Annual Meeting

CSE’s 2022 Awards and Honors

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Each year, CSE recognizes excellence by leaders in the field of science communication and acknowledges the exceptional accomplishments and contributions of its members by presenting a series of awards to recipients selected by its Awards and Honors Committee. 

On May 3, 2022, Carissa Gilman, CSE past president (2020–2021), on behalf of the Awards and Honors Committee Chair and CSE past president (2019–2020), will announce the awardees during a celebratory luncheon at the 2022 Annual Meeting in Phoenix. The Awards and Honors luncheon is a longstanding CSE tradition that sadly had to be transitioned to a virtual awards presentation in 2020 and 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. CSE is delighted to rekindle this tradition in 2022!

Certificates of Appreciation

The Certificate of Appreciation is given to CSE members who have made a laudable contribution to CSE. This year we honor two deserving recipients.

Patty Baskin and Leslie Neistadt, Mentorship Committee Co-Chairs

Patty Baskin

Patty has been a devoted CSE volunteer for many years and has served in many capacities, including as the 2016–2017 President. One of her notable contributions to CSE during that time was a proposal to launch the CSE Mentorship Program. Patty’s vision codified CSE’s long history of informal networking and peer-to-peer learning into a structured career development resource for members. According to Patty:

“At the same time that I was serving as CSE President in 2017, I was helping to set up a mentorship program in my own organization where I saw the value in helping earlier career professionals build their expertise and for more experienced staff to contribute and stay engaged. Both mentor and mentee benefitted and made new friends. I suggested to the board that a mentorship program of pairing our long-time members with those looking for guidance in their careers would be a way to add value to their CSE memberships. Thanks to devoted, enthusiastic committee members and volunteers, we’ve seen wonderful growth in careers and confidence for both members of the mentorship dyads, along with the creation of treasured friendships! I look forward to my own meetings with mentees as a highlight of my month.”

Leslie Neistadt

Leslie Neistadt has served as Mentorship Committee Co-Chair alongside Patty Baskin since its inception and has been instrumental in its growth and success. The mentorship committee screens applications and does a remarkable job of pairing mentees in one-on-one relationships with veteran members of CSE. Leslie describes how a successful mentor/mentee pairing results in rewarding relationships:

“When I first learned of Patty’s idea for a CSE mentorship program, I was intrigued. I’ve been fortunate to have great mentors throughout my career, so I know how valuable they are and saw this as an effective way of giving back to the profession. To potential mentors who aren’t sure you have anything to offer, I ask you to consider that you likely know far more than you realize. Also, the learning goes both ways. We find that the mentees are not the only ones who benefit from these relationships; the mentors enjoy them, too!”

Distinguished Service Award

CSE’s Distinguished Service Award recognizes excellence in the performance of specific tasks by CSE members.

Amanda Ferguson, Web Editor

Amanda Ferguson

Amanda has served CSE as Web Editor for many years. As Web Editor, Amanda plays a vital role in developing and maintaining the public face of CSE. During her tenure, she shepherded the main CSE website through an upgrade and redesign, and played an instrumental role in the creation of the Science Editor website, among many other achievements. Amanda’s eye for detail, aesthetic sensibilities, and skilled project management have been a true boon to CSE. In recognition of this award, Amanda says:

“I am honored to receive CSE’s Distinguished Service award! Volunteering with CSE has helped me grow in my career and practice skills that are beyond the scope of my normal job. The most valuable aspect of serving as Web Editor, besides gaining a deeper knowledge of the excellent editorial office guidance that CSE offers on its website, has been working with many other passionate CSE volunteers. As an introvert, networking has never been my strongest suit; getting involved in a committee provides easy opportunities to meet, work with, and learn from peers across the scholarly publishing field.”

Award for Meritorious Achievement

This is CSE’s highest honor. It is awarded to an individual or an organization that has made significant contributions to advancing the broad goal of CSE: to improve scientific communication through the pursuit of high standards in all activities connected with editing.

C4DISC

The Coalition for Diversity and Inclusion in Scholarly Communications (C4DISC) embraces an essential mission to work with organizations and individuals to build equity, inclusion, diversity, and accessibility (DEIA) in scholarly communications. With the Award for Meritorious Achievement, CSE applauds C4DISC’s commitment to DEIA as a moral imperative and to advancing its principles for the long-term sustainability and success of our industry.

C4DISC was founded by ten trade and professional associations that represent organizations and individuals working in scholarly communications. CSE is proud to be one of these ten founding members. Today, more than 100 organizations have adopted the C4DISC Joint Statement of Principles. C4DISC has also developed the Toolkits for Equity, a series of groundbreaking training guides to aid in transforming our workplaces and organizational cultures.

C4DISC’s convener, Melanie Dolecheck, will accept the CSE Award for Meritorious Achievement on behalf of the organization. Melanie commented, 

“As the convener and a founding member of C4DISC I am proud of how far C4DISC has come in a few short years and the work that we’ve accomplished so far. The response and support from the scholarly communications community has been inspiring to say the least. The passion that our community has for doing this work is reflected in the countless volunteer hours that have already been dedicated to developing community resources. 

The Coalition was built for our community, by our community. It exists because we’ve collectively acknowledged that to ensure sustainability, equity, growth, and access, our industry must commit to long-term efforts to curb the deeply ingrained patterns of exclusion and inequity in our practices, policies, and frameworks.”