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03.09.2020 | SSP News & Releases

2020-2021 SSP Board of Directors Election Now Open

 

Cast Your Vote!

The ballot for the 2020-2021 election is now available. Members must log in to access the ballot and vote. Voting is open until midnight, Friday, April 10, and results will be announced by April 24, 2020.

Candidate names appear below in alphabetical order.

Election Overview


President-Elect:

Robert Harington

Alice Meadows

Alison Mudditt

Treasurer:

Emilie Delquie

Byron Laws

 
At-Large Members: Meredith Adinolfi Liz Allen Gabe Harp
  Sai Konda Keith Layson Jake Zarnegar

 

Candidates for President-Elect


Robert Harington, Associate Executive Director, Publishing at the American Mathematical Society (AMS)

Bio: Robert has the overall responsibility for publishing at the AMS, including books, journals, and electronic products. Robert is a “Chef” for The Scholarly Kitchen Blog. Robert serves on the SSP Board of Directors, and as Secretary CHOR Inc., (CHORUS), and sits on the MathJax Steering Committee. Robert is a member of the Editorial Board of FASEB BioAdvances.

Robert has worked in non-profit and commercial settings, internationally, with particular experience across the United States, Europe, and Asia (focus on China and Japan).

Robert holds a doctorate in biochemistry from the University of Oxford, and a first-class honors degree in chemistry from the University of London.

Vision Statement: I am honored to be slated as a candidate for President of the SSP. SSP is a wonderful organization. I have found this out over recent years serving on the Board of Directors and actively participating in the work of a number of SSP committees.

In thinking about how I would serve as President of SSP, I realized that I do have strong views on how to lead the SSP over the next few years. It is absolutely essential that the SSP maintains its neutrality amidst a sea of advocacy. It is also important for the SSP to engage its members in activities that highlight diversity, equity and inclusion in publishing. Much work has already been done here, but it is clear we should do more. I would seek to facilitate and engage voices across the SSP membership, ensuring that publishing is broadly defined across not-for-profit, academic, library, funder and commercial sectors. In the end, I believe that a successful future for SSP lies in its ability to bring disparate stakeholders to the table, acting as a fulcrum for simulating discourse. The SSP is uniquely not a lobbying organization, and herein lies its strength – I envision building on this strength.

Working collaboratively with SSP leadership, membership and staff, I see the SSP continuing to build an engaged membership across the publishing ecosystem. I am keen to strengthen the role of SSP as an essential component in career progress for individuals across all aspects of publishing, regardless of background or status.

For me personally, it is a chance to do the work I love on behalf of a community that I would like to serve.


Alice Meadows, Director of Community Engagement, NISO

Bio: I joined NISO (National Information Standards Organization) as their Director of Community Engagement in November 2019, after 41/2 years in a similar role at ORCID. Before moving into the world of research infrastructure, I had worked in scholarly publishing for many years, including at Wiley and Blackwell Publishing. I’ve been an active member of SSP since 2008, serving as a Board member (2010-13 and 2016-19) and on various committees, as well as being a regular contributor to The Scholarly Kitchen. I was honored to be awarded the SSP Distinguished Service Award in 2018, the ALPSP Award for Contribution to Scholarly Publishing in 2016, and the ISMTE Recognition Award in 2013. I’m passionate about scholarly communications and about issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and have written and spoken widely on these topics, as well as participating in a number of related initiatives, including C4DISC.

Vision Statement: I first got involved with SSP in 2008, when a colleague asked me to join the Marketing Committee, which she was co-chairing that year. In true SSP fashion, I was immediately made very welcome on the committee – and put straight to work as a liaison to the Annual Meeting Committee! Those two things – inclusion and engagement – continue to sum up the ethos of SSP for me, and we must continue to nurture them in order to ensure the future sustainability of our organization. The SSP community has always been inclusive – of different stakeholder groups, viewpoints, and people. And because we focus on what we all have in common, we are able to bring together an amazing band of highly engaged volunteers, who represent all the different facets of our community. It’s a great honor and privilege to be asked to stand for President of an organization that is so aligned with my own values and priorities, and one which has made such great strides toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, there is still work to be done to encourage greater participation from those whose voices are less well represented, including early career professionals, people of color, publishers from the global south, library publishers, and others.

