ACES Education Fund Announces the 2025 Holden Diversity Fellowships
By ACES Staff
The ACES Education Fund is delighted to announce the four winners of the 2025 Richard S. Holden Diversity Fellowships. The program, now in its sixth year, is a collaboration of ACES: The Society for Editing and the Dow Jones News Fund.
This year’s Fellows are Rhonda Kronyk, Tanya Natalie Kurukulasuriya, Ruth Terry, and Brittany Yost.
“We’re so impressed with this year’s cohort,” said Lisa McLendon, president of the ACES Education Fund. “Through their work and achievements, they demonstrate the wide range of editing career paths.”
Each of the recipients will receive $3,000 to apply to course tuition, training workshops, conference fees, travel, or other costs related to their continuing career development and skill building.
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HOLDEN DIVERSITY FELLOWSHIPS
Rhonda Kronyk of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, is an editor, writer, and advocate for culturally respectful publishing practices and more equitable distribution of editorial work.
Tanya Natalie Kurukulasuriya of Sydney, NSW, Australia, runs an editing and proofreading services business covering all forms of written material.
Ruth Terry, who is currently based in Istanbul, Turkey, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a freelance developmental editor for Sage, a leader in academic publishing.
Brittany Yost of Seattle, Washington, is a freelance developmental editor and sensitivity reader with a master’s degree in publishing studies and a focus on inclusive and diverse manuscripts.
Learn more about the recipients.
Meet the Holden diversity fellows
The ACES Education Fund, in partnership with the Dow Jones News Fund, announced the Holden Diversity Fellowship program in summer 2020. The objective is to promote diversity and inclusion by advancing early- and mid-career professionals in their work as editors and aspiring industry leaders.
The fellowship recognizes the work of the late Richard S. Holden, who championed diversity in the ranks of editors as the longtime managing director of the Dow Jones News Fund.
This year’s judges were:
- Edgar Ramirez, most recently a social media producer for the Washington Post’s Opinions section and a graduate of the Dow Jones News Fund’s summer editing internship program.
- Paula Fuchsberg, an editor at Vanguard and a member of the ACES Education Fund Board of Directors.
- 2023 Holden Fellow Rosalind Early, a freelance writer and deputy features editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
- 2023 Holden Fellow Shavonne Mott, a technical editor and section supervisor of an editorial team at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.
Major funding for the Holden Diversity Fellowships has been provided by the ACES Education Fund, the Dow Jones News Fund, and the Scripps Howard Foundation, as well as by individual donors who seek to perpetuate the ideals of Rich Holden and support continuing development for professional editors.
ACES will award another round of Holden Diversity Fellowships in 2026; information will be available on the ACES website on June 1, 2026, with an application deadline of July 15, 2026.
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The ACES Education Fund
The ACES Education Fund, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and its predecessor have awarded nearly 150 scholarships since 1999 to students who have a passion for editing. The ACES Education Fund is run entirely by volunteers, and all awards come from individual donations.
ACES: The Society for Editing
ACES: The Society for Editing is the nation’s leading organization of editing professionals, educators, and students. Founded in 1997 by copy editors, ACES is dedicated to improving the quality of the written word and the working lives of editors. It sets standards of excellence and gives a voice to editors in journalism, government, business, publishing, and beyond through top-notch training, networking, and career opportunities. ACES hosts an annual in-person conference and, since 2022, an annual virtual conference. ACES Academy hosts monthly webinars. ACES also offers certificates in editing, which it co-hosts with The Poynter Institute, a global leader in journalism.
