Archives: People

Christene Smith is a Commercial Editor at Wiley, specializing in B2B publications and working on the editorial team of CHEManager International. She plays a key role in shaping the editorial strategy to ensure the content is both relevant and impactful for industry professionals. Christene holds a PhD in Chemistry, which enhances her editorial expertise.

Additionally, she currently co-leads the Research & Learning DEI Council at Wiley, where she champions diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives within the organization. Before joining Wiley, Christene worked at De Gruyter (now De Gruyter Brill), as an Acquisition Editor and was a founding member of their IDEAL Committee.

Damita Snow, CAE, ENV SP, is the Director of Accessibility & Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategy, Publications & Standards, at the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). She is the founder and former chair of ASCE’s Staff Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) Council. In addition, she has served as a co-chair for the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Committee at the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP), where she currently holds a position on the board.

Snow’s leadership experience extends to her roles as the Community Engagement Committee and the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Committee chairs for Association Media & Publishing (AM&P). She also served on the AM&P board. Snow was also a member of the Research Committee arm of the Foundation at the American Society of Association Executives Foundation (ASAE).

Previously, she co-chaired the Publications Special Interest Group for the Council of Engineering and Scientific Society Executives (CESSE) and was a member of the Annual Meeting Committee. At present, she is a board member of Black Associations Executives (BAE), as well as the program lead for the 2024 Women in Artificial Intelligence, Global Ethical & Responsible AI Speaker Series.

Carmen is an innovator who views the world through the lens of possibilities and progress. With a unique blend of technical and creative expertise as both an engineer and a musician, she constantly explores the systems around her to find efficient and original ways to advance them.

Since 2015, Carmen has gained extensive experience in the Clinical and Molecular Imaging sectors, working with several market-leading companies. She served as an Imaging Specialist for Southern Europe before taking over her current role as Global Imaging Product Manager in May 1, 2022.

Her colleagues describe her as passionate, energetic, and open-minded. She readily leads projects that deliver significant value to customers and contribute to the growth of her organization.

Carmen holds a bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from the University Carlos III in Madrid, an MBA with a focus on the Biopharmaceutical and Biotechnological industries from the University of Alcalá, and a Professional degree in Double Bass from the Professional Conservatoire of Music in Madrid.

In her free time, she enjoys CrossFit, weightlifting, traveling, and walking her dog, Niobe.

Deirdre Black is Head of Science and the Sustainability Strategy Lead at the Royal Society of Chemistry.  Her role includes using insights on global trends in science to inform strategy and develop programmes.  She has variously led the RSC’s policy, scientific programmes and international engagement teams.

Exploring the interfaces between science, digitisation and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, she has focussed on specific topics like AI and automation in R&D, recognition and multidisciplinary collaboration in science, and greener science.  She led the development of the RSC’s first organisational Sustainability Strategy Blueprint and is the sponsor of its Sustainable Labs programme.  She held postdoctoral positions in physics and in science education policy in the USA and UK before joining the RSC in 2011.

Neil has extensive interests in sustainable digital scholarship supported by open, pragmatic systems and standards.

He is a co-creator of the International Image Interoperability Framework and the Oxford Common File Layout, community lead for the SWORD protocol, and contributed to the ePub/A specification recently submitted to ISO. Neil also teaches and does research in the Digital Humanties.

Wiebke Krasting is the Senior Vice President of Data Engineering at Elsevier, where she leads a technology organization responsible for extracting, linking, enriching, and curating high-quality research data, including Scopus Author Profiles.

Wiebke has spent the majority of her career as an engineer and architect, later transitioning into leadership positions across various companies. She has consistently focused on solutions that leverage high-quality data to drive insights and promote scalable, responsible data processing.

Debora Comparin is Standardization Expert at Thales Digital Identity & Security, founder and chair of the OSIA Initiative, co-founder of SIDI Hub and Advisory Board member of the Linux Foundation Europe.

She is a strong advocate for achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.9 ‘Identity for all by 2030’ and in 2019 founded the OSIA initiative, a public-private sector partnership to build interoperability for national identity infrastructures. OSIA is recognized as an International Telecommunication Union (ITU) standard by its 193 governments.

In 2023 Debora co-founded SIDI Hub, a platform for standard organizations, governments and non-profits to define a solution for cross-border digital Identity interoperability.

Today, Debora is a Tech Policy Fellow at UC Berkeley where she is analyzing how secure hardware platform(s) technology aligns with policy requirements to ensure the security of digital wallets.

She holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from University of Padova.

Seán O’Connor’s (they/them) research and practice focus on intellectual property and business law for commercializing innovation in technology and arts.

Professor O’Connor received their law degree from Stanford Law School, a master’s degree in philosophy from Arizona State University, and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Before graduate school they were a singer-songwriter and rock band front person with two DIY albums that received local airplay in the Northeast.

They are currently serving as Editor of The Oxford Handbook of Music Law & Policy (Oxford University Press) and of 5G and Beyond: Intellectual Property and Competition Policy in the Internet of Things (forthcoming Cambridge University Press 2023)(with Jonathan Barnett). Professor O’Connor is also Founder & Executive Director of the Music Ecosystems Institute, Washington, D.C. USA.

Olivia Nippe is a Senior Publishing Ethics Expert working in Elsevier’s Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics (RI&PE) Centre of Expertise.

Upon completion of her PhD in Life Sciences at the University of Warwick, United Kingdom in 2019, Olivia joined Elsevier as an Associate Scientific Editor, quickly developing a passion for research integrity, and joined the RI&PE team in 2021.

While involved in the investigation and resolution of a wide range of ethics cases, Olivia has a particular interest in Image Alteration and Duplication Detection, being a part of the STM Image Integrity working group, as well as in sharing best practice in publishing ethics with research communities.