2025 In Review

First and foremost, Happy (Almost) New Year 2026. Here’s the closest thing you’re getting to a Christmas Card from us this year.

When I started this blog back in May, I was excited to be using this as a place to write things down so I didn’t put them all on Facebook. Sometimes people would say that I had a very entertaining way of writing and I wanted to have a place that wasn’t owned by Meta, where I could write longer form things, and to generally feel like I’d written things the way I wanted to, how I wanted to, without worrying about if I’d own it or if it’d disappear or if it was too long for the algorithms and no one else would ever see it.

I’d written a few things here and was feeling pretty good about it when one day I was talking about it to someone who said, “Well, I wish I had time to write a blog.” Which could be taken as “hey, that sounds fun, jealous!” but what I heard at the time was judgement. WHOOSH. All air in my sails about being excited about this, gone, replaced with embarrassment and shame. Right, who was I to write in a blog? Who actually cares? And what else could I be doing instead? Was I neglecting my family using my limited free time to do something selfish like writing?

Then the depression rolled in, which I did eventually write about, but it made it really hard to come back since I felt both ashamed and like I’d failed to write so I just stared at this continuously growing failure pit. I wrote dozens of posts in my brain or in my drafts, but just couldn’t get the energy together to finish writing about it, or when I did, I’d get the nagging feeling: isn’t there something BETTER you could be doing with your time?

Honestly? Maybe. But writing is something I like to do sometimes, and making other people laugh or think is something I love to do all the time. So here I am, at the very least today, doing that thing. I joked with Royal’s beloved Auntie C that I would write a letter to rival the length and depth of Uncle Scott’s annual Holiday Tome To The People, but I think you are all safe from that for at least one more year.

So let me tell you a little about some of these snapshots, and where we’ve been.

2025 started ominously.

One year ago tomorrow, Royal stood in the kitchen and said, “Honey, there’s water coming out of the kitchen stove vent.” Not a river, but a steady drip. We opened all the cabinets and couldn’t figure out where it was leaking from. Maybe inside the vent? We’d had some rough storms closing out the year. The next morning, New Year’s Day, I heard a yell from the bathroom. “The ceiling vent just dumped a cup of water on me!” Royal cried. Uh-oh. We called a friend who came up to look in our attic. Our regular exterminator had just commented a few months before how clean our insulation and attic space looked. “Bad news,” our friend said, “That’s rot and the glue is coming apart on these soaked boards.” It turned out that the vents had never been installed properly to go to the outside and combined with the recent weather things were not good.

I’d just gotten promoted to Instructor in May 2024, which was enough to help us combat the rapidly rising costs of everything, but a new roof, even with insurance, was going to be a lot. I contacted contractors (four contractors all came up with repair estimates from $500 to $30K, how does THAT WORK?), got in touch with insurance (who said our roof was a 20 year roof but 21 years old and wouldn’t pay a dime), and figured out how to take out a loan and got a little help from a kind gift from Royal’s dad’s investments. The very pretty new roof got installed in February. Our neighbors own Royal Gutters, a roofing and gutter company, and did a beautiful job all in one day including replacing 29 plywood sheets and cleanup for a very fair price. 1000% recommend, Portlanders. But we are looking for a new homeowners insurance company for sure. I also learned more about basic home repair which became a theme for the year: drywall patches, fixing the bathroom fan, a ceiling crack, hanging and rehanging art…YouTube and I have become fast friends about repairs.

So that took up most of our brainspace and patience for the first two months of the year, and then the real waterslide of the year began.

Royal: Royal’s our family Domestic Engineer. He’s the stay-at-home Dad with Huddy, manages our household Everything, and just kicks ass. I am so incredibly grateful for a partner who runs everything from dinner to naps to errands and still asks me, “Hey, do you need a supplemental brain for anything right now?” He’s always been thoughtful and kind, and it’s amazing to watch him apply his organizational superpowers to us. In May, he started quietly taking improv classes at Kickstand Comedy. Although he’s got a lot of theater training, it’d been 20 years since he’d taken improv and he’s thriving. He got to do his first show with Kickstand in December, followed by a three-class show a few weeks ago that was WONDERFUL. He looks forward to finishing the last class series in early 2026, then exploring what areas of improv speak to him. He’s also been making some music with a group of friends called The Living Room Cabaret and is still available for your voice over or professional audio needs!

