Sarah Bay
Sarah Bay received her PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology from Emory University where she studied the intersection of developmental signaling with cancer. Her passion for science communication led her to the Genetics Society of America (GSA), where she began as a Science Writer. Currently the Scientific Editor and Program Manager for GSA, Sarah works closely with the genetics and genomics communities and also helps lead the Society’s Equity and Inclusion Committee, creating policies and projects to push GSA toward an inclusive and equitable future.
Can you describe your academic and professional background? What path led you to pursue this field?
In undergrad, I earned a BA in English and a BS in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. I then went on to earn my PhD in Genetics and Molecular Biology. I currently work as Scientific Editor and Program Manager at the Genetics Society of America.
I decided I wanted to be a medical doctor when I was very young, and that was my plan for most of my life. When I began undergrad, the pre-med advisor told us that we could major in anything we wanted as long as we performed well in the med school prerequisite courses, so I chose English as my major. After I took my first genetics course as a junior, I fell in love, and that changed things for me. I decided to pursue graduate education in genetics—but I always kept my love of language close and wanted to find a way to join the two.
How did you find this particular position, and what was the hiring process like? Is there a typical structure for this in your field?
Toward the end of my doctorate, my advisor heard about a science writing internship with the Genetics Society of America. She was a member of GSA and saw the advertisement in a newsletter; she knew I was interested in writing and in careers outside academia. I applied, interviewed, and was accepted.
I worked in that internship writing blog posts about articles published in the GSA journals—GENETICS and G3: Genes|Genomes|Genetics—for two years before coming on board full time to work with both the communications department and the journals. As I prepared to finish my PhD, I reached out to GSA to ask about a permanent position, and we worked together to create my job description. While I started out with a focus on science communication, my interests shifted the more I learned about the other facets of society. I realized that my communication skills could serve me extremely well in ways beyond classic scicomm activities.
My hiring process was extremely nonstandard! I didn’t have previous experience in scholarly publishing, so I’ve learned that world on the ground over the course of the past four years.
Can you tell us about your current responsibilities? What is a typical day or week like in your role?
In many ways, I don’t have a “typical” day! We have a small staff, and we work very collaboratively, which means I tend to have my fingers in a lot of pies, so to speak. I meet on a regular basis with the rest of the editorial staff, our publishing partner (Oxford University Press), and our Editors in Chief to encourage the success of the journals through strategic planning, policy making, and marketing. I work with our communications department on monitoring social media and a number of public-facing projects. I am the staff liaison for our Equity and Inclusion Committee, which brings me into the room on a lot of conversations with our conferences staff. Historically, the activities of the journals and those of the rest of the society (conferences, communications, engagement, etc.) were fairly siloed, and I now act as a bridge.
What do you enjoy about your current job and work environment?
I really enjoy my coworkers and the collaborative environment of the job. We all work remotely now—but even pre-COVID, we were fairly spread out. We use Slack and Zoom and email to keep in touch regularly, and everyone on the team is generous with their time and expertise. I also appreciate the flexibility of the job. In grad school, I did mouse genetics, so I was tied to the lab and the animal room. It’s quite nice to be able to work from anywhere and to have a flexible schedule.
What are some of the challenging aspects of your job? Is there anything you wish you had known about your job or industry before joining?
I sometimes find it challenging that the work is never done, if that makes sense. It’s not unlike grad school in that there are concrete goals and deadlines within the larger process, but the process itself is full of moving targets and changing expectations. I think it’s the opposite side of the coin to having lots of variety in your job—everything is constantly evolving, which means it can be difficult to get a grasp on the big picture.
Do you have any professional plans for the future? What are some future career paths that could open up for someone in your position, 5-10 years down the road?
It’s interesting—when I was in grad school, I was just focused on making it to the end. Now that I’m not in a position where I have a particular goal I’m barreling toward, I don’t have a super clear idea of what’s next. As I’ve become involved with organizations dedicated to scholarly publishing, I’ve been exposed to a lot of careers I didn’t know existed that I think could be interesting ways to move in the future. My main goal is to stay open to opportunity.
What’s changing in your industry? Are there any future trends we should be aware of?
Scholarly publishing is changing rapidly. The push towards transparency in publishing and open science in general means the landscape hasn’t settled down yet this century! Funding models are changing; subscription models are changing. Tools to enhance the peer review process are constantly being developed. There are a lot of conversations happening about the role that journals and peer review serve in the overall scientific enterprise—and who knows what changes those conversations may someday bring. If you’re interested in keeping an eye on what’s happening, I’d recommend checking out The Scholarly Kitchen, which is a blog from the Society for Scholarly Publishing.
What activities, internships, or organizations would you recommend someone get involved with to help them break into this field?
Most of the activities I participated in during grad school remain very relevant to my current job: oral presentations; clear and concise written communications; time management; project management; the ability to learn new things efficiently; and the ability to take in information, summarize the findings, and synthesize new ideas are all skills I use in my career.
Is it common for people in your field to have a scientific/academic background (i.e. have PhDs)? Can you think of any advantages or disadvantages someone with a PhD might experience while pursuing or working in your field?
The majority of our staff do not have PhDs, but the community we serve are largely academics who have PhDs or are in the process of working toward them. I find my background a great help in my work because I have firsthand experience of the needs of our community and because I can bring scientific experience to the editorial work at the journals. If you’re looking to work for a society, association, or scholarly publication/journal generally, a PhD isn’t necessary. But I started with the PhD and moved to the society and publishing sphere, and my PhD field is how I found the society I work for—so it made a lot of sense for me.
Do you have any final words of advice for those navigating these career questions? Is there anything you would have done differently given what you know now?
One of the most valuable pieces of advice I received as a graduate student was this: if the job you want isn’t out there, go out and create it yourself. It seemed like an extremely ambitious thing to me at the time (and still does), but that’s essentially what I’ve managed to do so far! If you’re worried that your exact interests don’t line up with a job description, don’t be afraid to ask questions and show enthusiasm for creative thinking and projects that you think you’d excel at that aren’t immediately in your niche.
