlowe: You're a Marlo, gosh darn it.
10:21
Beth Marlowe: But he'd use different language and
10:22
Duane Newton: well, you can, you can say the real language on this.
10:25
Duane Newton: This is, this is unfiltered and, you know, gonna be pretty much unedited.
10:30
Duane Newton: And you know what?
10:31
Beth Marlowe: Okay.
10:31
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
10:32
Beth Marlowe: Because,
10:32
Duane Newton: you know, I think that being real is important.
10:35
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
10:36
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
10:36
Beth Marlowe: So my dad,
10:37
Duane Newton: no, it was goddammit.
10:38
Beth Marlowe: Is that Yes, it was.
10:40
Beth Marlowe: Yes.
10:41
Beth Marlowe: No, he was, he, my dad was, was so, so, you know, I have this like, interesting mix of my parents where my mom was, you know, really passionate about education and reading and making sure that every student saw their potential.
10:55
Beth Marlowe: And, um, my dad was just no nonsense army aviator.
11:02
Beth Marlowe: He used to say, everybody loves aviators in the time of war, but everybody hates us when it's not wartime because they're arrogant.
11:09
Beth Marlowe: Right.
11:10
Beth Marlowe: And like the two best times you'll ever have is with a cowboy or an aviator.
11:13
Beth Marlowe: And my dad was both because my dad came from a farming family in Blythe, California.
11:19
Beth Marlowe: And so, um, yeah, and sometimes I feel like I, I am very direct, but I'm honest.
11:28
Beth Marlowe: And sometimes I think, especially as a female, it comes out wrong.
11:33
Beth Marlowe: And where I know like my male counterparts could probably say the same thing that I was saying in the same way and it would be taken differently.
11:39
Beth Marlowe: Um,
11:40
Duane Newton: yeah.
11:40
Duane Newton: So I don't think I, I would go back and say it's, that's not wrong.
11:43
Duane Newton: I think that's you and it's honest and authentic and it's, you know, it's how other people perceive it.
11:50
Beth Marlowe: It is.
11:50
Beth Marlowe: But, um, but I get a lot of that from my dad because my dad was, you know, I mean, there was just no BS in my house, like in our house.
11:57
Beth Marlowe: Like my dad was like, you know, my mom used to say they're not your soldiers.
12:02
Beth Marlowe: You know, and, and you know, but I mean, he, my dad was great.
12:05
Beth Marlowe: When he was talking
12:06
Duane Newton: to you, he was
12:07
Beth Marlowe: treating
12:07
Duane Newton: you,
12:08
Beth Marlowe: but when he, when there was something to be done,
12:10
Duane Newton: yeah.
12:10
Beth Marlowe: Get your butt up and you go do it.
12:12
Beth Marlowe: You know, my dad, um, you know, my dad always taught me, you know, he was a pilot, so he'd always, you know, there's something I got from him was follow your passion and always show up prepared.
12:24
Beth Marlowe: You know, that's what I learned from my dad and I've always tried to take that with me.
12:28
Beth Marlowe: And, um, I went, I went off to school.
12:32
Beth Marlowe: Um, you know, my dad retired.
12:34
Beth Marlowe: We moved back to Blythe, California.
12:36
Beth Marlowe: It's a small, rural agricultural community.
12:39
Beth Marlowe: Um, my family is one of the original pioneer farming families in that valley.
12:44
Beth Marlowe: If you've ever driven on the 10 from LA to Phoenix, you drive through Blythe.
12:49
Beth Marlowe: Um, um, it's on the Colorado River.
12:52
Beth Marlowe: Um, we are considered the gateway to California and there's just not much out there.
12:57
Beth Marlowe: But I will tell you that the people out there are the salt of the earth.
13:01
Beth Marlowe: Um, I still have family members.
13:03
Beth Marlowe: I still own, um, a family ranch house that my great-grandfather built.
13:08
Beth Marlowe: I go home whenever I can, um, because.
13:11
Beth Marlowe: Knowing where you came from is super important.
13:14
Beth Marlowe: It was super important.
13:15
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
13:15
Beth Marlowe: When my mom passed away, um, that we kept the house and my kids knew their cousins and knew where we came from.
13:23
Beth Marlowe: And it's funny'cause we, we drove through Blythe, um, on our way to Tucson, um, last fall we were going back to the U of A for homecoming and we brought one of my older boys friends with us.
13:37
Beth Marlowe: And, um, we stopped in Blythe.
13:39
Beth Marlowe: It's always been a stop for me'cause it's halfway and check on the house, say hi to my aunt, and, um, get some lunch.
13:47
Beth Marlowe: And we pulled it down and, and my son's friend leans over and he goes, man, your mom got outta the hood.
13:55
Beth Marlowe: Like, it's just like, it, it, and, and, and my kids were really offended, which I love that.
14:00
Beth Marlowe: But I mean, it's just, you know, if, you know rural America's been hard, hit really hard, um.
14:06
Beth Marlowe: Hospital in Blythe.
14:08
Beth Marlowe: My great-grandfather who's one of the pioneer, you know, farmers out there, original farmers out there who built the house that I still own.
14:17
Beth Marlowe: Um, Jack was a cowboy, Jack Marlowee, he was a cowboy.
14:21
Beth Marlowe: Um, the hospital has on the, been on the verge of closing last summer, they closed all services except for emergency services.
14:30
Beth Marlowe: And this fall, um, the state had to actually step in to prevent the hospital from closing.
14:37
Beth Marlowe: And we're talking about a community that is 90 plus miles away from the closest hospital.
14:43
Beth Marlowe: And so these are the kinds of things that, you know, my dad would always say like, don't ever forget where you came from.
14:49
Beth Marlowe: You always have to give back to your community.
14:52
Beth Marlowe: You know, and you know, it's funny'cause you said you haven't worked in a rural hospital, but I've been approached before like, Hey Beth, maybe you can help us with the lab out there before, you know.
15:01
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
15:01
Beth Marlowe: It never came to fruition, but, um, but you know, ironically, you know, when you come from a place like Blythe, California, my brother was disabled.
15:09
Beth Marlowe: Um, and we had, um, several times take him to UCLA to get taken care of.
15:15
Beth Marlowe: And, um, at one point he just, he just, um, uh, he, he had uh, it was like an ms um, and he just couldn't really get in the car to drive four hours to go to UCLA to have his blood drawn.
15:31
Beth Marlowe: I called the lab'cause I knew the person that ran the lab'cause it's, I went to high school with her kids and I said, Peggy, is there any way that you can just have the phlebotomist draws blood and then I'll give you the address on where to ship it to UCLA.
15:48
Beth Marlowe: And she did it for me, so my brother did not have to drive four hours.
15:51
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
15:51
Beth Marlowe: He his blood draw.
15:52
Beth Marlowe: So I think these are the kinds of things that we forget about in terms of community and just taking care of each other and showing up.
16:01
Beth Marlowe: I mean, I've been a pa I've been accused of being a patient advocacy to a, a advocate to a fault.
16:06
Beth Marlowe: I'm okay with that.
16:07
Beth Marlowe: You know, we all, you know, we all have our flaws, some of them I'm okay with.
16:11
Beth Marlowe: And so that just happens to be one of them.
16:13
Beth Marlowe: So I, you know, every time I go into the lab and I see a specimen, I see a patient, I see a family, I see a graduation, I see a family dinner, and I remind my staff of that.
16:26
Beth Marlowe: Like every Christmas I get up and I give the same talk and, and remind them how important their work is and
16:32
Duane Newton: mm-hmm.
16:33
Beth Marlowe: How much their work touches people's lives.
16:36
Beth Marlowe: And even on the days when you're just so tired and you're frustrated and everything's going wrong and you feel like nobody appreciates you, the patient at the end of that.
16:46
Beth Marlowe: Specimen and their families, it means everything too.
16:50
Beth Marlowe: 'cause that test result could have so much of an impact.
16:53
Beth Marlowe: And so these are the kinds of things that shape me and drive me and drive my decisions every day.
17:00
Beth Marlowe: So, yeah, I think it's all really important.
17:03
Beth Marlowe: It it goes to your core of who you are.
17:06
Duane Newton: That's, um, it's interesting and there's a lot of parallels in that, you know, the impact that, uh, you know, military upbringing had on me too.
17:19
Duane Newton: Um, and it, it, obviously your dad, your mom and dad, and your extended family and, and your community, you know, the values and perspectives carried with you or your, have, have carried with you your entire life.
17:42
Duane Newton: And, um, have, and you know.
17:45
Duane Newton: Maintain an influence over how you've approached things.
17:48
Duane Newton: The, um, we didn't have, we didn't have that kind of connection, uh, in, in my, in my life.
17:58
Duane Newton: Um, the families were small on both my parents and both sides of, uh, my family.
18:07
Duane Newton: And, um, I, I never felt a, a connection to any place and really didn't see my, um, my extended family didn't get to know my cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles very much.
18:23
Duane Newton: And, and so that missing that, um, during my life was important, has been important for, um, for me to have that be something that my kids experienced.
18:42
Duane Newton: Even though in.
18:45
Duane Newton: Grandmas and grandpas are, are not, you know, in the same town and aunts and uncles and cousins.
18:52
Duane Newton: Um, I'm grateful that they've maintained, you know, developed and maintained those relationships.
19:01
Duane Newton: Even in, you know, the after, uh, aftermath of, um, my divorce, there's still, there's still connections to both sides of the families for, for the kids and, um,
19:15
Beth Marlowe: important
19:16
Duane Newton: and yeah, I think it, it is important and, um, but you know, on the flip side, we got to go to, we got to be in a lot of really cool places over the years and, um, got to experience some things that, you know, nine, 10-year-old kids don't, you know, most American nine, 10-year-old kids don't.
19:43
Duane Newton: I get to experience.
19:45
Duane Newton: So like what, did you have those kinds of things too?
