Self-Nominated
Mark Allen is an editor, consultant, and teacher with 35 years of professional experience working with words. After a career on newspaper copy desks, he became a freelance editor in 2009 and was elected to the ACES board of directors in 2012 and appointed secretary in 2022. He has spoken about copy editing for private companies and at conferences, workshops, and webinars, and he hosts a regular Zoom chat on all things lexical, That Word Chat. He writes about words from time to time at markalleneditorial.com and elsewhere, and he shares tips on Mastodon as @ EditorMark@mstdn.social.
How long has the nominee been a member of ACES?
14 years
How has the nominee contributed to ACES?
I have been immersed in the editing community, and I have a great understanding of its needs and a close knowledge of the benefits that ACES provides. ACES helped me shift gears from newspaper to freelance copy editing in 2009, and I immediately volunteered with ACES to help others make that transition. Since then, I’ve gotten to know the entire editing community while helping ACES to grow, showing editors that ACES was for them. I recruited many of our conference sponsor organizations, including Intelligent Editing and Chicago Manual of Style, and I recruited many of our conference speakers.
What experience would the nominee bring to the board?
I was the first freelancer elected to the board. I initiated the Freelancer Happy Hour with Erin Brenner and the Editors for Hire listing with Heather Saunders. I coordinated the St. Petersburg conference with our SPJ staff. I was a founding member of the Diversity and Inclusion committee. I have helped guide the organization during multiple board terms as it diversified and grew. I have served as ACES secretary, appointed by the board to fill out the remainder of a term when Heather Saunders was elected vice president.
If elected, what does the nominee envision for ACES during their tenure?
The ACES board is taking a new, strategic view of what it wants to look like in the coming years, building on success to provide greater resources to its members. As part of the executive team, I'm eager to help guide the ACES staff toward realizing that vision. I’m excited about the possibilities of making ACES an invaluable daily resource for all editors, with a vibrant and useful website.