A Space for Children

For Jen Thomas-Ahner the day typically begins around 7:00 a.m. She and her husband wake up, shower, dress, and then feed and dress their 15-month-old daughter, Alexis. With precise logistic execution, Thomas-Ahner's husband leaves for work at 7:45, and shortly after Thomas-Ahner takes Alexis to childcare 10 miles from home. She drives another 10 miles to Ohio State University (OSU), and for the next eight hours Thomas-Ahner will leave parenting behind to focus on her research on gender differences in inflammatory responses, as a graduate student in Tatiana Oberyszyn's laboratory in the Department of Pathology.