I chose this career recognizing that being a professor is a way of life more than just a job, so I have never really had a strong work-life boundary to maintain. I think the best way to cope is to continue to remind myself that this is just a phase and that while things are bad in Lebanon, they are not great elsewhere.

I owe a big shout out to my husband (also a faculty member, Construction Engineering, AUB) who recognizes that to get through this we must work fully as equals. We have been trading off, rotating through our own professional work and home-schooling for our son. This does mean that it takes 16 hours to get through eight hours of regular work, but at least we are equally stressed … except on Saturdays, I make it a point not to turn on my computer on Saturdays.

I try to keep my students motivated on a weekly basis and make sure that we play one “game” per week in a synchronous session. As they are used to multi-player online games, they often manage the heat of these online class-related challenge games better than I do.

I have also realized that I cannot hold myself to the same levels of achievement in all areas of my work in this environment. Recognizing that our students are our customers, I shifted more of my energy to teaching and developing solid online content. I hope that with this body of content built up for some of my core courses, I will be able to focus more on research in 2021.

Thanks to the boom in virtual meetings, I have also been more active in service to my professional community through the Institute for Operations Research and Management Science, supporting the Transportation Science and Logistics Society’s Diversity-Equity-Inclusion initiatives.