19:50
Duane Newton: Like where, where did you guys live when, um, you were, were, when your dad was in the army, were you all always in the States?
19:58
Duane Newton: Were you overseas anywhere?
19:59
Duane Newton: Yeah,
19:59
Beth Marlowe: my, we actually, you know, he, did you live in Germany?
20:02
Duane Newton: I lived in Germany,
20:03
Beth Marlowe: yeah.
20:03
Duane Newton: Yeah.
20:04
Beth Marlowe: Where, where were you guys?
20:05
Beth Marlowe: Were you in Frankfurt?
20:06
Beth Marlowe: Where were you guys?
20:06
Duane Newton: Uh, we were, uh, in southern Germany, west of Frankfurt.
20:10
Duane Newton: So it was a little base, uh, in southern Germany when, when I was young, um, second grade through fifth grade.
20:17
Duane Newton: And then, um, at the end of my dad's career, he was in the Air Force.
20:23
Duane Newton: Um, at the end of my dad's career, they ended up going back, um, and were in the Frankfurt area for three and a half years maybe.
20:34
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
20:34
Duane Newton: Yeah.
20:34
Duane Newton: So I got to go back there.
20:35
Duane Newton: Everybody loves Germany
20:36
Beth Marlowe: that,
20:36
Duane Newton: yeah, it was, it was awesome.
20:37
Duane Newton: I mean, it was, you know, to be able to, you know, to go in a circle.
20:44
Duane Newton: At five hours in any direction, you know, the change in culture and geography and language and food.
20:50
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
20:51
Duane Newton: Climate, you know, was, it was just, it was incredible, uh, to experience.
20:57
Beth Marlowe: Did you, um, did you, did you speak German?
21:01
Beth Marlowe: Like did you
21:02
Duane Newton: Yeah, it's really, everyone asked me that.
21:05
Duane Newton: We, we spoke enough to be able, and I can still understand enough to be able to, you know, to find a place to stay, to find the bathroom, to read directions, um, to order, you know, I know the, the menus and the food, you know, the German, um, descriptions of different kinds of foods and so on.
21:26
Duane Newton: I would be just fine.
21:29
Duane Newton: And beer now.
21:30
Beth Marlowe: Well, so many people in Germany speak English too,
21:33
Duane Newton: so.
21:33
Duane Newton: Well, and that was the thing when I, we lived in a village, um, off base when I was a kid and all the German kids wanted to speak English.
21:40
Duane Newton: They were taking English in, in their school.
21:43
Duane Newton: We went to school on base and, um, with a bunch of other military kids.
21:48
Duane Newton: And, and so there wasn't any foreign language part to that.
21:51
Duane Newton: So the German kids were all speaking English, and so we didn't have any incentive.
21:56
Beth Marlowe: So this would've in the seventies, right.
21:57
Beth Marlowe: This is like, like, you know, kind of post, still post World War Two,
22:02
Duane Newton: like it was still kind of Cold War ish.
22:05
Duane Newton: Yeah.
22:05
Duane Newton: Um, before the wa the wall was still up and
22:07
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
22:08
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
22:09
Beth Marlowe: I just think about that time for us.
22:10
Beth Marlowe: 'cause you know, we're Gen X, right?
22:12
Beth Marlowe: And it's just, and I think about like our kids and.
22:17
Beth Marlowe: Everything that's going on in the world, and it's just, it was just such a different time.
22:22
Beth Marlowe: It's so fascinating to me, but I guess our parents were probably looking back saying the same thing.
22:28
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
22:29
Beth Marlowe: You know, it, I, years ago, I, so when I turned, I think it was, it was like my 40th birthday, I, um, my mom had, um, all these like eight millimeter video that she had, um, and she converted them to DVDs and she sent them to me for my 40th birthday and my dad passed away.
22:51
Beth Marlowe: Um,
22:52
Duane Newton: that was only a couple years ago, right?
22:54
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
22:54
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
22:54
Beth Marlowe: Like, like about two years ago.
22:58
Beth Marlowe: Um, my, when my dad, my dad passed away when, um, like two weeks before I met my husband and we just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.
23:06
Beth Marlowe: So he's been gone for 25 years and, um, and.
23:11
Beth Marlowe: Of course being the second child, like, I think I was in like this much of the video.
23:16
Beth Marlowe: I was like my, it was all my brother'cause he was the older child.
23:19
Beth Marlowe: But, um, but, uh, I was, I was, I was really tripping out in my head because at the same time there was, um, do you remember that documentary on Vietnam?
23:29
Beth Marlowe: I think it was through like the history channel and it was like a multier, like Vietnam documentary.
23:36
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
23:37
Beth Marlowe: Anyways, I started watching that and then I was watching this video, these videos of my dad and, and um, you know, my thinking about like how young my parents were and like my dad was in Vietnam.
23:54
Beth Marlowe: He got shot, he got, he, he got shot through the knee when he was flying the helicopter.
23:59
Beth Marlowe: He flew Huey, so he was the guy that would like go in, get the guys and bring'em back.
24:04
Beth Marlowe: And they were coming back and they, you know, started taking bullets and he got shot through the knee.
24:09
Beth Marlowe: Ended up with a purple heart.
24:10
Beth Marlowe: But he, like, he like went into pilot mode and he said he didn't even know he was shot until after he had landed the helicopter, which like, and he never wanted to talk about it, which I totally get now as an adult, but as a kid I was always asking him about it.
24:23
Beth Marlowe: And, um, but I was like, remember like watching these videos, thinking to myself, I mean, I was like to look back as a 40-year-old on your parents when they were in their twenties and what time was like,
24:35
Duane Newton: mm.
24:35
Beth Marlowe: It's just really fascinating to me to think about.
24:39
Beth Marlowe: I don't know, time is, time is a, a very, you know, it, it really, as you get a aging and time and looking back
24:51
Duane Newton: mm-hmm.
24:52
Beth Marlowe: Oh, it's in the last two years.
24:55
Beth Marlowe: You know, Duane, you know, we've lost my husband and I lost, you know, what was left of our parents, my mom, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, additional family members and friends, and, and then you start to see your kids heading off to college and trying to make some decisions, and you're like, wait a minute.
25:13
Beth Marlowe: Wasn't like, I just that kid.
25:15
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
25:16
Beth Marlowe: You know, and even watching some of these, um, young professionals that you have in the happy hour and some of the things that they're trying to navigate, I just, you know, I can remember being stressed about it and navigating it.
25:32
Beth Marlowe: And now I think to myself, why was I so stressed about that?
25:36
Beth Marlowe: Like, why it's all gonna be okay.
25:38
Beth Marlowe: You know?
25:38
Beth Marlowe: Like you don't have to say yes to every talk.
25:41
Beth Marlowe: You don't have to say yes to every.
25:44
Beth Marlowe: Chapter you don't have, you know, like be selective with your time and do it intentionally and just get everything on time and do it well.
25:51
Beth Marlowe: Like, but it's really hard to explain that to people.
25:55
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
25:56
Duane Newton: Well, it also, I mean, to go and to dovetail that into your decision to go into micro and kind of how that all fell into place.
26:10
Duane Newton: I mean, it's easier for us to look retrospectively and Yeah.
26:14
Duane Newton: You know, accumulate all that data and say, yeah, oh, okay, this is, this is how it should have.
26:19
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
26:19
Duane Newton: You know, it works out, but, you know, in the moment it's, it's not as easy.
26:25
Duane Newton: But, you know, to your point, I think the, you know, what, what we're trying to do, I think is help them realize some of those things sooner.
26:38
Duane Newton: Um, or at, at least pay attention to'em a little bit.
26:42
Duane Newton: Sooner.
26:43
Duane Newton: Yeah.
26:43
Duane Newton: And so along those lines, you, what were the, were, who were the people in your, in your academic life or the, the experiences in, in the ac your academic life that shaped and molded, molded you once you, you know, took the great leap from Blythe California to, uh, Tucson, Arizona
27:10
Beth Marlowe: and, um, yeah, so I, you know, I think I always knew I wanted to go into science or medicine or some kind of science.
27:21
Beth Marlowe: Um, I actually, you know, growing up it, you know, being Gen Xer growing up in the eighties, the time of the space shuttle, I wanted to be an astronaut.
27:30
Beth Marlowe: And, you know, I actually got accepted to college as an aerospace engineering major.
27:35
Beth Marlowe: Um, and I was gonna go off and be an astronaut.
27:38
Beth Marlowe: And, um, I, I also got into Emory Riddle so I could get pilot's license.
27:43
Beth Marlowe: And um, I remember my dad took me to orientation at U of A and I walked into the engineering orientation and talk about like, the nerdiest professors walking in, and I'm not joking, like the pocket protector with like, all the pens and guy comes in and like, had down to like the decimal point how many hours a week I was gonna have to study.
28:06
Beth Marlowe: And I was just like, like to my dad, I go, we're outta here.
28:09
Beth Marlowe: I'm going over to pre-med.
28:11
Beth Marlowe: Like, I'm out.
28:12
Beth Marlowe: You know?
28:13
Beth Marlowe: Um, but I, I mean I had really great mentors that steered me that way.
28:18
Beth Marlowe: You know, my uncle, my, my mom's brother, my uncle Ben, he was.
28:24
Beth Marlowe: Um, an anesthesiologist at Brigham Women's Hospital, um, did a lot of the groundbreaking work on local anesthesia on the heart.
28:32
Beth Marlowe: So he always kind of was a mentor to me growing up.
28:34
Beth Marlowe: And then in high school, I had a teacher, Mr.
28:37
Beth Marlowe: Copeland, he was our biology teacher.
28:39
Beth Marlowe: He's my freshman biology teacher, and he was the coolest guy.
28:42
Beth Marlowe: And, um, and, uh, he, he always used to like, we'd come in and we'd have a test and we'd all be nervous and he'd say, whatcha nervous about is your time to show off?
