One grateful goodbye — and two happy hellos

STM Changes in Staff | August 2022

Farewell to Andrea Powell

This summer, STM said goodbye to our Director of Outreach and Publisher Coordinator for the Research4Life initiative, Andrea Powell.

Powell had held these roles since November 2018, focusing on the Research4Life initiative, and working on topics that relate to global research equity. During this time, Andrea played a critical role in steering dialogue about establishing an inclusive, diverse, and equitable scholarly communications environment.

“Andrea has been an essential fixture for STM since 2018. During her tenure with STM, Andrea has expanded publisher participation in Research4Life and challenged us to consider the wider global landscape in the projects and services STM has developed,” said STM CEO, Caroline Sutton. “It was an honest pleasure working with Andrea—her work truly made a lasting impact, and one that has changed the trajectory of STM for the better in so many ways. I always appreciated how Andrea was readily available to lend an ear and help solve any problem. We will miss her very much, and wish her the best in her next endeavor.”

In the next chapter of her career, Powell plans to focus on her role in local government as a Green Party District Councillor and Cabinet member in South Oxfordshire, United Kingdom.

Read More About Andrea’s Career

Welcome to Sarah Phibbs and Jackie Benoist

We are elated to announce that this month two new staff members will join STM — helping us further our mission to advance trusted research in strategic, meaningful ways. Both bring rich industry expertise, a desire to advance research, and a penchant for collaboration.

Sarah Phibbs has joined STM as our new Director of Research4Life Publisher Partnerships — assuming the role recently vacated by Andrea Powell. Before joining STM, Sarah was Vice President of Wiley’s STM Society Publishing, and is currently running her own consulting business. Sarah comes to the role already having close experience with Research4Life’s new strategy.

“I’ve loved facilitating such a committed group to design R4L’s Strategic Plan and Theory of Change. Joining STM gives me the opportunity to build on Andrea’s fantastic work and begin transforming R4L’s role from one way donation to enabling reciprocal, diverse and rich scholarly exchange.”

“Collaboration across user and publishing communities offers potential for a strong publisher legacy for R4L in the UN SDGs, contributing to genuinely equitable open scholarship,” said Phibbs.

Sarah Phibbs | LinkedIn

Jackie Benoist will assume the position of Executive Assistant and Project Coordinator. Jackie will support STM’s CEO, Caroline Sutton — and will work to coordinate other key initiatives as well. Before joining STM Jackie worked for almost two decades at Taylor & Francis, an Informa UK business as part of the Executive team supporting the current and previous CEO.

“We know Jackie and Sarah are going to be valuable assets and can’t wait to see what they bring to life here at STM,” said Sutton.

Please join us in extending a heartfelt welcome to Sarah and Jackie as they begin their journey with STM. Welcome aboard!

Jackie Benoist | LinkedIn