February 10, 2016

Goodbye, Cam Solomon

I am very sad to have left all the great people and friends at IWRI. I really had fun working with some of the best folks I’ve had a chance to spend time with. I learned an incredible amount, and only a small percentage of that had to do with research. Spousal duty and marital harmony led our family to our exciting “adventure” in Albuquerque, N.M. to allow my wife to follow her dream of becoming a veterinary dentist, which she loves beyond my understanding. Having been born in the desert, but not having lived there in conscious memory, after living NE, SE, NW and fly-over, the SW was the last of the compass directions I needed to check off my list.
I haven’t gotten a real job here, but am taking a swing at consulting, with more stability hoped for soon. I’m working primarily with the Prevention Research Group at UNM, looking at Dissemination and Implementation of CDC dietary and exercise recommendations in rural tri-ethnic communities. This is exactly the subject area I had been hoping to find, with my passion for focusing on built environment and active transportation finally being sated. I have even begun dabbling in grant writing. I’m also the statistician for a desperate bunch of veterinary dermatologists with interesting ideas of research (is it ethical to send stuffed-animal fur to a lab? Fight fraud with fraud!), and am doing my best to support UW professor Leo Morales’ research long distance.
It’s a big change here, constantly blinded by the sun, and dealing with 40 degree swings during any given day, rather than the mere eight degrees we often see in Seattle. At eight years of age, West is loving the change of venue. The neighborhood is loaded with kids, and we feel comfortable giving him free range of it to play with friends without the hassle of organizing “playdates,” now that we have quiet, safe streets with sidewalks—very similar to the freedom I grew up with, that I had thought all but dead in the U.S. We can ride bikes together to his school and from there it’s less than one mile to my office at UNM. All-in-all, though I miss Seattle and the people there very much, this adventure, at this early date at least, should be rated a success.