28:53
Beth Marlowe: Get in here and show off kids, you know?
28:55
Beth Marlowe: And he was like so stoked about any kind of experiments we would do or anything.
28:59
Beth Marlowe: And he was awesome.
29:01
Beth Marlowe: Um, ironically, like when I, when I, when I defended my masters.
29:07
Beth Marlowe: When I got done, I called my mom and my mom said, um, or maybe, maybe it was before I was defending, I can't remember now, but I called my mom and she's like, are you nervous you to be okay?
29:16
Beth Marlowe: And, and I said, I just keep remembering what Mr.
29:18
Beth Marlowe: Copeland used to say.
29:19
Beth Marlowe: Like, this is my time to show up.
29:21
Beth Marlowe: Like I could hear Mr.
29:21
Beth Marlowe: Copeland in my head like the whole time.
29:25
Beth Marlowe: Um, and then, you know, I found my way, changed my major a couple times, um, from to Biochem.
29:36
Beth Marlowe: Um, ended up on with molecular and cellular biology, that was my undergrad, and started doing research at U of A.
29:43
Beth Marlowe: And I think that's what's really great if you go to a university and you have an opportunity to work in a lab as an undergrad there, you know, for me there was just a ton of opportunity.
29:51
Beth Marlowe: So I actually worked in a couple different research labs.
29:55
Beth Marlowe: Um, uh, David Morton, he was, um, he gave me a, when my first job in a, in a lab and he studied, um.
30:06
Beth Marlowe: Um, like neuro, it was like neurobiology.
30:11
Beth Marlowe: And I remember I had to dissect the nervous cords of, um, these mos they were called sex manduka.
30:19
Beth Marlowe: And I would go in and I would, we'd give up different treatments and then I'd have to actually look under the microscope and like dissect these nervous cords.
30:27
Beth Marlowe: And then I was, we were labeling things and trying to measure pathways and everything.
30:34
Beth Marlowe: And I kept thinking to myself, man, there's got a way, be a way I can do this and be outside.
30:40
Beth Marlowe: 'cause I'm such a sunshine girl, you know, and I'm a farmer's daughter and I went and got a job with this gentleman, um, Jeff Silver Tooth, who was a cotton agronomist.
30:54
Beth Marlowe: And so my family grew cotton, um.
30:57
Beth Marlowe: And, um, he hired me.
30:59
Beth Marlowe: And, um, I spent a summer going from one end of the street to the other.
31:05
Beth Marlowe: Um, we had all these cotton fields, um, that they worked with farmers on across Arizona and we were measuring the impact of all these different treatments.
31:16
Beth Marlowe: So I'd go out and we'd measure all the cotton and we'd count the cotton nodes and, and ev and every two weeks I'd stay, we'd stay in Blythe,'cause Blythe is across the river from Arizona.
31:25
Beth Marlowe: And then we'd go up to Parker in Mojave.
31:27
Beth Marlowe: And, and, um, a lot of the farmers knew my dad that were on that side of the state, so it was kind of cool for me.
31:32
Beth Marlowe: Um, and then I, I worked for Jeff a bit, um, um, after that summer.
31:40
Beth Marlowe: And then I was applying to grad school and, um.
31:44
Beth Marlowe: I was taking a class at the time, which was state at the art at the time, um, called recombinant, DNA techniques where, you know,'cause cloning was ran, like that kind of cloning was brand new.
31:57
Beth Marlowe: I'm aging myself.
31:59
Beth Marlowe: Um, but, um, it was a, you know, 400, 500 level class.
32:03
Beth Marlowe: And there was a graduate student in my class.
32:05
Beth Marlowe: Um, and I overheard her talking about her program, um, which was this environmental microbiology program, which I thought, wow, that sounds super cool.
32:15
Beth Marlowe: And she said, oh yeah, you should go talk to my advisor.
32:18
Beth Marlowe: So, um, Dr.
32:20
Beth Marlowe: Ian Pepper, um, I literally was like, I literally had like five or 10 minutes before a class and his office was on my way to this class.
32:29
Beth Marlowe: So I just popped my head in his office to introduce myself and next thing I know, I had a fellowship to do my master's degree in Environmental Micro.
32:39
Beth Marlowe: He also, because I had worked for Jeff Silver Tooth, who was in the same department, was in the soil, water and Environmental science department, um, called Jeff Silver Tooth.
32:48
Beth Marlowe: And Jeff was like, yeah, she's great.
32:50
Beth Marlowe: You should really hire her.
32:51
Beth Marlowe: Which thank God that he said that.
32:54
Beth Marlowe: And um, and uh, and ironically, Jeff Silver Tooth once sent me this random postcard from black from, from.
33:02
Beth Marlowe: From Blythe, California.
33:03
Beth Marlowe: 'cause he was out doing field work and I, he sent me a postcard, which he thought was really funny, saying that he walked into the horny Toad Saloon, which is used to be a bar in Blythe, which had a dirt floor.
33:13
Beth Marlowe: And he said he walked into the horny Toad Saloon in Blythe and asked if anybody knew Beth Marlowe.
33:17
Beth Marlowe: And the whole whole bar turned around, which I thought was really funny.
33:20
Beth Marlowe: And he didn't sign it.
33:22
Beth Marlowe: So I was like, who's this random person?
33:23
Beth Marlowe: He sent it to my box, like at the U of A, and then I bumped into him at the gym once and he's like, did you get my postcard?
33:28
Beth Marlowe: You know, so it was hilarious.
33:32
Beth Marlowe: Um, but yeah, so Dr.
33:34
Beth Marlowe: Pepper said,
33:35
Duane Newton: I think I need to go, I need to go to Blythe just to do that.
33:38
Duane Newton: Well, the
33:39
Beth Marlowe: problem is I don't think it's open.
33:40
Beth Marlowe: I don't think that, I don't think the Horton Sal is there anymore, but I think it's just a rundown building.
33:46
Beth Marlowe: But I would show you a good time for sure.
33:48
Beth Marlowe: Okay.
33:48
Beth Marlowe: Um, but, uh, yeah, so Dr.
33:52
Beth Marlowe: Pepper said to me, um.
33:56
Beth Marlowe: Yeah, we have this, we have this, uh, grant right now going on, um, because it's called the Maal Bay Project.
34:04
Beth Marlowe: And basically the city of Honolulu was being sued by the Sierra Club because, um, the city was dumping raw sewage into the bay.
34:18
Beth Marlowe: Um, and it is illegal, but they, the city had found a loophole.
34:21
Beth Marlowe: So the city of the, the Sierra Club caught wind of it.
34:24
Beth Marlowe: They were suing and they set, ended up settling and in the settlement they had to study the environmental impact.
34:29
Beth Marlowe: And there were like seven different universities involved with, um, like studying the environmental impact of this.
34:36
Beth Marlowe: And we were one of them.
34:37
Beth Marlowe: And so our job was to basically track pathogens around the island to understand the impact of this sewage.
34:47
Beth Marlowe: Um.
34:48
Beth Marlowe: You know, the sewage dumping.
34:49
Beth Marlowe: Um, my project was developing a quantitative, um, e coli assay, which at the time we didn't have like, real-time PCR.
34:57
Beth Marlowe: I actually used an HPLC to quantify PCR products.
35:02
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
35:02
Beth Marlowe: Um, and, um, I, I went around the island to track like, and see if I could measure all the different, but like, people in my lab were like, you know, they were, and all this was like cutting edge at the time, right.
35:14
Beth Marlowe: They were fingerprinting, salmonella to see if, you know mm-hmm.
35:18
Beth Marlowe: They could track that, you know, they were, um, looking at viral pathogens and, um,'cause just because you pick up a virus doesn't mean it's viable.
35:29
Beth Marlowe: And so somebody developed this, um, integrated cell tissue PCR technique to try to measure, um, uh, infectious
35:38
Duane Newton: virus.
35:39
Beth Marlowe: Yep.
35:39
Beth Marlowe: Uh, you know, like, and like enteroviruses and stuff and, and.
35:45
Beth Marlowe: I was co-advised between Dr.
35:47
Beth Marlowe: Pepper and this and this other professor, Dr.
35:50
Beth Marlowe: Raina Mayer, which was like the, the best thing that could have happened to me because, um, I had, you know, to have a female professor who was starting her career and it's still a dear friend of mine.
36:05
Beth Marlowe: Um, and you know, at the time she went through a divorce.
36:09
Beth Marlowe: She had a kid in high school who, um, like whenever she'd go outta town, she's like, Beth, can you, can you go stay with Claire?
36:17
Beth Marlowe: And Claire was going through some depression and so I was kind of like a good person that, you know, could be a neutral person Claire could talk to.
36:23
Beth Marlowe: By the way, Claire is now an md, PhD, um, pediatric neurologist in New York City, and a total badass and married to another like, and married to an anesthesiologist, has a beautiful little girl now.
36:36
Beth Marlowe: I just recently visited with them in Tucson.
36:39
Beth Marlowe: All of them, um.
36:41
Beth Marlowe: But you know, I had this like amazing community that I learned a lot from these leaders to me, they, they as they mentored me and you know, Dr.
36:49
Beth Marlowe: Pepper was the guy that would come in and be like, kids, you gotta learn how to put the right spin on things.
36:53
Beth Marlowe: Like that's how you get a grant.
36:55
Beth Marlowe: Just put the right spin on things.
36:56
Beth Marlowe: And, you know, he always had some grant money going on, like he was, you know, and uh, and it was really cool.
37:04
Beth Marlowe: I got to go to Hawaii and take these marine samples and, and work with people.
37:08
Beth Marlowe: We would go back to the University of Hawaii and process'em.
37:11
Beth Marlowe: And there were people from, um, Florida and all these different universities we were working with.
37:16
Beth Marlowe: And what was really cool for me at the time is, and I didn't realize it when I was in it, and I think that's funny when you say that because I think this happens to a lot of people.
