May 3, 2022 – The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) 2022-2023 election results are in! Join us in welcoming the following leaders to our Board of Directors:
President-Elect
Randy Townsend, MPS, Director, Publishing Operations, PLOS; Editor in Chief, GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing
Bio: At PLOS, Randy Townsend, MPS, (he, him, his) translates organizational vision and mission into clear priorities and practical goals to ensure alignment and collaboration. He has been a leader in policy implementation and journal strategy. Randy serves as a judge for the EXCEL Awards, is a member of the Associations Council Advisory Board, sits on the Executive Advisory Board of AM&P Network where he also chairs the organization’s Diversity and Inclusion initiatives and serves on the Awards Committee. He is Chair of the Webinar Subcommittee for the Council of Science Editors (CSE), a member of ALPSP’s Programming Committee and an at-large SSP Board Member. Randy is also the inaugural Editor in Chief for the GW Journal of Ethics in Publishing and is an Associate Professor of the MPS in Publishing program in the College of Professional Studies at George Washington University.
Board Members-at-Large
Mike Di Natale, Publishing Technology Manager, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Bio: Mike Di Natale has spent his career in scholarly communications at the intersection of publishing and technology, looking for ways to help organizations take advantage of new tools to strengthen their publishing output. Most recently this path has led him to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) where he helped lead a platform migration for the Science family of journals as Publishing Technology Manager.
He came to this career after a brief interlude in local journalism via Aries Systems where he worked in client services and product management before transitioning to nonprofits, including BioOne where he served as Director of Technology and Operations and eventually to AAAS.
According to Mike, SSP has been an incredible resource for him, enhancing his career with professional development, connecting him to a wide range of industry professionals, and creating lasting friendships. He has been co-chair of the Communications and Membership committees, organized annual meeting sessions as part of the Early Career Subcommittee, helped the Chefs prepare for events as part of The Scholarly Kitchen Cabinet, and most recently served out a one-year term on the Board of Directors opened by a vacated seat. “Serving this community has been and continues to be, one of the highlights of my career.”
Hannah Heckner, Director of Product Strategy, Silverchair
Bio: As Director of Product Strategy at Silverchair, Hannah funnels industry trends, current customer feedback, sales prospect desires, integrator needs, and internal colleague feedback to identify, organize, prioritize, and execute on areas for development of the Silverchair platform. She says this work is an incredibly rewarding mix of internal and external collaboration and problem-solving in which she is constantly learning new things and getting to stay in the loop on the exciting projects and transitions the Silverchair client set, and the industry at large, are undertaking.
In her current capacity, she jokes that she is a recovering publisher, as her career experience preceding Silverchair includes an internship at UNC Press, time with Taylor + Francis across multiple divisions within their Philadelphia journals office, the American Psychological Association on their production team, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in their Office of Publishing where she was one of the early members of their product function. Her transition from publishing organization to technology company in early 2020 was one of the first dramatic transitions of that year. This new perspective has helped her to recognize even more the intricacies of the technological underpinnings of the scholarly communication ecosystem, as well as the opportunities that abound when the stakeholders within this ecosystem can work together with their common goals, and their end users’ needs, in mind. She has enjoyed the opportunities she’s had to participate in such collaborative conversations as a member of the NISO Plus Advisory Board, a participant in the Sloan-funded Reducing the Inadvertent Spread of Retracted Science (RISRS) project, and as a regular NISO and SSP webinar participant, speaker, and moderator.
Tao Tao, Managing Editor, JACC: Asia, American College of Cardiology (ACC)
Bio: Tao Tao is the Managing Editor of JACC: Asia at the American College of Cardiology (ACC). Previously, she was an independent consultant focusing on the Chinese academic market. She has worked in the scholarly publishing industry for her entire career, starting as Associate Editor of Chinese Medical Journal, the oldest academic periodical in China. Later, she joined The Charlesworth Group, a UK publishing services company, and helped establish their first overseas office in Beijing and held the position of General Manager for 15 years before moving to the US office as Vice President of China Sales. Years of work in China and in the US have given Tao a good understanding of both the Chinese and Western community of academic communications.
Chhavi Chauhan, Director of Scientific Outreach, American Society for Investigative Pathology; Director of Continuing Medical Education Program, The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics
Bio: Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is Director for Scientific Outreach at the American Society for Investigative Pathology and Director of the Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program at the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. She is a leader of the Women in AI Ethics CollectiveTM and an expert at the AI Policy Exchange.
She is a biomedical researcher, expert scholarly communicator, and a sought-after mentor in the fields of scientific research, scholarly publishing (has served on several SSP cohorts), and AI Ethics, especially for women and minorities. She is a thought leader, a renowned international speaker, and a strong advocate for equitable and accessible healthcare and is a Co-Chair of the SSP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She sits at the intersection of scientific research, scholarly communications, science policy, medical education, and responsible tech in healthcare.
Her vision is to provide equitable personalized healthcare to all, beyond geographies, and despite socioeconomic disparities.
These new board members will begin their terms on June 1. Current Past President Lauren Kane, and Board members Lisa Hinchliffe and Rebecca McLeod will conclude their terms at that time.
Election winners will join incumbent board members incoming President Miranda Walker, incoming Past President Alice Meadows, Secretary/Treasurer Emilie Delquié, and Members-at-Large Meredith Adinolfi, Gabe Harp, Sai Konda, Charlotte Roh, Sara Rouhi, and David Crotty (ex-officio). Thank you to all of our members who voted!
About the Society for Scholarly Publishing The Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), founded in 1978, is a nonprofit organization formed to promote and advance communication among all sectors of the scholarly publication community through networking, information dissemination, and facilitation of new developments in the field. SSP members represent all aspects of scholarly publishing—including publishers, printers, e-products developers, technical service providers, librarians, and editors. SSP members come from a wide range of large and small commercial and nonprofit organizations. They meet at SSP’s annual meetings, educational seminars, and regional events to hear the latest trends from respected colleagues and to discuss common and mutual (and sometimes divergent) goals and viewpoints.
Contact Melanie Dolechek, Executive Director | info@sspnet.org | 303-422-3914
Join the Conversation
You must be logged in to post a comment.