When Brody Duckett smiles - and he smiles constantly - about 50 dimples appear on his 9-month-old face. The smile is so irresistible that Brody has a constant stream of visitors popping in to see him from offices around Snell Hall on the Oregon State University campus.

Brody goes to work every day with his mom, Stephanie Duckett, who works as the student parent advocate at OSU. Duckett works all day long with parents who are struggling to juggle work, school and parenting, and as a new mom, she's discovered a whole new level of understanding as she navigates the new world of being a working mom.

But Duckett also recognizes that she's incredibly fortunate to be able to bring Brody to work with her. She said she didn't really ask. Instead, when her seven weeks of paid leave ended (OSU doesn't have a paid maternity leave policy) and she had to come back to work, she just began bringing Brody with her.

"One of my job descriptions is increasing the visibility of student parents on campus," Duckett said, looking at Brody, who was cooing quietly in a playpen next to her desk. "Ergo, mascot!"

Being a working mom has given Duckett a new perspective on her job as an advocate for parents.

"It really legitimizes the work," Duckett said, adding that she was often asked by students with children if she was a parent herself, and when she wasn't, the response was "Oh, you don't understand."

"I've been doing this for awhile, and not having a kid … it's like a veterinarian with no dogs," she joked.

When Duckett was a student at OSU, she became an intern with Patricia Lacy, the OSU legal advocate for students. Duckett began working with students at the university who are parents, and when she graduated in 2006, Lacy helped create a permanent full-time position so that Duckett could continue her advocacy work. It wasn't exactly in Duckett's plans, as she was a pre-med student, but she said it was hard to turn down a ready paycheck and she's genuinely enjoyed the work.

Duckett is currently looking into childcare for Brody, because she recognizes that she won't be able to keep him at work as he gets older. Right now, he cheerfully submits to naps, feedings and being surrounded by strangers, but that stage won't last.

However, as Duckett begins to examine her options, she's finding that all the advice she's been doling out to parents for years is a little bit harder to follow than she realized.

"I help parents find childcare, and infant space is notoriously hard to find," she said. It's also very expensive, and finding part-time care is even more difficult. But she said she keeps reminding herself of the advice she gives students with children: focus on convenience and safety and don't worry about the rest.

Meanwhile, Duckett will keep bringing Brody to work, and hopes that her ability to do so will become an example for other parents, and for OSU department heads and employers, who see that family and work can, in certain situations, find a successful balance.

"It will never become policy" to allow all babies to be taken to work at OSU, she said. "It's too scary. But what I can see it being is an accepted alternative to full maternity leave."

Duckett imagines a day when parents with healthy and relatively quiet babies can bring them to their office while they work on research projects, or meet with students during office hours, without co-workers frowning on the practice or bosses sending them back home. She believes a more tolerant policy toward children in the workplace could make OSU a more desirable employer, as the idea of a work-life balance becomes a draw for potential employees.

And she hopes Brody is a bit of a poster child for that kind of balance.

"He's just rocked it," she said. "He's a people guy."

AT A GLANCE

Who: Stephanie Duckett

What: Parent student advocate, parent

Family: Husband Brian, son Brody, age 9 months, Chili the bassett hound puppy

Hometown: Tuscon, Ariz.