37:25
Beth Marlowe: But at the time, um, the program at the U of A was one of the first of its kind, um, because, um, they had developed this environmental program.
37:39
Beth Marlowe: The department had come become soil, water, and environmental science, and it was one of the first of its kind program, which actually was interdisciplinary.
37:47
Beth Marlowe: And so like I meet a lot of kids who just got their degree in microbiology.
37:51
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
37:52
Beth Marlowe: Um, and so if you look at my diploma, it says soil, water, and environmental science.
37:56
Beth Marlowe: But it, but I'm in the environmental microbiology track within that program.
38:02
Beth Marlowe: But if I don't put environmental micro, it confuses people.
38:04
Beth Marlowe: They're like, oh, she didn't do microbiology.
38:06
Beth Marlowe: I'm like, no, no, no.
38:06
Beth Marlowe: I did.
38:09
Beth Marlowe: I just did it along engineers, soil scientists and hydro geologists.
38:14
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
38:14
Beth Marlowe: And we, they put us together for these kind of, um, doctoral programs that solved real world problems.
38:25
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
38:26
Beth Marlowe: Which was really super cool because, you know, in some cases we were even dealing with people outside the university.
38:34
Beth Marlowe: That we're trying to solve the problems.
38:36
Beth Marlowe: And so when you have to think like that and work alongside people interdisciplinary mm-hmm.
38:41
Beth Marlowe: Like it was, it was an awesome experience.
38:44
Beth Marlowe: Um,
38:45
Duane Newton: yeah, that's a, it's a really interesting, um, point because I had that, that the outcome I think was similar.
39:00
Duane Newton: The, you know, the structure is, was different.
39:02
Duane Newton: Um, you know, you're, the program you're describing and the things that you were working on are amazing.
39:08
Duane Newton: You know, that that's a really, it is an incredible experience.
39:12
Duane Newton: I did my graduate work in a biology department and so, um, you know, kind of the parallel is, you know, you've got a couple of people, a couple of labs that are doing microbiology, geneticists, physiology en environmental.
39:31
Duane Newton: Science, behavioral ecology, you know, working with animals and, you know, squirrels and birds and fish and whatever.
39:39
Duane Newton: But it was a small department and we all had, you know, there weren't tracks.
39:45
Duane Newton: It was, everybody was together.
39:47
Duane Newton: And so whenever there was, you know, seminars, whether it was graduate student journal clubs or um, invited speakers coming from the outside, you know, it could have been about a million different things.
40:01
Duane Newton: And I think I, I think back to that time and being in that kind of multidisciplinary environment, it forced me to learn how to communicate effectively to people that know nothing about what I'm doing.
40:21
Duane Newton: You know, what it is that I'm doing, why it's important, and, um.
40:26
Duane Newton: Even, you know, like you're describing, how can I take advantage of or leverage the expertise that they have to help me, you know, in the context of, you know, the projects that I'm working on.
40:38
Duane Newton: And I think that that is a skill that, um, developed at that very early time in my career too.
40:47
Duane Newton: And I can look now 30 years later and see as a clinical microbiologist working in a hospital lab with so many, you know, at, in a very cross-disciplinary role.
41:02
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
41:02
Duane Newton: Exactly.
41:03
Duane Newton: Like you're describing how, how important that skill set is.
41:09
Duane Newton: And, and you know how it applies and I'm sure you experienced it, you've experienced it in each of your roles, industry, you know, laboratory, whatever.
41:20
Duane Newton: Uh, you've gotta be able to communicate and collaborate.
41:24
Duane Newton: Um, effectively across disciplines, build teams, you know, build strong teams, um, get everybody on the same page, leverage expertise and advocate, and, you know, all those things that come out of that.
41:39
Duane Newton: So that's, that's really it.
41:41
Duane Newton: It's really interesting that, that, you know, it's just another one of those things that we have in common in, in our background.
41:50
Duane Newton: It just kind of man manifests itself in different ways.
41:53
Duane Newton: But I'm curious, you know, you mentioned a couple of your mentors and, and, um, having strong female mentors that you, you know, admired.
42:09
Duane Newton: You, admired and guided you and set an example and showed you what you, not that you ever wouldn't believe what was possible, but you could actually see what it was and got support from it.
42:21
Duane Newton: Is that something that it.
42:24
Duane Newton: You feel like, you know, how, how frequent is that with your other women colleagues or people that you went to school with that, you know, a strong female mentor had a pivotal role in that, in you going in?
42:45
Duane Newton: That's a good question.
42:45
Duane Newton: Into the scientific realm because it's not, I think it's much more prevalent now to have, yeah.
42:53
Duane Newton: Especially in our field.
42:54
Duane Newton: It's very, um, well populated with females.
42:58
Duane Newton: But I'm, I'm curious as to, in your, for women in your, um, in your class, you know, your academic class in your age, how often was that part of the process?
43:14
Beth Marlowe: You know, I don't know the answer to that, but I do wanna make a point is that, um.
43:19
Beth Marlowe: I think male mentors are just as important as female mentors for, for women and men.
43:26
Beth Marlowe: Um, I think we get really hung up sometimes on, you know, female mentors versus, you know, and I'm not saying, I'm not saying that that's not important.
43:35
Beth Marlowe: I think it's uber important.
43:37
Beth Marlowe: Um, and I've been really, really lucky throughout my life.
43:40
Beth Marlowe: But, you know, somebody gave me some advice later in my career that said, they said, um, uh, find your own personal board of directors.
43:49
Beth Marlowe: Everybody should have their own personal board of directors.
43:52
Duane Newton: I think I told you that.
43:53
Beth Marlowe: Well, you may have been one of'em, but actually Darna, Tana told me that you've told me that.
43:58
Beth Marlowe: Um, and when, and, um, and, and I.
44:01
Beth Marlowe: I, I think it's super important because you should always have on one hand these people that you can call who will be honest with you, who will guide you, who, you know, they don't have any skin in the game, you know?
44:13
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
44:13
Beth Marlowe: But they're gonna be honest with you, and at least
44:16
Duane Newton: other than their desire to help you and, and
44:18
Beth Marlowe: Right.
44:18
Beth Marlowe: They're always gonna point you in the right direction.
44:20
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
44:20
Beth Marlowe: Right.
44:21
Beth Marlowe: Like, you know, and, um, and I think for me it's been both men and women.
44:27
Beth Marlowe: And, and, and that's why I was saying earlier to have been co-advised through grad school by, by Dr.
44:35
Beth Marlowe: Pepper.
44:36
Beth Marlowe: And, and, and Dr.
44:38
Beth Marlowe: Mayer, who by the way, um, um, had to hyphenate her name after she got divorced for a year to go back to her maiden name.
44:49
Beth Marlowe: Um, and so I remember that as a young graduate student, thinking to myself, note to self, I spent all this time establishing myself as Beth Marlowee.
45:01
Beth Marlowe: I understand, you know, when you get married, it's a personal choice if you wanna change your name, but I've never changed my name professionally because, because of that experience, watching her go through that, and she's a badass and she is well published.
45:16
Beth Marlowe: She's, I mean, she's just amazing.
45:18
Beth Marlowe: And I'm so luckily to, to have learned from her.
45:21
Beth Marlowe: But that was one of the things that I, I watched and I learned from where a man would never have to go through that.
45:28
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
45:28
Beth Marlowe: Right.
45:30
Beth Marlowe: And so I just think some of the experiences are different, but I think in terms of mentorship, I think having a male mentor and a female mentor are equally as important.
45:40
Beth Marlowe: They just have to be the right mentors.
45:42
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
45:43
Beth Marlowe: Um, because I, I, and, and I've, and this is gonna come out really bad, and I don't want it to sound bad, um, but I've always said I'd rather work for a man than a woman unless it's the right woman.
45:54
Beth Marlowe: I, I hope that doesn't sound horrible, but, um.
46:00
Beth Marlowe: Because I, I've had to work for some women that are really challenging to work for.
46:05
Beth Marlowe: And sometimes, and maybe it's a generational thing, um, because sometimes there's just some people that just get to a certain point and they feel like they're pulling up the ladder behind them.
46:15
Beth Marlowe: 'cause they got to where they were.
46:17
Beth Marlowe: It was interesting.
46:18
Beth Marlowe: I've, I've been doing this fellowship through Quest, which I'm really, really blessed that Quest supports career growth.
46:27
Beth Marlowe: Um, it's through the Center for Economic Development.
46:30
Beth Marlowe: Um,
46:30
Duane Newton: I was gonna ask you about that.
46:32
Duane Newton: So that is a Quest sponsored initiative.
46:34
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
46:35
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
46:35
Beth Marlowe: Well, I mean, a lot of companies could sponsor people to go into this.
46:39
Beth Marlowe: Okay.
46:39
Beth Marlowe: But Quest sponsored me for this program.
46:42
Beth Marlowe: Um, we have some people, um, some of our, um, executive leadership are, um, trustees at, at at, at cd.
46:50
Beth Marlowe: I actually didn't know much about CD until I got nominated to do this two year fellowship.
46:57
Beth Marlowe: And really the idea is, um, how do we elevate women into the C-suite?
47:02
Beth Marlowe: Um, and the, the second year they invited men into the program, which is, is great.
47:09
Beth Marlowe: The guys that are in it are great, but the access we have to, um, like we have a, we have like, we have CEOs come talk to us every few weeks.
47:19
Beth Marlowe: And it's, and it's just us.
47:21
Beth Marlowe: Like it's just the fellows and the CEOs having a conversation very much like this about how did you get to where you're going to, what are the things that you do for leadership that, that you, that, that carries with you?
47:31
Beth Marlowe: What advice would you give to somebody else?
47:32
Beth Marlowe: And to have that kind of access, to listen to these business leaders in the US talk.
47:39
Beth Marlowe: And some of them are men and some of them are women.
47:41
Beth Marlowe: And I can't, and, and I think throughout our career, a lot of us have gone through these leadership programs and sometimes you get something out of it and sometimes you don't.
