Growing up, I always had my nose in a book or was furiously typing stories on our clunky 90s Macintosh computer. The written word has captivated me since childhood, and I knew very early on that some day, when I grew up, I would work with language in some capacity.
I attended Villanova University (located in the Philadelphia suburbs), a private, Catholic university that prides itself on educating the whole person and cultivating an understanding of culture and the beauty of humanity, whether one majored in engineering or business or political science. I majored in English at Villanova, but I also profoundly enjoyed my other classes in theology, communications, Italian and biology. I left school with a sharper eye and ear for language, but also with a well-rounded background that I was proud to bring to my very first full-time job in an industry that was only slightly familiar to me: medical communications.
My career in medical communications began on the client services side. I was an Account Coordinator on several major accounts and was thrown into the world of complicated project timelines, client relationship building and financials. This experience taught me so much about the inner workings of this industry, but I knew I wanted to do more with words and language, and medical publishing seemed like a logical next step!
In 2014, I took a job as a Developmental Editor for the Clinics of North America department at Elsevier, and during my nearly 6 years there, I moved through the ranks and ended up in Acquisitions Editing. This is the more business-y side of editing and required a strong understanding of current trends, markets, publishing business models, and the complicated manuscript and publication processes. In 2020, I moved from an Acquisitions Editor role with the hybrid book/journal model of the Clinics to an Acquisitions role at Wolters Kluwer in their clinical reference books department. My time in medical communications and medical publishing created a mosaic of experience on my résumé, and it also allowed me to understand where I truly wanted to go.
In March 2021, I found an opening for an Editor at Oxford PharmaGenesis, a medical communications company I knew had a very strong reputation and a thriving team. After just two interviews, I knew this was a special place that cared not only about their clients and work, but also about helping their people grow. So, I find myself back in medical communications, using my diverse editorial background to ultimately contribute to the healthcare and wellbeing of my fellow humans. I’m so glad I ended up here.