If elected, I will work collaboratively with the Board, staff, and members to build on these strong foundations and further expand the SSP community, in order to help ensure the society’s future success.


Alison Mudditt, Chief Executive Officer, PLOS

Bio: I currently serve as CEO of PLOS, an organization dedicated to pushing the boundaries of “open” in service of a truly equitable system of scientific knowledge and understanding. I’ve also held leadership roles at the University of California Press, SAGE, Taylor & Francis and Blackwell. I’ve been part of SSP for many years and currently serve on the Board of Directors and the Funder Task Force, as well as writing for the Scholarly Kitchen. I’m also Vice Chair of the Center for Open Science Board and in the past, have served on the boards of ALPSP, the Scientific Publications Committee of the American Heart Association and on the Executive Council of PSP. In all of my free time (!), I actively support a couple of local organizations that seek to educate and empower girls and women – I love scholarly publishing but this work is close to my heart.

Vision Statement: The first half of my career was defined by the shift from print to online yet from our current vantage point, we can see that this was only the first phase of digital transformation. As this disruption deepens and broadens, SSP has a critical role to play in helping each of us stay on top of change, build rewarding and impactful careers, and create resilient organizations. SSP has always been at the core of my own professional development and can continue to be the anchor that helps each of us navigate the future, ensuring we collectively master the power of technology, develop sophisticated and responsible uses of data, and hone skills that will transform our industry.

One of the defining aspects of SSP has always been the generous and welcoming spirit of the community. I’ve been excited to be part of tactics to expand inclusivity but there is still much to do. Resilient organizations are diverse organizations. Our success demands continued attention to the professional development needs of our core membership while bringing in new voices to revitalize our community and strengthen our collective ability to navigate change. I would be honored to have the opportunity to help lead this ongoing transformation of both the organization and our industry.

 

Candidates for Treasurer                                                                              


Emilie Delquie, Director, Rightsholder Relations and Global Alliances, Copyright Clearance Center

Bio: My career in publishing actually started because I enjoyed working at the University of Massachusetts Library so much that I stayed on after graduating. I then moved to PCG, the sales and marketing consulting division of Ingenta, where I helped publishers navigate the institutional library market for nine years. In 2014, I joined Copyright Clearance Center to help manage a group of key publisher relationships. Today, I coordinate CCC’s Rightsholders Relations and Global Alliances teams where I get to work with hundreds of partners around the world.

I have been very fortunate to be involved with SSP over the years as a member of the Board of Directors, co-Chair of the Annual Meeting Program Committee and of the Career Development Committee, overseeing the wonderful Fellowship program. I’ve also been a volunteer on the Executive Committee and various Task Forces.

Vision Statement: SSP has been an integral part of my publishing career for the last 15 years and I have always seen it as one of the leading platforms for industry expertise, networking opportunities and open-mindedness. I am constantly impressed by how dedicated SSP volunteers are and by how much the organization makes a deliberate effort towards inclusivity, branching out to all career levels, and truly involving its membership.

Continuing to grow programs engaging early career and mid-career professionals by reaching out beyond our typical partners is a critical area that I will support. The Fellowship and Mentorship programs are evidence of the genuine value we can collectively bring to our industry.

In addition, we need to continue to involve even more voices in the conversation: not only through our excellent programming, but I will also support initiatives that bring all stakeholders together to encourage strategic discussions: publishers, librarians, researchers, funders, authors, data users, etc.

Being part of this welcoming and engaged community has truly been a privilege. I have learned so much from my fellow volunteers, and it would be a great honor to have the opportunity to be involved in SSP’s continuing growth in the role of Treasurer.