47:52
Beth Marlowe: I have never in my career.
47:55
Beth Marlowe: So many times said to myself in my head, wow, nobody ever told me this.
47:59
Beth Marlowe: Going through this program just because of the things that I, that I've been hearing.
48:04
Beth Marlowe: And there's a book, if there's any women listening to this that I would recommend.
48:08
Beth Marlowe: I actually, um, sent, uh, sent a link to a couple of my mom friends whose daughters are heading into college and said, make sure your girls read this.
48:19
Beth Marlowe: Um, and it's called the broken rung, like a rung on a ladder.
48:23
Beth Marlowe: And it's all about, um, it's based all, it's all evidence-based and it's all about how like, women getting up to this, to the C-suite and leadership and what does the data show about that.
48:39
Beth Marlowe: And it was fascinating for me, like I, and, and I brought up on this and we actually got to, they had one of the authors come speak to us, um, and I asked her like, what do you do about women who.
48:53
Beth Marlowe: Maybe aren't always so supportive of the other women around us, you know?
48:58
Beth Marlowe: And, um, you know, the reality is, is sometimes there's men that aren't so nice to the men mm-hmm.
49:04
Beth Marlowe: Below them.
49:05
Beth Marlowe: Um, and maybe sometimes it just feels more acutely so when there's fewer women in leadership.
49:11
Beth Marlowe: Um, but I think, you know, at the end of the day, um, there's more, you know, I've been lucky enough to be around good mentors, but, um, the Broken Rung is a really great, you know, book about, you know, how do you get there and what are we, what are we not doing for, especially for our leaders in science.
49:36
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
49:37
Beth Marlowe: Because, um, about, I don't know, maybe it's been like two years, I got invited back to the U of A to give, um, the departmental seminar.
49:48
Beth Marlowe: From the department that I graduated from.
49:50
Beth Marlowe: And, um, I, I stayed with, um, Rena Mayer, one of my advisors.
49:56
Beth Marlowe: And, um, and I said to her, I go, Rena, you've gotta, you've gotta give these kids two things.
50:04
Beth Marlowe: They need a business class and they need a communications class.
50:06
Beth Marlowe: We are doing this generation a disservice.
50:11
Beth Marlowe: You know, the number of business cases that we have to put together.
50:13
Beth Marlowe: Think about it in the lab.
50:14
Beth Marlowe: How many times have you had to put a business case together for the C-suite, but nobody teaches that us.
50:20
Beth Marlowe: They might teach you like mm-hmm.
50:21
Beth Marlowe: Undergrad, like, okay, you can put a budget together for a grant, but that's not really a, you know, like a business case for the guys that are looking at the bottom line.
50:29
Beth Marlowe: And how do you go in and communicate them?
50:31
Beth Marlowe: Because we're scientists, we wanna show data.
50:34
Beth Marlowe: These guys have so many other things to worry about.
50:35
Beth Marlowe: They wanna understand their bottom line.
50:37
Beth Marlowe: How do you, you know, you only have so much time in front of these people.
50:40
Beth Marlowe: How do we communicate that efficiently and put together the right kind of business case?
50:45
Beth Marlowe: Have you ever run a p and l.
50:48
Beth Marlowe: Right.
50:48
Beth Marlowe: Like, have you ever run a budget for a division?
50:52
Beth Marlowe: These are the kinds of things that people are looking at when we are thinking like, why aren't there more of us up there?
50:58
Beth Marlowe: Well, mm-hmm.
50:58
Beth Marlowe: Maybe some of us have to get a little uncomfortable and get out of our scientist comfort zone.
51:06
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
51:07
Beth Marlowe: And really be thinking and working towards some of that so that we can have more seats up above.
51:15
Beth Marlowe: And so, um, yeah.
51:17
Beth Marlowe: I wish, I wish I would've, I wish I would.
51:19
Beth Marlowe: My, I undergrad, my, I had a split minor in math and chemistry.
51:24
Beth Marlowe: I wish it would've been, I wish it would've been business and communications, honestly.
51:29
Beth Marlowe: But I wasn't interested in business, in communications at the time I was gonna go be a scientist.
51:34
Duane Newton: You didn't think Yeah.
51:34
Duane Newton: You didn't think you needed it.
51:37
Beth Marlowe: And nobody advised me otherwise.
51:39
Duane Newton: Well, you know, it's, it, I think it's, um.
51:48
Duane Newton: I'd be interested in your perspectives on, you know, what you feel like has changed over time.
51:55
Duane Newton: But I, I feel like those issues, the financial aspects of being a leader and, and the, um, communication aspects of being a leader, uh, have become more and more central to the roles of, um, people in leadership positions in laboratories, whether that's a director or supervisor, manager, you know, you can be a leader regardless of what your position is.
52:27
Duane Newton: But that being able to communicate and, and understanding, you know, the advocacy aspects of your role is so important.
52:41
Duane Newton: And I feel like as just.
52:46
Duane Newton: It's really, really ramped up in the last several years.
52:49
Duane Newton: And, um, it, the way in some of the things that I'm, I'm working on from a professional development side and the way I've been articulating it is we, we have to make this pivot from being the scientific and technical expert to the, you know, as a leader, you're an influencer, you're an advocate, you're a manager.
53:17
Duane Newton: And that is a completely different skillset that we don't get, we don't get taught, you know, we don't get any exposure to.
53:27
Duane Newton: And, um, and I, I think that it help has helped me, um, over time.
53:40
Duane Newton: You referred to your board of directors, you know, and my board of directors have included people that have, you know, helped me along those ways, you know, to, to kind of fill in, I've identified gaps that I had and, you know, who can I tap into to help me, um, fill that gap for me.
54:04
Duane Newton: And, and, you know, sometimes it's, um, you know, my board of directors is a very diverse group of people of, yeah.
54:12
Duane Newton: Um, they
54:13
Beth Marlowe: should be,
54:14
Duane Newton: you know, mental health, physical health, um, academic health, you know, professional health kind kinds of roles.
54:24
Duane Newton: You what are, you know, who are, who are the kinds, you don't have to identify them unless you want to, but you know, who are the kinds of people that you have in your.
54:33
Duane Newton: My daughter calls him, her, um, her Avengers.
54:35
Duane Newton: You know, I call, I call'em love it.
54:38
Duane Newton: Board of directors.
54:39
Duane Newton: But you know, who are your avenger?
54:40
Duane Newton: Who are, who are your personal, your life?
54:42
Duane Newton: Avengers.
54:43
Beth Marlowe: I think I am like you.
54:45
Beth Marlowe: And sometimes I don't know if I realize they're part of my board of directors when they are.
54:50
Beth Marlowe: 'cause I reach out to them, you know, and whenever I get asked about certain things, I really like different perspectives.
54:57
Beth Marlowe: Um, and so yeah, I, I think I'm, I'm like you, it's like diversity, like I thrive around people who make me think differently.
55:08
Beth Marlowe: I love that.
55:09
Beth Marlowe: Like, like, like, and I'm not, and like, who challenged my thinking, but not in a negative way, you know?
55:14
Beth Marlowe: Um, but just put me like in like, get me thinking about things and give me perspective.
55:20
Beth Marlowe: Like, I, I like that.
55:22
Beth Marlowe: I love that.
55:23
Beth Marlowe: And so it's a lot of people like that, regardless of the subject.
55:28
Beth Marlowe: Um, well, I never thought about that perspective.
55:30
Beth Marlowe: Oh,
55:31
Duane Newton: mm-hmm.
55:33
Beth Marlowe: Oh, okay.
55:34
Beth Marlowe: So that's how I have to approach it now.
55:35
Beth Marlowe: Oh, I see.
55:36
Beth Marlowe: I see how they're, you know, I think, I think it's good.
55:41
Beth Marlowe: Um, I think we often live in our bubble too much.
55:43
Beth Marlowe: I worry about that with this generation I, and social media and other things.
55:48
Beth Marlowe: And, um, and, and we talked about traveling, you know?
55:53
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
55:54
Beth Marlowe: And the experience, like, like for me, and I was really lucky because my parents always traveled with us and were never afraid to, to go any place.
56:06
Beth Marlowe: And my kids have, you know, they've been to Europe and they've been to, um, um, well, at least one of'em has been to Australia.
56:12
Beth Marlowe: The other one wasn't born yet.
56:13
Beth Marlowe: Um, but, you know.
56:15
Beth Marlowe: They like, if there's one gift I can give my children is a gift of travel so that they can see there's a whole world out there, they can see that things are different.
56:24
Beth Marlowe: And then hopefully through those experiences they will be able to see that perspective adds value.
56:32
Beth Marlowe: And I think it's the same with your personal board of directors.
56:36
Duane Newton: Yeah, I think that was definitely a, um, my experience as a kid growing up in, you know, for three and a half years in Germany, my parents did the same thing, you know, by taking us around to all these places it, you know, including, um, you know, going to East Berlin when it was still East Berlin and, um, going and visiting a museum that.
57:14
Duane Newton: It used to be, um, a Nazi concentration camp that, um, was turned into, turned into a museum and, you know, it's powerful.
57:24
Duane Newton: There was, you know, obviously things that, you know, at nine or 10 we weren't allowed to see appropriately.
57:30
Duane Newton: Yeah.
57:30
Duane Newton: But, you know, I still remember, I remember those things and that perspective.
57:36
Duane Newton: It, it did give me and has given me a perspective of, you know, that we are a global, you.
57:45
Duane Newton: The world is the world and people Yeah.
57:48
Duane Newton: You know, we're a global community and we're interdependent and Yeah.
57:52
Duane Newton: You know, we, there, there is more to this world than, than where we live and the things that we do have an impact on other.
58:02
Duane Newton: And so I have, I, I do have that appreciation and I, um, it's interesting.
58:12
Duane Newton: That, you know, my personality is tends, you know, I want to be open like you described yourself to those.
