Born in the New Mexico deserts where running water was a luxury, Dr. Emily Connally was an unlikely contender for the ivory towers of Harvard and Oxford — but with grit, brilliance, and a touch of rebellion, she soared. Yet her greatest achievements may not be in the lab...

When the pandemic struck, Emily applied the same expertise she used to map the brain’s complex pathways to chart a thriving grassroots network. Starting with a schoolgate foodbank, she built Cherwell Collective which is transforming how local networks tackle food waste and sustainability.

From elite academia to community hero, listen to Emily’s warm, uplifting tale of courage, ingenuity, and the power of pivoting when it matters most.

• (02:53) - Emily's Early Life and Education
• (05:33) - Challenges and Triumphs in Academia
• (11:37) - Activism and Union Leadership at Arizona
• (19:30) - The Birth of Cherwell Collective
• (24:34) - Cherwell Collective's Impact and Future Plans

The Wobbly Middle is a podcast for women rethinking their careers. Each season, Patsy and Susannah sit down with women who share their career pivot stories — leaving corporate life and building businesses, breaking back in after career breaks, going back to study, and taking their long-neglected dreams seriously.

Links

New episodes of The Wobble Middle released fortnightly. For additional insights, read The Wobbly Middle on Substack. You can also find us on LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook @thewobblymiddle.

If you are in the wobbly middle of your career, please share your story with us via our socials or email us at [email protected]. We'd love to hear what’s on your mind - and if you're out the other side, please let us know how you got there!

To learn more about Cherwell Collective, visit https://www.cherwellcollective.com/

About the hosts:

Patsy Day is a recovering lawyer navigating her own midlife career crossroads. A penny dropped for her when she realised that the restless feeling she'd been feeling was returning ambition. The Wobbly Middle is that in-between space where we know we want change but don't know how to move forward.

Susannah de Jager has just moved to Abu Dhabi. She is podcasting, consulting to start-ups and occasionally advising on scale-up capital having left her role as CEO of a boutique asset manager and asked "what next?”. In the last five years she has forged a new path following her passions and interests. This podcast is for her and for all those like her.