Byron Laws, Sales Director, Americas, Nova Techset – Katalyst

Bio: With a background in electronics from the US Air Force and a degree in Marketing/PR, I’ve worked for more than 20 years on the business side of companies that use technology to simplify processes and solve problems for publishers. This includes leadership roles at Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer), Aptara, Lumina Datamatics, and KiwiTech. Currently, I head the Americas region for Nova Techset-Katalyst, a publishing technology services firm. Working in scholarly publishing has been meaningful to me, allowing me to build relationships with exceptional industry colleagues while contributing to the dissemination of crucial content.

I’ve been a member of SSP since 2001, Over the years, I’ve served as co-chair of the Education, Marketing, and Finance Committees, as an SSP mentor and co-chair of the Philanthropic Funding Task Force. I am on the SSP Board, serving a second three-year term as SSP Treasurer. For the last six years, my SSP volunteer work has been wholly focused on the continual improvement of our society’s financial condition.

Vision Statement: SSP has become a respected global influencer in scholarly publishing. Our financial basis needs to be strong in order to have the resources necessary to pursue and achieve our intended goals. During my two terms as SSP Treasurer, our financial basis has improved greatly. We now have reserves of more than 85% of annual operating expenses (best practice is 60%). We have grown the number of volunteers involved in financial oversight. We have put in place new processes to govern how we manage and account for our finances. Our growing substance is being put to work by an innovative and energetic board through numerous new initiatives. After several years of hard work and research by volunteers from the Philanthropic Task Force and Finance Committee, we will soon launch a capital campaign to support the new SSP Generations endowment fund.

I believe my overall knowledge and experience in publishing as a business, and within SSP – as a society member, as a longtime member of the board/executive committee, and as a highly-engaged volunteer – will further strengthen our society. I would be honored to continue serving as SSP Treasurer.

 

Candidates for Member-at-Large


Meredith Adinolfi, VP of Publishing Operations, Cell Press

Bio: I started my career in publishing as a copyeditor and have continued to build on that foundation for the past 20 years. In my current role, I oversee production and editorial operations for our growing journal portfolio. This involves broad oversight of our submission, pre-accept, production, and print and online publishing processes. I also contribute to the strategic vision of Cell Press and, with a Six Sigma green belt certification, focus on workflow optimization and evolution. I enjoy the small publisher feel of Cell Press but also benefit from being part of Elsevier, which rounds out my perspective and what I can offer as a member of SSP. One of my professional passions is developing people, and I was therefore honored to serve for 2 years as co-chair of SSP’s Career Development Committee. Through that committee, I have been able to assist in launching and growing SSP’s mentorship program, which has been incredibly rewarding.

Vision Statement: SSP has provided me with an immense amount of learning and development opportunities, and I consistently hear the same thing from others I meet through this organization. There is tremendous value in bringing together perspectives from all facets of scholarly information as well as all experience levels within those facets. Scholarly publishing is a dynamic, fast-paced industry, and I’ve seen firsthand how much easier it is to solve problems and embrace new ideas when we constructively work together across publishing, academia, societies, libraries, and providers. SSP has a huge strength in supporting those early in their careers, and I would love to see even more efforts to develop the next generation of talented individuals. The out-of-the-gate success of the mentorship program tells me that those within this community are hungry for opportunities to connect with each other, learn about the industry, and get quality guidance on how to grow (and how to make sense of the vast array of roles, organizations, and opportunities in this rich field). I’ve also seen how powerful and exciting it can be to harness the fresh ideas of SSP Fellows, who are rising stars and draw strength and confidence from each other. It would be great to see SSP leveraging volunteer efforts to further collaborate across committee lines. As just one example, there are great opportunities for the early-career subcommittee and the regional teams to collaborate on local events and programs. There would be several goals with increased committee collaboration, but a significant one would be keeping ECPs and especially past Fellows engaged in SSP and in shaping the programs and discussions that make this organization so special.


Liz Allen, Director of Strategic Initiatives, F1000Research

Bio: Liz Allen is Director of Strategic Initiatives at F1000 Research and involved in shaping new initiatives and partnerships to promote and foster open research publishing. Prior to joining F1000Research in 2016, she spent over a decade leading the Evaluation Team at Wellcome.

