Luann Fortune, PhD, is a member of the teaching faculty in Saybrook’s School of Mind-Body Medicine, and serves as the School’s Director of Instructional Excellence, overseeing course development and online teaching. Dr. Fortune just returned from the annual conference of the Interdisciplinary Coalition of North American Phenomenologists (ICNAP). During the conference, she was elected to serve on ICNAP’s Executive Committee where she assumes the role of Treasurer effective immediately.
At the ICNAP conference, Dr. Fortune presented her latest research, a phenomenological study on the experience of mid-life professionals who complete their doctorates. She focused on individuals in non-technical fields who do not take up permanent posts in academia. Preliminary results of her qualitative study indicate that the newly minted doctorates continue to make high level contributions as scholar-practitioners in their professional fields. However, their focus as well as their purpose become transformed in conjunction with their achieving their PhDs.
Dr. Fortune plans to complete her data analysis, including integration of the feedback received at the ICNAP conference. She plans to present the final results of this research at a conference in fall 2014.