58:23
Duane Newton: And it, it sometimes is, is very much a struggle for me still to, um, you, where I find myself going.
58:35
Duane Newton: I, I spend a lot of time thinking and working through scenarios and, and poking holes in, you know, whatever plan that's being developed in my head to the point where, you know, once I'm ready to present it, I feel like I've already pressure checked it, you know, and, and so for someone to tell me no, I was like, I thought I, it's of, you know, it's like I, it's not offensive, it's.
59:10
Duane Newton: I think I feel hard, like it's hard to hear because I thought I did a good job of, you know, thinking about all these things, you know,'cause I don't want, uh, I don't wanna present something that's not gonna, you know, that's gonna fall on its face.
59:25
Duane Newton: That's not gonna pass muster.
59:26
Duane Newton: I don't
59:27
Beth Marlowe: think that's natural.
59:28
Beth Marlowe: Right.
59:28
Beth Marlowe: That's, that's normal.
59:29
Beth Marlowe: I think we all go through some level of that and it's hard to hear a different perspective when you think you're right or you think you've got it sort of figured
59:36
Duane Newton: out.
59:37
Duane Newton: You've got it sort of figured out.
59:37
Duane Newton: Yeah.
59:38
Duane Newton: And because I think it's, it that's,
59:40
Beth Marlowe: but you're a thinker, Duane.
59:43
Beth Marlowe: like my older son, like he's my thinker and he really, you know, like he's doesn't always sleep well'cause he's thinking through it and he is, yeah.
59:51
Beth Marlowe: You know, he's my thinker, you know, and he worries and it's like, you know, um, but that's okay.
59:59
Beth Marlowe: You know, it's, um, it's okay.
1:00:01
Beth Marlowe: I still think perspective is a good thing.
1:00:05
Duane Newton: The, and you know, you kind of touched on it a little bit and you know, for, if I was to answer the question, you know, if I could go back to my younger self or talk, you know, if I'm gonna talk to younger folks that are coming up now, you know, what would I say?
1:00:24
Duane Newton: What would I say to that younger version of myself then?
1:00:28
Duane Newton: It's not from the perspective of would I change anything?
1:00:32
Duane Newton: 'cause I, I don't think that's a fair, it's not, I don't think it's a fair question and because I will be the first to admit good and bad and ugly, whatever has happened to me over my life, I needed to have happen to me, for me to be where I am right now.
1:00:49
Beth Marlowe: A hundred percent.
1:00:51
Duane Newton: A hundred percent.
1:00:51
Beth Marlowe: And
1:00:52
Duane Newton: I've learned so much from those things, especially now, you know, as I've gotten to, to this.
1:01:00
Duane Newton: Senior point in my life where I, I am giving myself the space to be reflective and appreciative and grateful and, and finding the, the positives and the growth opportunities and the learning experiences that happened from those things that at the time seemed like failures or, you know, huge obstacles.
1:01:30
Duane Newton: You know, if I was gonna answer the question, it would be, you know, try, try to see that more in the moment.
1:01:38
Duane Newton: You know, try to, try to find those, try to find those things, you know, what, what's the learning opportunity from this?
1:01:46
Duane Newton: Not, you know, how did I fuck up?
1:01:49
Beth Marlowe: Oh, yeah.
1:01:50
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
1:01:50
Duane Newton: And that, that's been a difficult, you know, I still, even now, you know, pushing 60, I still.
1:02:00
Duane Newton: Struggle with that, but
1:02:04
Beth Marlowe: I think
1:02:05
Duane Newton: that's
1:02:05
Beth Marlowe: normal
1:02:06
Duane Newton: being more present, being
1:02:07
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
1:02:07
Duane Newton: Yeah.
1:02:08
Duane Newton: I, some people handle it do better than others, and, and you are absolutely right.
1:02:13
Duane Newton: I do think, and, you know, I, uh, what's perseverate I think that's a, that's a good word.
1:02:21
Duane Newton: I perseverate, um, over stuff and I, I think being, being more present, recognizing what I have control over and what I don't have control over, and focusing on the things that I do have control over, you know, those are some of the messages I would give to, to my younger self and I try to give to younger folks now.
1:02:42
Duane Newton: And what, how would, how would that conversation go for you?
1:02:47
Beth Marlowe: Yeah, I mean, I think you, like, you hit the nail on the head with a lot of things, right?
1:02:51
Beth Marlowe: Is like.
1:02:53
Beth Marlowe: I think about it all the times I stressed over stuff and I think, God, it's all gonna be okay.
1:02:59
Beth Marlowe: You know, it's like if you, so I always tell my kids, so it's really interesting to watch my kids right now.
1:03:05
Beth Marlowe: 'cause my, my oldest is getting ready to graduate from high school making all these decisions about college.
1:03:10
Beth Marlowe: My youngest is going into eighth grade.
1:03:11
Beth Marlowe: They both have had their struggles.
1:03:14
Beth Marlowe: Um, my youngest has dyslexia, so navigating that.
1:03:19
Beth Marlowe: Uh, and he's amazing.
1:03:19
Beth Marlowe: He's just got this classic dyslexia, super bright, super athletic, super.
1:03:23
Beth Marlowe: We're all going to be working for this kid one day.
1:03:25
Beth Marlowe: Just wear a belt when you're around him'cause he will charm your pants off.
1:03:29
Beth Marlowe: Um, my older one is a basketball player, um, trying to navigate this and you know, for my older one, he had a really interesting journey because he had to deal with really toxic coaching.
1:03:44
Beth Marlowe: Right.
1:03:45
Beth Marlowe: And I think.
1:03:46
Beth Marlowe: If you're a parent, you have kids that have ever been in sports, we've seen this.
1:03:50
Beth Marlowe: But he had a really bad experience back to back with coaches and, um, had an accident on the court and, um, was taking the emergency room.
1:03:59
Beth Marlowe: Everything was okay.
1:04:00
Beth Marlowe: I've got a bunch of stitches, but he decided he was gonna quit basketball, just quit.
1:04:05
Beth Marlowe: I'm done with organized sports.
1:04:07
Beth Marlowe: It's no fun.
1:04:08
Beth Marlowe: They suck the fun out of it.
1:04:09
Beth Marlowe: And, um, you know, we said, fine.
1:04:12
Beth Marlowe: You have to call the coach.
1:04:13
Beth Marlowe: The coach never once called to check up on him, knew he was hurt, um, and he left a message for the coach.
1:04:20
Beth Marlowe: Coach never called him back.
1:04:21
Beth Marlowe: And I said, you know what?
1:04:22
Beth Marlowe: You just, the coach just told you everything you needed to know.
1:04:25
Beth Marlowe: But I always tell my kids, um, the best revenge is success.
1:04:31
Beth Marlowe: Just keep your eye on the roll, show up, work hard.
1:04:36
Beth Marlowe: Everything else is noise.
1:04:37
Beth Marlowe: The best revenge is a success.
1:04:38
Beth Marlowe: And it'll, and, and it'll speak for yourself.
1:04:40
Beth Marlowe: So this was after Teddy's, this was the summer between Teddy's freshman year and sophomore year.
1:04:46
Beth Marlowe: So he came to us.
1:04:48
Beth Marlowe: I mean, during this time he never stopped playing basketball.
1:04:50
Beth Marlowe: He was playing pickup all the time.
1:04:52
Beth Marlowe: He, um, start, I think he played on an old man's league that he wasn't even old enough to play on.
1:04:57
Beth Marlowe: Um, and, and he, he got on a club team and decided he was gonna go play a senior year.
1:05:04
Beth Marlowe: And we said, okay, well maybe you need to play summer league because it's really political.
1:05:11
Beth Marlowe: And he said, Nope, they don't want me, they don't want me.
1:05:14
Beth Marlowe: Showed up for tryouts in the fall.
1:05:16
Beth Marlowe: Team was already set in.
1:05:17
Beth Marlowe: The coach's mind assistant coach, he caught the assistant coach's eye.
1:05:22
Beth Marlowe: They said, Hey, you should give this kid a chance.
1:05:24
Beth Marlowe: Ended up a starter.
1:05:26
Beth Marlowe: On the varsity team, and they made it to the elite eight in their division, which was amazing to watch.
1:05:32
Beth Marlowe: And this, and, and, and, and I said like, and my kids make fun of me for saying this, but I said, see, the best revenge is success.
1:05:39
Beth Marlowe: You kept drawing your goal, you kept doing it, you kept showing up, you kept doing this.
1:05:43
Beth Marlowe: Right.
1:05:43
Beth Marlowe: And, um, you know, and so now he's had this amazing journey and he is trying to decide where to go next with it and potentially playing a junior college to develop and see where he can go with it.
1:05:58
Beth Marlowe: I'm so proud of him.
1:05:59
Beth Marlowe: But like, going through that was so painful.
1:06:02
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
1:06:02
Beth Marlowe: As a parent.
1:06:03
Beth Marlowe: And I think,
1:06:05
Duane Newton: did you want to, you like, your, your inclination is to fix it for him,
1:06:10
Beth Marlowe: um,
1:06:11
Duane Newton: or protect him.
1:06:12
Beth Marlowe: I, I don't like you wanna protect your kids, but you also wanna let them know like, I.
1:06:18
Beth Marlowe: Hey, it's gonna be okay.
1:06:20
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:06:20
Beth Marlowe: And I think the same thing, like going through some of the trials and tribulations of my career are very similar, right?
1:06:28
Beth Marlowe: I mean, the, there I got rejected, you know?
1:06:31
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:06:31
Beth Marlowe: I didn't always, I wasn't the, you know, I wasn't the star student in some of my classes.
1:06:38
Beth Marlowe: I was persistent.
1:06:40
Beth Marlowe: I showed up, I prepared, I kept my eye on my goal.
1:06:45
Beth Marlowe: You know, I know people that were way smarter than me that didn't finish their PhDs.