Liz is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Policy Institute at King’s College London, with a particular interest in science policy research and research-related indicators. Liz is a Crossref Board Director, co-founder of CRediT (Contributor Roles Taxonomy), and serves on the Advisory Board for the Software Sustainability Institute.

Liz Allen – http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9298-3168

Vision Statement: As Director of Strategic Initiatives at F1000 Research I lead on shaping new initiatives to promote and foster innovation in research publishing. I entered the publishing world in 2015 after over a decade working in research funding – latterly as Head of Evaluation at the Wellcome Trust. I also hold a Visiting Senior Fellowship at the Policy Institute at King’s College London. As a result, I see the world through multiple lenses, and I am excited by the pace of change in scholarly publishing today.

There are massive opportunities for publishers to rethink traditional ways of working and develop new partnerships and collaborations with actors across the research system – all with the goal to maximise the ability to engage with, use and reuse research. Innovative scholarly publishers will continue to play an essential role in this.

If I were elected to the SSP Board, I would be keen for the SSP to continue and evolve its role as a convenor and facilitator of debate, discussion and dialogue around all things scholarly communication. But my aim would be to support the SSP to be more ambitious, taking advantage of the transformations underway in the publishing landscape, exploring the potential for new ways of working with its members, and seeking new strategic partners and collaborators – to allow it to do more of what it does well, while increasing its influence and impact.


Gabe Harp, Senior Manager for Digital Products, The MIT Press

Bio: I followed a passion for language into a career in scholarly publishing and have held a number of operational, product, and leadership roles at Cell Press and, more recently, the MIT Press. The common thread has been a delight in solving problems of all sorts, from processes and products to career development and organizational structure. I enjoy managing and mentoring others, experimenting with new tools and methods and continually learning. SSP has been a wonderful resource for me over many years, and I have valued the opportunity to give back through work with the Early Career Subcommittee, with the Finance Committee, and as Co-Chair of the Philanthropic Fund Task Force. Outside of work I relish the precious time that I have with my family and delight in fishing, cycling, and composting.

Vision Statement: Over the course of 15 years in scholarly publishing, I have been continually inspired by the work that we do. All of you challenge me to be a better colleague, manager, and person every day. This sense of community speaks to one of the greatest strengths of SSP, an organization that brings people and ideas together across the scholarly communications landscape. As the very definition of that landscape shifts, SSP faces both an opportunity and an imperative to grow. And I am eager to address the challenge of nurturing a healthy, sustainable growth path for SSP. As we welcome more members into the SSP tent, we must also preserve SSP’s core strengths and its ability to deliver on its mission of advancing scholarly communications while supporting the professional development of its members. First and foremost, this means being able to expand the constituencies that we serve and to welcome new voices and ideas in an inclusive and equitable manner. It means extending the global reach of SSP and better serving international members. And lastly, it means developing an endowment that will sustainably fund the programs (e.g., the Fellowship Program) that serve current and future generations of scholarly publishing professionals.


Sai Konda, Senior Managing Editor

Bio: My career in scholarly publishing began as a serendipitous alternative to research in the chemical industry. I had experienced the ‘other side’ of publishing as an author and reviewer while pursuing Master’s and doctoral degrees, and a post-doctoral stint, at the University of Texas at Austin and University of Delaware, respectively. My first job following graduate school was serving as a Managing Editor in the Publications Division of the American Chemical Society (ACS). I am currently a Senior Managing Editor, overseeing the strategic and content management of ten journals in the materials science and physical chemistry portfolios, the largest at ACS by published output.

My strong association with SSP began with an Early Career Fellowship in 2017 and volunteering on the Early-Career Subcommittee. I went on to co-Chair the subcommittee for a year, and continue to be actively engaged in the Career Development Committee. The Fellowship experience came full circle when I took on the role of a mentor for a student fellow from the 2019 cohort. When the opportunity has arisen, I have contributed content in the Scholarly Kitchen through my association with the early-career community.

Vision Statement: I have experienced first-hand the community and mentorship spirit of SSP that has greatly benefited my personal and professional growth in the publishing industry. The avenues for networking opportunities are unprecedented – be it at annual meetings, local events, mentorship opportunities, or volunteering in committees.

