Reflecting on some highlights from 2021

Happy new year! We hope that you got a bit of a break over the holiday period. Before we outline what’s coming up at CSCCE in 2022, we wanted first to reflect on 2021 and another busy 12 months for the CSCCE team. 

While this post summarizes a few of CSCCE’s “greatest hits,” from the year, it has also been an emotionally and logistically challenging year, with many of us operating under conditions of radical uncertainty and yet always trying to show one another care. As we continue to operate in the midst of a global pandemic, we want to acknowledge that while it’s important to celebrate our successes, 2021 has been difficult too.

Before we dig in, a heartfelt thank you to everyone we’ve worked with over the past year; members of our community of practice, learners in our online trainings, and clients and colleagues. We appreciate every joyful opportunity to learn and grow alongside you as we work to professionalize and institutionalize the role of the community manager in STEM. 

We’d also like to thank our major funder, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, for their continued support, guidance, and commitment to the importance of building communities in STEM. 

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Welcome to Donna Okubo – CSCCE’s new Membership Director

This week, we welcomed Donna Okubo onto the CSCCE staff team. Donna joins us as our Membership Director, and will play a key role as we pilot an institutional membership program next year. We’re delighted she’s decided to share her considerable experience with CSCCE and hope you’ll give her a warm welcome, too.

About Donna

Donna brings more than 14 years of experience in open access and open science to the role of CSCCE membership director. Before joining us, she spent more than a decade working for the Public Library of Science (PLOS), building their 150-member organizational membership program from the ground up. Her talent for seeking out and maintaining partnerships across a diverse range of academic, infrastructure, and industry organizations will be pivotal as CSCCE builds its own institutional membership program (more on that in the coming weeks).

“I’m so excited to join CSCCE at such a dynamic moment in the organization’s development,” she said. “I’ve always loved the start-up spirit, and the CSCCE team is clearly making a vital impact on the way science is done today.”

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