Royal remains my very favorite human and we’ve gotten to do some fun things together this year as a couple. We went to Vegas TWICE which considering we’d never been outside of work was wild. The first time was to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary and my birthday in May and we stayed at Caesar’s Palace. We saw RuPauls’s Drag Race Live and Absinthe, and explored Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart with our dear friends Loopy and Justin. When my best friend from high school, Amanda, told me she was having a tiny wedding in the Las Vegas mountains, we flew back out in October and stayed with Loopy and Justin (and their darling sweetheart pups Watson and Sherlock) for a wonderful long weekend and celebrated Amanda and Joe at their beautiful ceremony and Fogo de Chao reception. (I think I’m still full.) We also went to several improv and theater shows, particularly with besties Gillian and Malia. Gillian, Malia, and I managed to surprise Royal with tickets to see Dimension 20 Quangle in Seattle in July where we all cosplayed our favorite D20 characters and many folks took pictures of Royal as Gilear the sad dad elf (you can see us all in cosplay in the photo!). Royal also got surprise birthday’d as Gillian, Malia, and our whole D&D crew surprise took him to see Taylor Tomlinson in August. Supporting local and nerdy culture with our friends has been a delight. And big ups to Grandma and Grandpa/The Gwagwas/my folks who have willingly taken Huddy several times this year for overnight hangouts, including those Vegas trips, so we can still remember to be adults. We’ve also been taking Huddy on some adventures, including to his first Ren Faire this summer where he had a blast. We’re regulars at the Oregon Zoo and Brooklyn Carreta (with its lovely kids play space!). It’s been fun to rediscover some favorite things together as a family through a new lens, especially as Huds becomes more and more creative and interactive. I love it.

Hudson: Huddy turned 3 in May and we celebrated with a big playdate at a local indoor playground with some of our friends and family that have kids. Royal’s dad flew out from Ohio to come to the party. He’s become such a talkative, clever, funny kid who loves playing with other kids and coming up with big imagination games. Favorite games include hunting ghosts and dinosaurs (he’ll spit out “paleontologist” for you!) and dragging much older kids and tweens around to see things. He is very affectionate and kind, and kindness is the biggest thing I hope we can instill in him to carry forward for life, so that makes both Mama and Daddy very happy. For Halloween he chose his own costume for the first time, and he chose Ginny the Superkitty, who we had never heard of before BUT WE CERTAINLY HAVE NOW. He also loves Frozen, Bluey, Ghostbusters, Star Wars, and Taskmaster - he’s always asking for Alex Horne. There’s one picture of him in the collage sitting in the driver’s seat in April-ish before his first haircut. He’s had two since then and still has wonderful hair that makes his mama happy. He’s a pretty adventurous eater (knock on wood that stays) and favorite foods include broccoli, pizza, and SUSHI, which he can eat with chopsticks, much to the delight of the folks at our favorite local place. He’s basically the best and I’m so proud and happy to be his mama.

Bucky: Bucky is a dog with two hearts, one where his brain should be. We defended his honor against Gordon Ramsay earlier this year. He repaid us by breaking through another section of fence to greet the neighbors. He still thinks he’s a lapdog at 70 pounds and continues to be Hudson’s very best friend.

Work: Probably needs several subheaders. I’m a renal and reproductive physiologist: that means I study the connections between kidney function, pregnancy, and future maternal and kids’ health. Placentas and kidneys remain cousins and I get to study them both in this area. I love it and we’re always finding something new and cool right now!

Promotion: I got promoted to Assistant Professor in the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at OHSU in February. I still can’t believe I get to say that. I’ve wanted to be an academic professor since I started college 20+ years ago, but as a trainee you’re always told how small the pot of positions are for an ever growing field of candidates who are way more published/successful/intelligent/driven/whatever than you, so I kept working towards it with the idea that it probably wouldn’t happen, especially just 9 months after I moved from postdoc to Instructor.

But now the Hebert Lab actually exists. So that’s wild.

I have a half-time Senior Tech that I share with my mentor who’s been with me just over a year and he’s marvelous, but he’s allergic to mice which means I’m still the one doing all the mouse work and surgeries (fine by me!). I also took my first student this fall who’s doing a one-year project as her undergrad thesis. Both of my people are bright, curious, and motivated, and I couldn’t ask for more. My mentor’s amazing and I get to work with the best group of folks in the Department. I primarily still keep my workspace attached to my mentor’s lab, but I have an independent lab setup and desk now over at OHSU main campus too. It’s pretty cool.