1:06:49
Beth Marlowe: You know, I know people that were way smarter than me that could never navigate dealing with business people.
1:06:55
Beth Marlowe: But you know, I, you know, I had, you know, some not so great people I had to work with and I changed jobs.
1:07:02
Beth Marlowe: Um, but you know what?
1:07:04
Beth Marlowe: I was true to myself, true to my brand.
1:07:07
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
1:07:08
Beth Marlowe: Which is me.
1:07:09
Beth Marlowe: You know that I always remind people like, you can go work for any company you want to, but be your own brand.
1:07:15
Beth Marlowe: Because when you walk out the door.
1:07:18
Beth Marlowe: That brand goes with you, those connections go with you.
1:07:21
Beth Marlowe: So it, it just goes back to the same thing.
1:07:23
Beth Marlowe: It's the best revenge of success.
1:07:24
Beth Marlowe: Be your own brand and always remember that as you're navigating through this, because relationships are key.
1:07:31
Beth Marlowe: Consistency is key.
1:07:34
Beth Marlowe: Persistence and perseverance is key.
1:07:36
Beth Marlowe: And showing up on time, putting in the work, it all pays off.
1:07:42
Beth Marlowe: And, you know, trying to explain that to my kids and getting them to understand it, you have to experience it, right?
1:07:50
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:07:50
Beth Marlowe: And when I was younger, I was impatient.
1:07:53
Beth Marlowe: I overthought things.
1:07:55
Beth Marlowe: I maybe didn't have the same level of confidence, you know?
1:07:58
Beth Marlowe: And I look back now where I am and I think, you know, and you know, it's, it, it all worked out
1:08:06
Duane Newton: okay.
1:08:07
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:08:08
Duane Newton: So then you created that kind of, you created a space where.
1:08:13
Duane Newton: You were there, you know, supporting, you know, there's a, there were safety nets around him that he felt comfortable taking that risk and putting himself in that position because it is a risk to say, I'm gonna do that.
1:08:28
Duane Newton: And, and I think it, that mentality, um, that supportive mentality and that coaching, you know, it, it's kind of a coach.
1:08:45
Duane Newton: You're being a parent, you're being a great parent.
1:08:48
Duane Newton: Um, but that kind of philosophy in coaching and mentoring and advising and supporting and sponsoring your team in your workplace, it's, it's the same kind of
1:08:58
Beth Marlowe: mm-hmm.
1:08:59
Duane Newton: You're creating the same kind of safe place for'em.
1:09:02
Duane Newton: And I think that, that, can you talk about that?
1:09:07
Duane Newton: You know, sort of trans,
1:09:09
Beth Marlowe: like
1:09:09
Duane Newton: translating that experience to, you know, what, what you feel like is important in, in your leadership roles and, and
1:09:19
Beth Marlowe: yeah.
1:09:19
Duane Newton: What's been successful for you?
1:09:21
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
1:09:22
Beth Marlowe: Um, I think, you know, like COVID is a great example, right?
1:09:27
Beth Marlowe: I mean, I, I was working for Roche Diagnostics.
1:09:32
Beth Marlowe: Um, I got approached by Quest, asked if I'd ever wanna come back to the lab.
1:09:37
Beth Marlowe: Um, didn't realize at the time they were working, looking for somebody for succession planning.
1:09:41
Beth Marlowe: I came in in June of 2019.
1:09:45
Beth Marlowe: My predecessor retired December 31st, 2019.
1:09:49
Beth Marlowe: Two weeks later we were working on COVID.
1:09:51
Beth Marlowe: I'd been in the company six months, right?
1:09:54
Beth Marlowe: And.
1:09:55
Beth Marlowe: We had the, you know, we did a ton of COVID testing, right?
1:10:00
Beth Marlowe: I was, I mean, like, like my husband's like, you should write a book about that experience.
1:10:03
Beth Marlowe: And I know we all have our experiences, but when you're working for a company like Quest, that's that big, you know, getting, you know, emails and calls from the White House and being scrutinized for everything and the amount of work we did.
1:10:17
Beth Marlowe: And I remember like, when this whole thing started, I was like, okay.
1:10:21
Beth Marlowe: You know, um, I was, I, I was in there every day alongside the staff.
1:10:26
Beth Marlowe: 'cause you can't lead a team of scientists and not be there.
1:10:29
Beth Marlowe: Um, I I, everybody would start to worry and get ahead of themselves and, and yes, I had my own share of like, worries.
1:10:37
Beth Marlowe: But I would just say, you know what, step one, we have to finish this.
1:10:42
Beth Marlowe: I'll worry about step two and three and four later, but let's get through step one.
1:10:46
Beth Marlowe: And I would always say to them like, okay, but have we gotten through step one, we'll get to step two.
1:10:51
Beth Marlowe: Later, well, let's finish step one, because they kept coming to us and saying, you know, we did six months of work in six weeks.
1:10:58
Beth Marlowe: And then they'd say, do it again, but we need to do it faster.
1:11:00
Beth Marlowe: And the, you know, the team was a team and you know, there was times I would go in and say, what, how do you want me to sort specimens?
1:11:09
Beth Marlowe: I would sort samples for them.
1:11:10
Beth Marlowe: I would label something and I would go in and get on a call with like the executive team, because that's what you do.
1:11:15
Beth Marlowe: That's, that's part of showing up, that's part of being a team.
1:11:18
Beth Marlowe: But also just reminding people like kinda what you're saying.
1:11:21
Beth Marlowe: It's like, be present, focus on your task.
1:11:24
Beth Marlowe: And, and the other thing, and, and some of this also came from our CMO at the time, Jay Wilmuth.
1:11:29
Beth Marlowe: 'cause I remember he came in and he is like, look, you know, this is, this is like your super bowl of like from a microbiology perspective and you're gonna make mistakes and that's okay.
1:11:44
Beth Marlowe: You gotta just keep moving.
1:11:47
Beth Marlowe: And I kept reminding the staff is like, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna move fast.
1:11:51
Beth Marlowe: We're gonna make mistakes and we're gonna move past them.
1:11:53
Beth Marlowe: 'cause we can't, we just don't have time.
1:11:55
Beth Marlowe: And I think people really appreciated that.
1:11:57
Beth Marlowe: You know, they appreciated that I put a lab coat on and was in there with them.
1:12:01
Beth Marlowe: They appreciated that.
1:12:02
Beth Marlowe: You know, I was honest with them.
1:12:04
Beth Marlowe: And, you know, there were days that I had bad days and mm-hmm.
1:12:08
Beth Marlowe: We leaned on each other.
1:12:09
Beth Marlowe: Like, um, I remember one time they asked me to do this calculation.
1:12:13
Beth Marlowe: We were calculating like, oligo, like how many oligos we needed.
1:12:16
Beth Marlowe: And I was like, dear God, I haven't done a calculation like this since I was in grad school.
1:12:20
Beth Marlowe: I, I missed the calculation up.
1:12:23
Beth Marlowe: I'm gonna like miscalculate how much?
1:12:26
Beth Marlowe: And like, I was like, I remember I like grabbed one of the scientists, was like, you gotta help me check this.
1:12:29
Beth Marlowe: Calculate, you know, but like.
1:12:32
Beth Marlowe: You know, it sounds funny at like now, but I'm like, when's the last time I had to calculate like oli oils and like nan or, or something?
1:12:38
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:12:38
Beth Marlowe: Like, I mean like yeah, I know there's like online calculators and stuff, but it was just funny because I hadn't had to do a calculation like that in a, in a really long time.
1:12:46
Beth Marlowe: I just needed somebody to check my math, but we were there for each other.
1:12:50
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:12:50
Beth Marlowe: And I think, you know, I think doing that and, and reminding people, like I think, you know, for a lot of young people moving up in their career, especially in science, um, it's easy to wanna make sure you're the smartest person in the room or like show that you're the smartest person in the room or, but really it's not about that, right?
1:13:11
Beth Marlowe: It's about making the room your in smarter, right?
1:13:14
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:13:14
Beth Marlowe: And how do we do that?
1:13:16
Beth Marlowe: Um, and I think translating that as you move up and working interdisciplinary.
1:13:23
Beth Marlowe: In an interdisciplinary fashion across teams.
1:13:26
Beth Marlowe: It's really important.
1:13:27
Beth Marlowe: And that goes back to that communication piece.
1:13:30
Beth Marlowe: Um,
1:13:30
Duane Newton: yeah, the, the, the important part of that that, you know, I'm really working on and want to help, I wanna get better at it and I wanna help other people get better at it too, is making sure that everybody's voice is heard and that the, the, there are, there are lots of voices in the room that need to be heard and f and figuring out how to access that.
1:14:01
Duane Newton: And, um, hard
1:14:02
Beth Marlowe: it,
1:14:03
Duane Newton: it is, I, I remember, um, you know, a failure of mine, it during COVID that it had turned into a learning opportunity and, and a growth opportunity.
1:14:15
Duane Newton: We had to, um, we were using, um, the.
1:14:21
Duane Newton: m2000s for the COVID testing.
1:14:26
Duane Newton: Once everything, you know, once the EUAs came out and, uh, we had to aliquot samples, the techs had to aliquot samples from the primary tube into the, the tubes that went onto the instrument.
1:14:39
Duane Newton: And we made a decision from a biosafety standpoint to heat inactivate those in the biosafety cabinet before we put them on the instrument.
1:14:47
Duane Newton: So, um, that was, you know, there was some conversa, this was early and there was some conversation about, you know, how to, how to handle samples safely.
1:15:00
Duane Newton: Um, you know, whether or not it was appropriate to have inactivated samples on the instrument, whatever.
1:15:08
Duane Newton: So we did that.
1:15:09
Beth Marlowe: I, I had, I had similar conversations,
1:15:11
Duane Newton: so we we're doing this, we implement it, you know, and trying to keep the, you know, the health and safety of the staff.
