PLOS Board Appointees

I am excited to share with our community that we have completed a recent series of appointments to PLOS’ Board of Directors. 2023 will be an important year for PLOS as we expand our journal offerings, solidify our global reach and continue to innovate in service to our authors with Open Science offerings and new sustainable business models, among other things. Our two new members brings a depth and breadth of knowledge in their fields, which will enable us to continue to drive our mission forward in important ways. The Board plays a key role as strategic thought partner to PLOS leadership, as well as oversight of organizational performance (business, strategic and financial), compliance and risk management.

Professor Emily Sena holds a personal chair in Meta-science and Translational Medicine at the Centre for Clinical Brain Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She specializes in the validity of preclinical research and is a passionate advocate for open science. Her research interests are in the use of meta-research approaches (research on research) to drive improvements in the validity, transparency, reporting and reproducibility of primary research using laboratory models of human diseases. Her work has informed laboratory practice guidelines, editorial policy and clinical trials design.

Emily was the inaugural Editor-in-Chief of BMJ Open Science and is on the managing board of PCI Registered Reports and convenor of CAMARADES – an international collaboration that supports, advances and undertakes systematic reviews of preclinical research. She also co-founded and was co-convenor of the Edinburgh Race Equality Network, and now convenes the University of Edinburgh Race Equality and Anti-Racist Sub-Committee. She is highly committed to engendering and facilitating an anti-racist culture across campus, and diversity and inclusivity in academia.

Steven Tom is a senior vice president, chief customer officer at Adtalem Global Education. In this role, Steven partners with Adtalem’s institutions to optimize student experiences, develop differentiated learning offerings and solutions, build strategic employer partnerships, and harvest data and analytics to further drive value-added insights across all of the company’s institutions. In addition, Tom oversees information technology including application development, infrastructure operations and enterprise architecture.

Prior to joining Adtalem, Steven was most recently chief transformation officer and senior vice president, student experience for Walden University. In this role, Steven led Walden’s digital transformation at the intersection of customer experience and technology, driving efforts to improve personalization, omnichannel engagement, innovation, and self-service. In addition, he oversaw student support operations, led university-wide online course development, and guided efforts to improve student retention.

Steven obtained a Master of Business Administration from the MIT Sloan School of Management and his bachelor’s degree in both information technology and marketing from the University of Maryland. He serves on two non-profit boards, the International Youth Foundation and the World Trade Center Institute in Baltimore.

I look forward to both Emily and Steven’s contributions to our mission. I will count on their wisdom and counsel as the Board charts a new path for PLOS, one focused on sustainability, inclusivity and expanding our roots globally. I am excited to bring on board these exceptional individuals with fresh perspectives. Please join me in welcoming our new Board members!