Surprise whoopsiedoodle degree: Early last year, the OHSU Human Investigations Program let me know that I’d done so many courses over my postdoc training that I actually qualified for a Certificate in Human Investigations. Cool! I said, let’s do that! Two months later, they came back. “Uh, you’re actually only 8 credits short of the Masters in Clinical Research…do you want to just finish it?” So I spent the summer taking classes and took one this fall that almost made me want to trepan myself but I got through. One seminar and one class left, and I’ll get to add an MCR after my name this spring. And a hood. I love the hoods.

Grants and publications: I’m in year 2 of my grant from the American Heart Association, and year 2 of a generous fellowship from OHSU’s translational science group. I got word a couple weeks ago that a grant I have in at the NIH is in the final stages of funding consideration, which is very exciting and we’re all very hopeful! I also got an NIH award to help pay back some of my student loan debt over the next two years, for which I am deeply grateful since it looks like other student loan forgiveness plans are going away. I published a few papers this year (you can see them here if that’s your thing) including one I’m proud of about the connection between heart injury and the kidneys with a special section about the effects in young women.

Travel: there was a lot of work travel. In February I went to Los Angeles for a couple days as an American Heart Association award recipient to present at a symposium. In March I flew three legs each way including two on tiny 11-seat planes up to Bar Harbor, Maine to learn special in vitro embryo techniques for mice. I learned to do vasectomies in mice which I’m told are basically the same in humans, so I’m ready to hang out my illegal shingle and pay off my student loans. You can see my workshop class with folks from all over the globe in the photo! Later in March, I went to the Society for Reproductive Investigation meeting in Charlotte, NC. I’ve gone every year since 2010 save 1, and it’s my home conference, but this was the first year I went as a full faculty member instead of a postdoc! I’m looking forward to this year’s conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico where I have been selected for a talk. In April I went to my first American Physiological Society meeting in Baltimore and loved it so much that I’ll be going to another this year and was selected for a three-year committee membership to help drive their communications. While in Baltimore my friends David and Tess made the time to come have dinner with me which meant so much to spend time with them. In August I made the trek back to the Military Health Systems Research Symposium in Orlando, which is always a favorite conference where I get to talk about how my work helps improve Servicewomen’s and Veterans’ health, especially pregnancy after serious injuries. I got to spend a lovely afternoon with my mentor Helen and her son enjoying Disney Springs, and then a bit of a staycation at the hotel with my friend Megan from Gainesville! I ended up cancelling a trip to a conference in October due to the shutdown, but I’m looking forward to sharing my science a bit more as we enter 2026.

Teaching: My lifelong dream has been to get to teach in an academic setting. I taught all through grad school, mostly labs but one lecture, and then I got to mentor folks as a postdoc but not really formally teach. I taught the clinical fellows for the first time in April, and then an opportunity came open this fall to be the Course Director for Principles of Physiology, a graduate level course at OHSU. It was such a delight to get to teach these students all fall and filled a hole in my heart left when I stopped teaching. I’m already excited to start planning next fall’s course materials and I just finished grading the final exams last week!

Scicomm: you know me, you say “placenta” 3 times and I show up like a genie. I did a little media this year, talked a lot about science and other stuff over on Bluesky, and became one of the regular emcees for Science on Tap, a twice-monthly science lecture series in Portland. It’s open to the public, and we pack 200-300 seat theaters with folks eager to learn about science in entertaining ways. On a Wednesday night. It blows my mind. I’m next emceeing on Jan 28 for the Volcano Listening Project, which turns volcanic sounds into music. Come join us! Santa also came early to our house this year with an OMSI membership, so if you ever want to join us for an OMSI or zoo outing, get at me, Hudson loves to talk about animals and discoveries!

