Lorie Owens

Lorie Owens, or PhDiva (@dissertating) as she is popularly referred to on Twitter, turned her love of reading into an undergraduate English major and a couple decades of teaching high school English. A subsequent move into mid-level bureaucracy at her state’s department of education led her to pursue her PhD, first part-time, and eventually full-time, becoming a graduate research associate at age 54. Earning her PhD came after a failed dissertation defense, and the struggle to revise, resubmit, and successfully defend led her to provide support to PhD candidates via her popular Twitter feed @dissertating. The feed has been active since April 2015 and boasts over 9,000 followers.