Editorial Assistant, Journals, Infectious Diseases of America
Tell us a bit about yourself. Where are you from, and what did you study? Where are you currently based?
I’m currently based in the Washington, D.C., area, where I’ve lived most of my life. I grew up in a very culturally diverse community in suburban Maryland, which influenced my evolving interest in diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility. My curiosity in the broader publishing industry stems from my interests in writing and literature. I’ve been writing fiction and dabbling in poetry since middle school, and I wanted to learn more about how books were produced.
For my undergraduate studies, I attended The George Washington University (GWU) in D.C. I studied English literature, creative writing, and journalism. During junior year, I even studied abroad at the University of Oxford, which was my first introduction to global storytelling. This interest continued at a writing and cultural exchange summer program at the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program. I spent two weeks with 29 writers from the United States, India, and Pakistan, and enjoyed learning about common threads between the literature we read from those countries. Since my family is from India and Pakistan, this program also helped me reconcile my identity as a South Asian and Muslim American and how my unique perspective and background can influence my professional life and goals.
After graduating from GWU in 2019, I worked in publishing roles at companies such as National Geographic Books and EMILY’s List for a couple of years. However, I wanted to understand the publishing industry beyond my editorial and marketing experiences, so I decided to obtain a graduate degree. After much deliberation, I moved to London in 2022 for a year to pursue an International Publishing MA from City, St. George’s University of London. I loved how my program explored all aspects of publishing through a global lens through the wealth of my professors’ and the guest speakers’ first-hand experiences. After my graduation in January 2024, I moved back to Maryland, where I’m currently working in a fully remote position.
Describe your current role and organization. What are your main responsibilities? What type of organization do you work for?
Currently, I’m the Editorial Assistant at the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), a nonprofit society for physicians, scientists, and public health experts who specialize in infectious diseases. I work with IDSA’s three scholarly journals: Open Forum Infectious Diseases (OFID), Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID), and Journal of Infectious Diseases (JID). My main responsibilities support OFID (which is a fully OA journal), and I also support and manage projects that apply to all three IDSA journals. These include assisting with building out and implementing reviewer recognition and mentorship programs, flagging people who volunteer to peer review for the journals, creating and updating guides and templates, and more. Most of my workday involves troubleshooting and aiding authors, reviewers, and editors to keep OFID running smoothly. I also perform quality control checks on new, revised, and transferred papers that are submitted to OFID and assign submissions to Deputy Editors. IDSA’s membership is global, and this is reflected in all aspects of the IDSA journals. The editors, authors, and reviewers we work with every day are located around the world, and the journals run programs and initiatives that help elevate underrepresented researchers outside North America.
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’ve had a few scholarly, trade nonfiction, and nonprofit jobs throughout my career. My first role in scholarly publishing was with the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) when I was an undergraduate student. I was searching for part-time federal work-study jobs and learned that the Smithsonian museums and some federal agencies (like the Department of Justice) offered student work-study positions. I didn’t have any connections to the Smithsonian at the time, but I still applied in case I had a chance. As the federal work-study editorial assistant, I supported the museum’s American Art journal and fellowship program. This experience gave me a foundation of journal publishing, fact-checking, scholarly research, and the peer-review process. Once I graduated from GWU, I spent a summer interning at Smithsonian Books, which directly led to my next position at National Geographic Books. While assisting the adult books’ editorial team, I became increasingly interested in other departments within a publishing house (such as sales, marketing, and acquisitions) since they work closely together on projects.
During my time at National Geographic, I also faced a couple of unexpected challenges. I dealt with impostor syndrome during the first 4–5 months on the job. After I finally settled into my role, I was laid off at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it took me another eight months to find my next role. Both of these unexpected challenges were disheartening, and it took a while to regain my confidence and self-esteem. I was able to rebuild these during my next role at EMILY’s List, a political organization that supports Democratic women running for office. I copyedited and helped project manage direct marketing materials, while also hiring and managing interns and co-chairing a DEI subcommittee. Although I was growing into my role, I wanted to challenge myself and return to the global publishing industry, so I decided to pursue a master’s degree. My International Publishing MA program gave me a greater understanding of the different aspects of the scholarly publishing world, which I didn’t know beyond my work-study position at the SAAM. Although I was originally interested in trade publishing, I mainly applied for and received interviews for scholarly publishing positions based on my past experiences. I liked how varied the scholarly publishing world is and how it’s constantly evolving and creating new avenues to support researchers and authors from different backgrounds and subject areas. After consistently interviewing for positions (I had 2–3 interviews per week!) for 5–6 months, I finally received an offer for my current role at IDSA.
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?
During my graduate program, I interned with the United Kingdom’s Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). My classmates and I contributed raw data to CLPE’s 2023 Reflecting Realities report, which examines ethnic representation and diversity in children’s publishing in the United Kingdom. We each read over 60 children’s books and analyzed the extent and quality of each book’s diverse characters. I read picture books, early chapter books, and middle grade novels with a wide variety of characters, topics, and stories. My classmates and I really connected to the books with meaningfully crafted and detailed characters, stories, and illustrations. We noticed sharp differences between those books and those with generalized and underdeveloped diverse characters. It was interesting to see that difference in attention and care to the diverse characters and stories. Throughout my studies and career, I’ve been interested in amplifying authors and researchers from diverse, underrepresented communities. This internship really demonstrated why that’s important and the impact those efforts can have on readers. My takeaways from this experience (although it was rooted in trade publishing) still follow me in my scholarly publishing career.
How do you balance your professional and personal life? Any fun facts or hobbies outside of scholarly communications?
I’m still learning ways to balance my professional and personal life, but I focus on professional tasks during my working hours and take small breaks throughout the day. Since my job is fully remote, I usually prepare lunch or snacks, walk around my house or neighborhood, or do a mini yoga/stretching session during my breaks. To-do lists have also helped me manage my time and see what tasks I can accomplish within a day or by the end of a work week. Usually, to unwind after work, I love to cook and try new recipes, read books (mostly thriller and mystery novels), work on my creative writing projects, or watch a TV show or movie. I also participate in some volunteer opportunities to stay involved in the broader publishing and writing communities. I read fiction and non-fiction contest submissions for The Master’s Review, a literary journal for emerging writers. I’ve also reviewed high schoolers’ short stories and poems as a juror for the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. Additionally, I volunteered to support two book festivals in my local community last year: the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland and the National Book Festival in D.C. While volunteering I had a chance to meet and hear from writers such as Angie Kim, Rebecca Yarros, Alice McDermott, Jayne Anne Phillips, Kennedy Ryan, David Baldacci, and Sierra Greer! Those were pretty amazing experiences and fun ways to get involved in my local community.
