Senior Director, Publications, American Political Science Association
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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 am from northern New Jersey, graduated with a BA in history from Rutgers University (NJ) and an MA in modern history from the University of Leeds (UK). I currently live in Montgomery County, MD, just outside DC.
Describe your current role and organization. What are your main responsibilities? What type of organization do you work for?
I work for the American Political Science Association (APSA), the largest organization in the world for political scientists, with about three dozen staff and 11,000 members. I lead a publications team of 5, including myself, with three managing editors for each of our flagship journals and one associate editor for our member magazine, Political Science Today.
Walk us through a typical day in your role. What challenges do you face? What opportunities do you encounter?
No day in society publishing is the same. A lot of my role involves contracts, finance, budgets, publishing ethics, and very little actual editing except for the member magazine. I am fortunate to work with some outstanding colleagues, many of whom hold political science PhDs, and with our journal editors, some of the leading scholars in the profession. Throughout my career, I have worked in both books and journals, print and online, MRWs and magazines, and as publishing organizations tend to become more specialized, I enjoy working at an association society where I can work on all different types of publications at once.
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?
I was working at MIT—for the institute, not the press—and landed an entry-level journal editorial position at Blackwell Publishing in the Boston area, which later became part of Wiley. I moved to New York and joined Springer in 2008, where I published books and journals in economics and political science, and later went back to Wiley as a textbook editor in 2014. In 2017, I moved to Maryland and started as Publishing Director at APSA, later becoming Senior Director of Publications in 2022. Compared to corporate roles, I have had surprisingly few managerial changes. I now report directly to the Executive Director, serve on the senior team, and have the good fortune to work under our new ED, Dr. Kimberly A. Mealy, our first new ED in 11 years.
Can you share a memorable project, achievement, or pivotal moment in your career development? Was there a defining moment or influential person who shaped your career?
I am grateful to all the hardworking and thoughtful managers and mentors that I have had over the years. Launching new products is always exciting, and I am extremely fortunate to have had such supportive managers and organizations in the past, which have allowed me to launch three journals, develop digital products, and even fail at both. My most successful launch was APSA Preprints, the first society-owned preprint server in the social sciences, and I am grateful to Dr. Steven Rathgeb Smith, our former ED, for his unwavering support of the platform. We were in beta in late 2019 and scaled up quickly for the influx of papers due to the COVID-19 pandemic and many virtual events taking place in 2020.
What tools, websites, and organizations are essential for your career growth? How do you stay updated with industry trends and developments?
I monitor all the SSP websites, newsletters, and blogs as well as those of related organizations like CSE, ISMTE, and in my field, COSSA. I also enjoy skimming the weekly and monthly bulletins from the various consultancies, including The Brief and Journalology.
In your experience, what skills or qualities are essential for success in scholarly communications?
Attention to detail and building strong personal networks are the most essential skills in scholarly communications. Nobody wants a publisher that makes mistakes, not only in their publications but emails, reports, internal documents, newsletters, or anything else. Networking is so important to finding jobs, recruiting staff, choosing the right partners, and having a good time at industry events. You never know who your next boss will be—just maybe someone that used to work for you!
What do you wish you knew more about in your field?
I wish I knew more about trade publishing. I had the chance to work on one trade book at Springer about the economics of baseball, during the whole Moneyball craze, and I wish I had a chance to do more of that as I find those kind of nonfiction books fascinating and are a big part of my personal (ebook) library.
What future trends do you foresee in the field of scholarly publishing?
There is certainly enough talk about OA and AI, and no doubt these developments will have some impact on publishing. I remember lots of fads that came and went (blockchain for peer review, anyone?). But the fundamental way people research, write, curate, share and read content has not changed all that much since I was in graduate school in the early internet days. Okay, we aren’t submitting papers on 3.5” floppies or CD-Rs anymore, but the real changes that take place will be improving the way the researcher experiences the publication journey, not the process itself.
What motivates you in your work? What keeps you passionate about your role in scholarly publishing?
I think publishing important research and working with leading scholars is the most important part of my job and it keeps me motivated, whether it was onboarding a diverse 16-member team to lead our flagship journal or publishing an election forecast that correctly predicted the 2024 electoral college and popular vote share. It is easy to get caught up in all the technology, contracts, and guidelines, but I try not to lose sight of the bigger impact our publications make.
How do you balance your professional and personal life? Any fun facts or hobbies outside of scholarly communications?
I like to travel with my family, cycle, read, and spend time at my kids’ sporting events.
What advice would you give to aspiring professionals in scholarly communications?
You might feel like you are coming in at the end of something, but I felt that way almost twenty years ago and was able to build a great career, meet so many new people, and bring innovations to our publications that I would have never thought possible in the early 2000s. At the end of the day, things haven’t change that much: each morning I open up my Outlook and browser and get to work, just as I did back then. Except now, it is more often done from home.
Career Stage: Established (15+ years)
Industry Area: Editorial, Publishing
