At the June 2022 Annual Business Meeting, the membership elected Katy Grenfell to join Cody Sisco as an EFA co-executive. Both Katy and Cody initially joined the Board in 2021. You can view the full roster of 2022-23 Board members on the EFA website, but we’d like to introduce you to nine new members of the Board of Governors.

EFA Secretary

Along with co-executive Katy Grenfell, a new secretary, Ronane Lloyd, was elected to succeed Joy Drohan. She will serve a two-year term. Ronane joined the EFA in 2021. Prior to launching her freelance career, she worked as a resume coach. She has extensive leadership experience through managerial positions within restaurants, retail, and ultimately, as a director of human resources. Ronane believes that if the EFA can grow its membership while broadening the types of backgrounds, abilities, and experiences of its members, we’ll improve the experience and value of EFA membership overall and strengthen our voice in the industry as a whole.

Committee Leadership

There are new leaders to the following four committees of record.

Discussion List

Jean Gazis became the Discussion List (DL) chairperson in June. She is a freelance writer, editor, and book reviewer with a background in nonprofit communications and B2B marketing. Her services include writing articles, marketing copy, and digital content; copyediting, proofreading, and fact-checking. She is expanding into manuscript evaluation and developmental editing. She has been a member of the EFA since May 2021 and was invited to be a Discussion List Community Manager last winter. Jean notes, “The team that revamped the moderation process during the DL’s hiatus did a fantastic job that set up the current community managers for success. My goals are to continue to improve and streamline our processes, recruit some additional community managers, and to make the DL a resource that truly serves all members who wish to participate, and where everyone feels welcome and valued. I’d also like to coordinate with other EFA communication channels to cross-promote EFA initiatives and events.”

Social Media

Renee Clark has been an EFA member for almost four years. She is a proofreader and freelance writer specializing in retail tech, customer service, and retail business. Renee Writes Retail is her website where you can enjoy her perspective on the latest retail news. She started volunteering with the social media team in August 2021 then became Instagram team leader soon after joining. She was appointed Social Media chairperson in June. Her goal for the Social Media team is to be the communication and announcement piece for all things EFA. Renee plans on connecting and collaborating with other committee leaders and magnifying areas of the EFA that may not get a lot of attention or support. In using social media, the social media team hopes to create a space for committees, groups, and members to share what they’re doing and how their hard work is contributing to the EFA.

Diversity, Equity & Belonging (DEB) (formerly the Diversity Initiative)

Dr. Sara Kamali and Andrea Reid were both elected as Members at Large in June, and in August were appointed as co-chairs of the newly renamed Diversity, Equity & Belonging.

Dr. Sara Kamali has been a member of the EFA for a little over a year. She has been a professional freelance editor for 10 years, is the founder and director of Kamali Consulting, and teaches copyediting courses with the University of California San Diego (UCSD) Extension’s certificate program.

Andrea Reid has been an EFA member for over two years. She is the founder of ProofreidingINC, a small boutique that offers proofreading and editing services for first-time and existing authors and small businesses. She recently authored her first book Treasured by God, and is a founding member of the Ad Hoc Committee on HBCU Scholarships.

Events

In October, Kristen Tate will succeed Amy Spungen as Events chairperson. Kristen is the proprietor of The Blue Garret, and she offers a variety of editorial services. She has been an EFA member since 2015 and is the co-coordinator of EFA’s San Francisco Bay Area chapter.

Members at Large

The following members were elected as new Members at Large in June.

Sheryl Holmberg joined the EFA in November, 2013. She was a founding member of the PR group, served as proofreader for a number of issues of the Freelancer, and helped promote the most recent EFA Rates Survey. Since 2021, she has headed the PR initiative and created a series of press releases for EFA industry events and the Ruth Mullen Memorial Scholarship. She hopes to promote the resources the EFA has to offer and to create new content to draw people to the EFA website, classes, and events. She would specifically like to work to improve a sense of community among members, promote diversity (and diverse voices) in our membership, and expand the EFA’s role in professional development for freelancers.

Jennifer Maybin had been an EFA member since about 2007. She is a medical editor and writer and has run her own business since 2004. She also teaches—both English composition to undergraduates at the university level and copyediting for the UCSD Copyediting Certificate program. She previously served the EFA as Education and Membership chairperson, was a chapter coordinator in Maine, and is the current editor of the Freelancer. She feels strongly about giving back to an organization that has provided so much richness to her as an individual, a business owner, and a communicator.

Kirsten Reach joined the EFA in 2021, three years after starting her own editorial consulting firm, Jonquil Editorial. In the past, she worked as assistant editor at Henry Holt & Company (Macmillan) and Grand Central Publishing (Hachette), and editor at Melville House. Kirsten also served as Fiction Editor at the Kenyon Review. As an EFA volunteer, she’s staffed the EFA table at an ACES conference, agreed to write book reviews for the Freelancer; and in partnership with Karyn Johnson, is working to relaunch the EFA Ohio chapter. One of her interests is to develop a crises management plan.

We are grateful that these members have volunteered to serve the EFA. If you are interested in serving as a Board member in the future, considering volunteering with the EFA to learn more about the organization. Call for nominations for the 2023-24 Board of Governors will be available in April 2023.

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Susan Patton
EFA General Manager