After Words: The Right People

Keerti Shah has built up the science on human papillomaviruses by attracting generations of researchers to the cause, as Maryalice Yakutchik explains in her story on HPV research. The legendary virologist’s essential message: Great challenges must be met by great teams.

Documenting the remarkable efforts of 1,300 faculty working in 120 countries and 2,200 students from 87 nations with a riveting publication is our great challenge. It’s time you met our great team (listed by their length of time with us):

Consulting editor Sue De Pasquale has been with the magazine longer than I have. (I arrived in 2001.) A gracious collaborator with a keen sense of story, Sue has helped us make good articles great and constantly improve the magazine’s quality.

Robert Ollinger, our senior art director, is our creative force. When people say the magazine is beautiful, I credit Robert who wrangles the illustrators and photographers. Robert has directed photo shoots in almost every corner of the School (including behind the walls and on the roof), on the streets of Baltimore, on a tributary of the Potomac and in an autopsy room. Robert also helps shape stories with his ideas and oft-brilliant headlines.

Konrad Crispino, our graphic designer, does the hard, much-appreciated work of integrating all the great photos and illustrations and patiently correcting the text in our articles until they’re perfect.

Jackie Powder, our staff writer, has written stories with insight and verve on everything from obesity and water, to Niger and global health surgery (her cover story in this issue).

Associate editor Maryalice Yakutchik is our go-to basic science writer who loves the thrill of diving deep to the cellular level and surfacing with stories of how our bodies work (and don’t work) and how researchers are figuring it all out.

In addition, our superb digital and Web team including David Croft, Ranjan Vadlamani, Carlos Ballena and ace videographer Spencer Greer make our stories come alive for the world to see online.

Managing editor Susan Sperry, who also leads our Marketing and Communications at the School, provides essential leadership and the big-picture view of where we’re all headed.

The main thing, as gun violence expert Daniel Webster says in an article in this issue, is to “get the right people and give all the credit to them.”