Stefan Skeen
I joined Informa Healthcare at the start of 2007, recruited from the Philadelphia office of Taylor & Francis, where my publishing career had begun not long before. I’ve been a Production Editor with IBI, stationed at 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, ever since. My duties are myriad. I coordinate the full production process—from the inception of our bespoke Pharma-focused work and/or the peer review of original medical research, through live online publication and the printed editions’ dispatch—of 7528 pages of journal content annually. My titles cover all disciplines within our Clinical Medicine division, from pediatric neurosurgery through cosmetic laser therapy, psychiatry to molecular pathology.
It can be rough-and-tumble work, but work whose purpose becomes clear when we publish—when our efforts are made tangible; it’s never less than satisfying. I’ve always loved to build, to create. I’m always eager to take part in the creation of something, anything, upright, indelible, and—in assisting the Rural Housing Program—of real and indisputable benefit.
End Goal
In the end, I want to know that we’ve achieved one more positive human interaction that, absent our efforts, might never have been. I am of course thrilled to travel, to meet some of our far-flung colleagues, and, more pointedly, some Costa Rican families and fellow laborers whose paths I’d never otherwise cross. This being 2011, we’re also equipped as never before to invite in whomever, from anywhere else on Earth, to share in this opportunity. I hope to do my part, given the technology at hand, to evoke some sense of our experiences, both in real time and for the future.
What can I do to achieve this goal?
Stay eager, stay engaged, but remember to step back now and then for posterity’s sake. Maintain a balance between living it and documenting it, so others can “live it” too.