1:15:21
Duane Newton: At the front of our mind,
1:15:22
Beth Marlowe: of course.
1:15:23
Duane Newton: And you know, that first week we were getting like 10, 15, 20% in inhibition rate because all the albumin in the transport media was coagulating and gumming up the instrument.
1:15:39
Duane Newton: And so we, you know, after a few days of doing this, we, we kind of figured out what that that was a likely issue.
1:15:52
Duane Newton: And I just pulled the team together and I talked about, you know, this is what's happening.
1:15:58
Duane Newton: This is why it's hap why we think it's happening.
1:16:01
Duane Newton: Um, this is what the, you know, the future impact is gonna be if we keep letting it happen.
1:16:07
Duane Newton: You know, how, how comfortable do you all feel with not inactivating it and, and handling'em just like every other specimen that we handle and using the same.
1:16:19
Duane Newton: Precautions and you know, that we hand, you know, we handle our HIV viral loads with mm-hmm.
1:16:25
Duane Newton: And all that other stuff, you know, and so the just kind of standing up, you know, I thought it was important as they look back on it to say, I don't think, you know, I made this decision based on the best information that we had and, you know, it turns out to not work very well and we have to do something different.
1:16:54
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
1:16:54
Duane Newton: But I wanna make sure that you guys are all comfortable with it and, and, you know, we talked about it and, and they were unanimous.
1:17:02
Duane Newton: And, and, and I think, you know, having that kind of, um,
1:17:10
Beth Marlowe: dialogue,
1:17:10
Duane Newton: you right, you, you, you said it, you don't have to be, you don't have to be or pretend to be the smartest person in the room, right.
1:17:19
Duane Newton: I don't, I don't know.
1:17:20
Duane Newton: I'm not sure, but this is what I think.
1:17:23
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
1:17:23
Duane Newton: You know, what do you guys think?
1:17:24
Duane Newton: And
1:17:25
Beth Marlowe: yeah.
1:17:26
Duane Newton: And I think that that's, um, that's something that I think is really important for folks in our position to help create that space, that psychologically safe space, because then that those people are gonna feel comfortable coming up to you and saying, you know, I think this, or
1:17:50
Beth Marlowe: mm-hmm.
1:17:51
Beth Marlowe: You know?
1:17:51
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:17:51
Duane Newton: I understand where you're coming from, but this is another way to look at it and
1:17:55
Beth Marlowe: mm-hmm.
1:17:55
Duane Newton: Um, and not for whatever reason, you know, it takes, it takes a while to develop that kind of a relationship with people.
1:18:07
Duane Newton: But yeah.
1:18:09
Duane Newton: COVID
1:18:09
Beth Marlowe: yeah,
1:18:10
Duane Newton: forced us, forced us to, you know, forced a lot of things to happen and it, it forced me to figure out how to.
1:18:18
Duane Newton: To do things differently as a leader too.
1:18:20
Duane Newton: And that was one of them.
1:18:22
Beth Marlowe: But I think even like outside of COVID, you know, relationships are everything.
1:18:28
Beth Marlowe: Um, the relationships that you have people with people both internal to your organization and out outside of your organization, even like in your personal life, like relationships.
1:18:38
Beth Marlowe: Those relationships, you build that trust, you build with people.
1:18:42
Beth Marlowe: Like you and I both know, we could probably name the same people that we would call if we needed, you know, advice or guidance on something or a problem or whatever.
1:18:53
Beth Marlowe: We could, we, we know, right?
1:18:55
Duane Newton: Well, we're talking to them right now,
1:18:59
Beth Marlowe: my friend, but.
1:19:01
Beth Marlowe: You know what I'm saying is mm-hmm.
1:19:03
Beth Marlowe: And, and, and that relationship goes back to the people that you're leading.
1:19:07
Beth Marlowe: Right.
1:19:08
Beth Marlowe: And, um, it's all about relationships, um, and what you can get done.
1:19:13
Beth Marlowe: I had a similar experience with like the biosafety stuff.
1:19:15
Beth Marlowe: I remember we were about to go live with testing and I did not sleep well all night.
1:19:22
Beth Marlowe: And I kept, and I, I woke up in the middle of the night worried about biosafety.
1:19:27
Beth Marlowe: I remember sitting up in bed and then I like called one of those people that I trust on my way into work who didn't work for us and asked their opinion.
1:19:35
Beth Marlowe: And I got to work and I was like, you know, got all the team together and I was like, guys, guys, I'm really, I don't think we thought about some of this stuff.
1:19:43
Beth Marlowe: 'cause I was so, like, so concerned about the safety and wellbeing of my staff first and foremost.
1:19:49
Beth Marlowe: Mm-hmm.
1:19:50
Beth Marlowe: And, um, but we worked through it.
1:19:51
Beth Marlowe: Right.
1:19:52
Beth Marlowe: And, you know, we had, you know, we actually did really, really well.
1:19:55
Beth Marlowe: Well but that, you know, like.
1:19:59
Beth Marlowe: That those, those conversations are so important.
1:20:02
Beth Marlowe: It's so funny that you had the same experience mm-hmm.
1:20:04
Beth Marlowe: That I did.
1:20:05
Duane Newton: Mm-hmm.
1:20:06
Duane Newton: Uh, I think, you know, the, what you just said is a nice way to wrap things up about, um, you know, the relationships are everything.
1:20:21
Duane Newton: And I, I really feel like, um, that was the biggest thing that I took away from, from my clinical micro fellowship and the experience that I had with in Marilyn as a mentor.
1:20:38
Duane Newton: The, the community, the family of former fellows, um, that you, we were instantly, um.
1:20:51
Duane Newton: Brothers and sisters in arms with, you know, by going through that program and realizing that not everybody had that same kind of experience.
1:20:59
Duane Newton: You know, there, there are a lot of programs that, you know, there's, there's a, there's a connection.
1:21:07
Duane Newton: Connection is maintained, you know, the UCLA fellows know the UCLA fellows.
1:21:11
Duane Newton: I was
1:21:11
Beth Marlowe: just gonna say, I went through UCLA and I feel the same way about the UCLA fellows.
1:21:16
Beth Marlowe: Doesn't matter what year you graduated,
1:21:17
Duane Newton: right?
1:21:18
Duane Newton: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:21:19
Beth Marlowe: And that,
1:21:20
Duane Newton: um, the, I, I think that's, that's a special thing and you know, that has had a huge influence on me in, in my career.
1:21:37
Duane Newton: And, um, I hope that things like this are ways to bring that kind of energy to other people that in might not have had that same kind of experience and that.
1:21:50
Duane Newton: You're getting to, to meet you and listen to us talk about stuff that, you know, these are the kinds of things that we talk about.
1:21:58
Duane Newton: And, and maybe there is a little bit of, um, bias because I'm surrounding myself with people that I like and that I want to engage with and that, you know, that I feel like are emotionally aligned.
1:22:17
Duane Newton: Um, but I think there, you know, those kind of people, the kind of people that, um, that are important to me, you know, I wish there were more people like that in life.
1:22:33
Duane Newton: And I, I wanna share that with others.
1:22:35
Duane Newton: And so I, you, you're definitely high on that list of, of people that we.
1:22:46
Duane Newton: We started basically the same time and have been doing this, um, forever and have, you know, I don't even remember where, where we met the first time, but it feels like we've known each other.
1:23:02
Duane Newton: I mean, I can't tell you if thir, you know, 25 years, 30 years of
1:23:07
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
1:23:07
Beth Marlowe: Long
1:23:07
Duane Newton: time.
1:23:07
Duane Newton: Um, it's a long time.
1:23:09
Beth Marlowe: Yeah.
1:23:10
Duane Newton: So that's, I appreciate you coming on and, and contributing to creating that kind of community and sharing your stories and your perspectives.
1:23:20
Duane Newton: Uh, I think it was great and, um, I look forward to, um, episode two, somewhere down the line, you know, after we've done more of these things and get to talk about some other stuff too.
1:23:36
Beth Marlowe: I would love that.
1:23:37
Beth Marlowe: And, uh, thank you so much for having me and letting me.
1:23:41
Beth Marlowe: Share my story and talk with me and share it with your audience.
1:23:45
Beth Marlowe: And I feel the same way about you, Duane.
1:23:47
Beth Marlowe: And there's, you know, I think there's probably more people than we realize out there.
1:23:50
Beth Marlowe: We just haven't had a chance to talk to each other.
1:23:52
Duane Newton: Yep.
1:23:52
Beth Marlowe: So we just need to do more of that human connection.
1:23:57
Beth Marlowe: But I just think people just enjoy the journey'cause it's all gonna be Okay.
1:24:02
Duane Newton: Great.
1:24:03
Duane Newton: That, that's great words and, um, I'm working on that too.
1:24:11
Beth Marlowe: You're doing great.
1:24:12
Beth Marlowe: Uh,
1:24:12
Duane Newton: thanks Beth.
1:24:13
Duane Newton: You are too.
1:24:14
Duane Newton: Thanks for joining and, uh, happy to have you on here.
1:24:19
Beth Marlowe: Thank you.
1:24:27
Duane Newton: If you're enjoying Navigating Your Path, please be sure to like or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
1:24:34
Duane Newton: If you'd like to directly connect with me, you can reach out via my podcast email, which is listed in the description of this episode.
1:24:42
Duane Newton: It also contains the links to the podcast website and YouTube channel where you can check out more of my content.
1:24:50
Duane Newton: Feel free to reach out if you'd like to share any comments or even make suggestions about future topics to discuss.
1:24:57
Duane Newton: I'd also love to hear from you if you have suggestions for people for me to interview or even if you'd like to be interviewed by me.
1:25:05
Duane Newton: You can also contact me if you'd like to learn more about what it is that I do as a professional development coach.
1:25:12
Duane Newton: I look forward to having you join me next time.
1:25:15
Duane Newton: Take good care.