Music: My ride-or-dies, The PDX Broadsides just celebrated 14 years as a band (13, if you ask Christian, but we don’t) and we’re going strong. We played at several conventions and street fairs and wherever we were tolerated for a few minutes. We just did our annual streaming holiday concert that you can rewatch here if you’d like some nerdy carols. We’re working on Album 6 and will probably have a little surprise release coming up on Bandcamp in the next few weeks. It remains such a huge pleasure to work with Hollyanna and Christian as creative collaborators. We’ll be on a bit of a hiatus in January and February due to group family needs, but we’re booked for NorWesCon in Seattle in April for sure. Want to book us for a family reunion, wedding, convention, dinner, backyard concert, variety show, or Tuesday? We’d love to hear from you!

I’m also still making music in other ways. I’m working on a couple of solo project songs for a group I’ve been playing with for a decade, and of course, preparing for another THREE hour-long sets of cover songs with The Featles, my all-reproductive-scientist band that plays at SRI. As lead female vocalist, I’m getting some practice in before we see you in Puerto Rico! I also expanded my emceeing repertoire: I emceed for a Legends of Burlesque show and read for Booklovers’ Burlesque as my alter ego, Dr. Ella Gantly Wasted (yes, named after the INXS song) and LOVE getting to do it, hoping for more in 2026!

Other things appearing in the photos or not that were important that my brain can remember right now: I am deeply grateful for my friends Sunnie and Shawna who do regular work sprints with me throughout the day so we can keep each other focused and also vent about life. I would not have gotten through some days without them. The other kids in the photo with Huds and Bucky are my sister’s partner’s little ones, Arwyn and Jareth, and the three of them are a fun little pack when they get together. LOUD, but happy and sweet. For the first time since Erica moved to Portland, she lives more than 5 minutes from me as she and her partner moved into a lovely house in NE Portland. It’s only about 20 minutes, and she still works down in our neighborhood, but it’s hard to not have her close enough for quick visits. We miss her a lot. We try to make the time we get together count, and did get to do a little local adventure at Kennedy School with our friend Ashley in November. We also went wine tasting at the Vancouver waterfront to celebrate her birthday in July! We spent Thanksgiving with Royal’s Auntie C, Uncle Scott, and many members of our extended family and my face hurt from smiling so much. It’s always so good to see them. We had a couple of visitors from out of town this year: Ashley, Sunnie, and our friend Steph from Seattle all filled our house with laughter. Royal’s dad came to visit for Hudson’s birthday, and he and Susan were able to spend a little time with us this month on their whirlwind Portland holiday trip. We’ve gotten to see a lot more of Royal’s sister Katy this year and that has been wonderful. Hudson adores her and she’s so sweet with him. She’s such a talented human (she’s a vegan baker and supplies a lot of Portland businesses!) and I’m glad we have her. I’m hoping we get to see more of everyone, our friends and family, in the coming year, and that we all stay safe and healthy.

I am sure I am missing things and humans, but if you’re reading this there’s a high likelihood that I love you and am grateful for you, so thank you for being part of this year, too. And thank you for reading this, because maybe, after all, it is worth the writing. Imposter syndrome be damned.

Here at the close at 2026, we’re back to a house-related snafu: the vacuum won’t work for more than 10 minutes on a charge and the stove will sometimes just suddenly shut off during baking requiring us to constantly check, so we’re houseware shopping. Cheaper than a new roof? BY A LOT. So there’s that. I’m recovering from an awful cough that’s lasted two weeks, but it’s the first real lingering sickness I’ve had outside of getting COVID in 2023 since the start of the pandemic, so masking definitely helps keep us well and I’m being more cautious about it because hacking yourself sideways is not great for your now or future health. We’re sorting through some other health issues, but we’re still able to mostly cobble together something that looks like function, so we call it a win for now. In the Year of the Snake, we did a pretty good job of learning what to shed, what to keep, and how to keep moving with the things that we can’t let go until we can.

It’s a balance.

Royal and I are here, safe, and celebrating 20 years together on the 1st, while raising our inquisitive, amazing toddler and his doggy bestie. I’m doing the work I’ve always dreamed of doing, even if I’m supposed to be on vacation and instead I’m trying to finish some paperwork for logistics so I can sustain my lab. My family and friends are great, even if I don’t see them as much as I like. The world is not the friendliest place to be, but I’m aiming whatever time and energy and water I can muster at the fires I can to help out. We’re all doing our best, and even when it doesn’t feel like enough, it’s a good sight better than nothing. We are growing. We are learning. WE are enough.

I hope you are safe, happy, warm, and growing, too. Happy 2026, with love, from us.