A Doctor in the Family!

Annie in Ghana, Africa

I was going to write that I wish I had waited until today to update the blog because I got a pretty important phone call today, BUT this one is very deserving of its own post. As many of you know my sister has been working on her PhD from Emory in Atlanta, GA. She left us for Atlanta in 2008 (I think I have my year right) and spent two years there in classes and beginning her research and all the smart things one does when they begin their PhD. Then she came back home to Raleigh in 2010 and began writing her dissertation. Here is Annie's bio on Emory's website:

Annie Hardison-Moody, MTS, PhD candidate (Emory University, Graduate Division of Religion) (not a candidate anymore!!! YAY!) ok i added that.
Annie Hardison-Moody is a PhD candidate in the Person, Community and Religious Life program in Emory University's Graduate Division of Religion. She worked with the Religion and Reproductive Health project, doing ethnographic work on the meaning of pregnancy to African-American homeless women in Atlanta. This work influenced Annie's dissertation, which focuses on care-giving, both in a religious and public health sense, for women experiencing gender-based violence. 

These past couple of months she began wrapping her dissertation up and then sent it to her committee for review. Well, yesterday Annie and Will left for Atlanta and this morning she gave her defense. I had been thinking about her all morning and finally she called. SHE PASSED!! She officially has her PhD and is Dr. Hardison-Moody.

I have to say though that while yes, anyone obtaining their PhD is a huge deal and very exciting, and I realize she's my sister and I'm partial, but she's has just done some pretty amazing things. My little blog post certainly doesn't do justice to the work she's done the past 4 years. She's traveled to Africa twice, Ghana and Liberia, and spent time with and interviewed these women. She's done work at shelters in Atlanta, she's volunteered countless hours, she's been to the United Nations, she's a very familiar face at Interact in Wake County and is just so well respected in her field and by all the people she works and has worked with. So its exciting she's a Dr. but it's exciting because of the things she's done for women along the way. I am SO proud of her :) As James says, she's an African Queen saving the world one day at a time! Congratulations Dr. Annie, we love you so much!!!!