Post by Katie Schiebler, PhD

I'm excited to announce... I'm retiring the "(Fitzpatrick)" from my name. There will be no change management plan. Except this post. I was hesitant to drop my maiden name "Fitzpatrick". For a few reasons: 1) My PhD, my Cambridge days, WHO & UN days - my professional identity linked to Fitzpatrick. 2) Love the name 3) People seeing my new name and thinking "who the heck is Katie Schiebler?" without recognizing the photo is still ol' me. 4) People having no clue how to pronounce Schiebler. (Learned will be life-long lesson). So, for years, I've had "(Fitzpatrick)" in my sign-off at Novartis and on my LinkedIn (oh and my Swiss rail pass). But it's been long enough. It's time to let go. Anyone else navigate a name change in a professional setting? How did you decide time to let go? Or maybe you're still hanging on?