I'm headed back to the Valley of the Sun, the place where I relocated at age 11. This time, however, I'm headed there by choice to help my colleagues at Arizona State University create a world-class User Experience Center. To be honest, this move was a difficult choice. I had a chance to join the department I'm currently joining ten years ago, but sport and I cut that possibility short when NDSU made us the offer to come and be a part of a growing department and research university. NDSU has been generous and supportive, and Fargo-Moorhead has been a genuinely exciting place to live as it has matured into a wonderful mid-sized city. It is small enough to know just about everyone you want to know, and big enough to keep you engaged with everything that you might want connect with (in my case, the art and entrepreneurship scene).
Still, Arizona beckoned at an inflection point. The political and economic winds seem to be taking a positive turn in a place where we can work on solving global problems. Climate shifts, population shifts, and sustainability are issues that Arizona State University, Phoenix, and Arizona are beginning to acknowledge and address. There are still decades of complacency and gated-community denial to overcome, but even the tea party types are beginning to feel the pressure to address, if not openly admit to, collective problems. Sport and I are sad that we are leaving our friends, department, university, and city, but we're excited at the chance for her to conduct her research in Kenya as a Fulbright scholar, and for me to build a center that would anchor an already-great program. Thank for you making the leap possible friends. We won't forget the kindness, and will try to keep paying that forward.
Giddy up.
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