My priorities would focus on initiatives to build, and strengthen bridges between SSP and several communities – authors and reviewers, non-profit and commercial publishers, funders, librarians, vendors, and members at different career stages of scholarly publishing. Given my background and experience, I will assist with the networking and career development of the early career professionals, and provide feedback on the needs of authors, reviewers, and librarians through the journal associations in my role at the ACS. Additional focus would be on increasing the global footprint of SSP’s membership through fellowship and mentorship initiatives. The bridges can be further strengthened by the pillars of diversity and inclusiveness (topics that resonate strongly with me), which in turn would solidify SSP as THE community for everyone engaged in scholarly publishing. I am honored to be considered as a candidate for Board Member-at-Large, and for the opportunity to give back to the community in a larger capacity.


Keith Layson, Manager, Sales, Partnerships, & Initiatives

Bio: My career in scholarly publishing started shortly after I finished college in 2007. After a brief stint in editorial at the Journal of Neuroscience, I’ve since spent most of my career in institutional site-licensing at the Society for Neuroscience, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and now Annual Reviews. In my current role, I manage sales, partnerships and initiatives in North America, Latin America, and Australasia. I recently helped with the launch of Subscribe to Open, Annual Reviews’ new approach to a subscription based open access model. I’ve been a member of SSP’s membership committee since 2015, having served the last 3-years as co-chair.

Vision Statement: Naturally, having served on the membership committee for several years now, my hope is to continue to see our membership thrive and grow. From the surveys that the committee has run, our members see a great amount of value from their memberships, but I believe there are many opportunities for us to deliver more.

Based on recent member surveys: professional development and networking opportunities are where our members see the most value. I’d like to build upon these and see if we can make them more engaging. One idea I’ve come across is creating communities (perhaps on C3 and through our regional meetups) based on our different roles in the industry or around major topics at hand. I believe making these changes would create stronger networks and enrich our engagement and learning opportunities.

A fair number of board members have expressed the sentiment that we need to diversify our membership in several demographic areas. Having routinely reviewed our membership reports, this is certainly a necessity. Being more inclusive and having more ideas at hand also helps with enriching engagement and learning opportunities. I’d like to continue the board’s current efforts and work with our various committees and task forces, namely Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Membership, to see what more can be done.

Ultimately, I want to continue the progress SSP has made in advancing our member’s careers, their organizations, and our industry.


Jake Zarnegar, Chief Business Development Officer, Silverchair

Bio: As Chief Business Development Officer at Silverchair, I work directly with scientific and scholarly publishers to understand their content, products, and communities and help them find the best alignment of technology and services to support their missions. My role puts me in a privileged position to learn about the full gamut of publisher strategies, emerging business models, risks, and opportunities—a privilege I recognize and appreciate.

To give back to our community, I’ve participated in multiple SSP committees over the years (including co-chairing the communications committee) and make it a priority to participate in SSP events every year.—be they virtual or in-person. I am also a frequent speaker at SSP events covering emerging topics at the intersection of technology and scholarly publishing.

Vision Statement: As I pondered my vision statement for the SSP Board election, I first considered recycling my platform from an ill-fated run for high school Student Council in the early 1990s. Longer outdoor recess every day, better food in the cafeteria—these are surprisingly still relevant!

But even though my fresh air and nourishment needs have stayed the same, a lot has changed in the 20+ years I’ve been involved in scholarly publishing. In particular, our prior orientation of individualized corporate or non-profit action has been steadily supplemented and enhanced by collective action from the participants in our industry. I see this trend continuing and accelerating.

In the natural world, many animals flock or pack together to achieve better hunting and foraging opportunities, increased protection from predators, increased genetic (or idea) diversity, and more efficient locomotion (speed of change). It’s not a conceptual stretch to apply these concepts to the members of our scholarly publishing community as these are the benefits we’re looking when we come together. In my opinion, SSP is the biggest and best “flock” in our industry and I pledge to focus my efforts on the Board in promoting the most effective convening activities among our members to achieve these benefits.


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