More than a dozen GW Master of Professional Studies in Publishing students were able to gain “real world industry experience” while participating in a special projects editing course this summer.
The students, under the direction of Publishing program director and associate professor John Warren and faculty member Randy Townsend (MPS 2011), contributed to volunteer efforts for the August 25 publication of the Antiracism Toolkit for Organizations.
This toolkit, written by a multiracial group of industry professionals, is intended to help organizations of all types within scholarly publishing implement inclusive policies, procedures, and norms. It was published by the Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) and Toolkits for Equity in Scholarly Publishing project volunteers. It is hosted on the publishing platform, PubPub.
Under the oversight of project co-leaders Damita Snow, CAE (American Society of Civil Engineers) and Jocelyn Dawson (Duke University Press), they recruited volunteers from across the industry to assist with the project in various ways, including the GW publishing students, who contributed to tone review and editing. In addition to the project co-leaders, the GW students and faculty also worked closely with volunteers Gabriel Harp and Dawit Tegbaru.
“By presenting key equity insights, best practices, and actionable recommendations, we intend to shift the focus from ‘diversity’ to equity and inclusion. The process must involve all and happen on an individual, interpersonal, and community level,” said project co-leader, Jocelyn Dawson.
"There are many organizations working on DEI and we wish for the toolkit to be a resource for them no matter where they are in the process," added project co-leader, Damita Snow.
"We had an incredible group of more than 50 diverse volunteers who did so much to complete the document and who determined the topics to be addressed as well as completing the research to present accurate information and reading what others wrote to ensure that we had a unified voice."
GW Publishing Student Volunteers:
- Gabrielle Bethancourt
- Amanda Clark
- Matisen Douglas
- Christine Gendy
- Sarah Godlin
- Corrine Gosling
- Kiarah Lee
- Arielle Lewis
- Sadie Markley
- Olivia Mills
- Abby Norton
- Ambriah S. Underwood
- Elizabeth Von Mann
“The Toolkit for Organizations provided a great opportunity to involve students in the development of a valuable resource that will have lasting impacts on the publishing industry,” says Warren. “It also introduced them to a massively collaborative and respectful approach to facing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) in their publishing careers."
“I was very proud to see their enthusiasm for the toolkit and how responsibly they took their roles,” added Townsend.