Editorial and Peer Review Coordinator, The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS)
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Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, and what did you study? Where are you currently based?
I’m from Syracuse, New York, and spent some time growing up in a small town in Western Vermont. After high school, I decided to make a bit of an unconventional turn in my life path and worked in Cameroon in West Africa for some time before attending undergraduate school in Philadelphia and then working my way to Boston to enroll in a master’s program in publishing and writing at Emerson College, where I focused on digital publishing. I now call the seaside town of Beverly, Massachusetts, home and work on cardiovascular surgical journals as an editorial and peer review coordinator for the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS).
Describe your current role and organization. What are your main responsibilities? What type of organization do you work for?
I currently work as the editorial and peer review coordinator for the Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery (JTCVS) and the other AATS journals. The AATS is a non-profit that strives to serve and promote scholarship, innovation, and leadership among cardiothoracic surgeons worldwide through meetings, early career support, and publications. On the publications team, I oversee the peer review process for all submissions to JTCVS, support the editorial decision process, manage promotional materials and initiatives, and handle technical production work on manuscripts before sending them to publication. I work closely with our associate editors, associate statistical editors, and reviewers.
Share your journey in scholarly publishing. What was your first role in this field, and how did you land it? What path led you to your current position? What unexpected challenges have you faced?
The path to my current position was not a straight one. After high school, I worked for the adoption agency, Chosen Children, in remote towns in Cameroon. Surprisingly, most of my responsibility there was to help disseminate public health information, mostly on education around HIV/AIDS, to members of remote areas in northern Cameron—my first, somewhat informal introduction to scholarly communication. During my master’s, I helped teach communication and writing classes to incarcerated students at MCI-Framingham while also working with a Nigerian publisher, LANGAA Research and Publishing Common Initiative Group, as a copy editor. At LANGAA, I worked with Ghanaians authors on an economics book to promote financial education and independence for local Ghanaian business owners. After graduating in 2020, I was offered an editorial assistant role at AATS, which has now grown into the position I currently hold supporting our peer review process.
How do you balance your professional and personal life? Any fun facts or hobbies outside of scholarly communications?
Over the past year, I was offered a position as a board member for an environmental group, Salem Sound Coastwatch, whose mission is to protect and improve the local watershed. While I have no in ocean-focused studies, I now spend most of my free time undertaking extremely nerdy and sea-salt infused tasks, such as learning how to identify seashells, seaweeds, and other plants; diving in the local harbor to track eels and super small nudibranchs (sea slugs); and lecturing about whales while inside a life-sized blow up whale.
What advice would you give to aspiring professionals in scholarly communications?
Be open to new opportunities (even if you don’t know where they might lead) and don’t be afraid to ask for opportunity too. Some of the most fulfilling jobs, positions, and projects I worked on came about because I approached members of an organization that shared a common goal/vision and asked how I could get involved or how they needed support. People were very receptive when I approached them and generous with their time and insights. Those conversations often led to positions I didn’t imagine being in, but those positions have given me the chance to grow in ways I would otherwise have not. Be willing to learn.
Career Stage: Early Career
Industry Area: Editorial, Publishing
