Aligned: Reflecting on 2025, Looking Ahead to 2026
As I reflect on 2025, one word continues to guide how I understand the year and how I step forward: Aligned.
Alignment is not about ease or perfection. It is about integrity—when values, relationships, and work move in the same direction, even amid complexity. It is the ongoing practice of ensuring that how we work reflects what we believe, and that the people most connected to the work are meaningfully involved in shaping it.
Reflecting on 2025
The past year was shaped by movement across borders and communities. Time spent in Iceland, Kenya, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, and Paris reinforced a truth that continues to anchor my work: health, belonging, and dignity are deeply local, yet globally shared. These experiences reaffirmed the importance of work that is rooted in place, guided by lived experience, and strengthened through trust.
Equally important, 2025 called me inward.
I spent intentional time with family and friends—people who see me clearly, accept me as I am, and hold me steady. Their support made the work possible. In a field that often rewards constant motion and visibility, these relationships offered grounding, perspective, and sustainability.
This year also invited me to listen more closely to my body. I embraced different ways of moving beyond running—choosing strength, adaptability, and responsiveness over routine. That shift mirrored a broader lesson that carries into my work: alignment requires adjustment. What served us in one season may need to evolve in the next.
Professionally, 2025 deepened my understanding of collaborative leadership. Community-engaged work is rarely linear. It requires patience, humility, and a willingness to navigate differing perspectives while remaining anchored in shared purpose. Progress is built through relationships—developed over time, strengthened through honesty, and sustained by mutual respect.
What 2025 made possible:
Family and friends who held me steady
Stronger partnerships grounded in trust and mutual accountability
Meaningful work that moved forward with intention
Clearer insight into what I want to protect, grow, and steward
Looking Ahead to 2026
As I step into 2026, alignment remains both a compass and a commitment.
The year ahead is about deepening rather than expanding for expansion’s sake—strengthening existing partnerships, investing in shared priorities, and ensuring that the work we do together is responsive, respectful, and rooted in community context. In 2026, my focus will be on:
Centering community voices through joint development and shared decision-making
Strengthening infrastructure for community-engaged and implementation research so partnerships are supported, resourced, and sustained
Translating knowledge into action, ensuring that research outputs are meaningful, accessible, and useful to the communities they are meant to serve
Mentoring and capacity-building for students, early-career scholars, and community partners navigating complex systems
Equally important, alignment in 2026 extends beyond professional priorities. It means protecting time for reflection, creativity, and rest. It means honoring the body’s wisdom and choosing practices that sustain rather than deplete. It means leading with humility—recognizing that the most durable impact is shaped collectively and carried forward together.
Alignment is an ongoing practice: choosing integrity over urgency, relationships over transactions, and community-rooted impact over visibility. I enter 2026 grateful for the lessons behind me, clear about what matters most, and grounded in the belief that meaningful change happens when values and action move in the same direction.
