Isabella Greene was the recipient of the 2023 College of Professional Studies Graduate Distinguished Scholar Award at the 2023 CPS Commencement Ceremony. The College of Professional Studies Graduate Distinguished Scholar Award recognizes the graduate student who best demonstrates the college’s core competencies of strategic thinking, communication, collaboration, leadership, and ethics.
All who are familiar with GW’s graduate program in publishing knows that we are blessed with a plethora of outstandingly talented students. We think that the talent can’t possibly get better, and it goes up a notch. Isabella’s talents and practice in strategic thinking, effective communication, collaboration, leadership, and commitment to ethics exemplify the CPS Core Competencies.
Isabella is one of the most impressive students I’ve had the honor to work with in the eleven years that I have been associated with the program at GW.
She graduates with a GPA of 4.0, in the top 1 percent of her cohort. She worked full-time throughout most of the program as Project Manager for Pubvendo, a digital marketing firm for publishers and authors. Her contributions and projects have been consistently thoughtful, comprehensive, and strategic, while generously supportive of the learning and growth of her peers.
For her Ethics in Publishing capstone, Bella developed a project that combined both applied ethics and research, to improve accessibility and employment in the publishing industry. She conducted extensive interviews about disabilities, including hidden or “invisible” disabilities, developed a survey and a website to support her project, and conducted a case-study within a team of copy editors.
She then developed that project into her own company, AbiliTEAM Consulting LLC., to help employers support employees with disabilities and accommodation needs, including invisible or hidden conditions.
In October, she presented her project and survey at our 12th GW Ethics in Publishing Conference; the only current student to present at our hybrid conference, which was streamed to 400 attendees.
She subsequently entered GW’s prestigious New Venture Competition and reached the semifinal round; as the only CPS student and the only solo entrepreneur in her Business Goods & Services track.
I am honored to have worked with her over these two years. Bella is an accomplished student leader; ambitious and driven, while equally caring, empathetic, supportive and helpful to her peers.
Comments from GW Graduate Program in Publishing professors:
Randy Townsend: I enthusiastically support Isabella Greene’s nomination for this year’s Distinguished Scholar Award. In the Ethics in Publishing course, our discussions on invisible and chronic illnesses inspired Isabella to explore this topic for her capstone project. Isabella’s experience with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome made her project personal. Throughout the 2022 summer session, she mapped out a blueprint for AbiliTEAM Consulting LLC, a company she launched just a few short months after the conclusion of the class. Officially licensed as an LLC in Massachusetts, AbiliTEAM Consulting LLC now supports organizations in their pursuit to become more inclusive and accessible.
Puja Telikicherla: Isabella’s drive, focus, and dedication to positive change make her an outstanding recipient for the Graduate Distinguished Scholar Award. She represents the core values of this merit through her consistent pursuit of education in service to the greater good, her skillful problem-solving, her sincere empathy towards others, and her willingness to create innovative methods within the structure of an established industry. She embodies leadership and teaches by example and her passion for continuous improvement can transform the publishing landscape. I also had the good fortune to see Isabella’s name on our list of submissions for the 2022 Ethics in Publishing conference, held both online and in-person last October. (I am a co-organizer of the conference with John W. Warren and am responsible for evaluating submissions and scheduling presentations). Isabella’s submission, Publishing Accessibility Support Systems, centered on her work as the founder of AbiliTEAM Consulting, an accessibility consulting firm in the service of supporting workers with invisible and chronic illness. It is worth mentioning that the Ethics in Publishing conference occurred just at the conclusion of my Fall 2022 course that Isabella was enrolled in, giving her double duties at a particularly busy time of year. Not only does Isabella have extraordinary energy and motivation, but her time management skills demonstrate just how disciplined she is with her many pursuits and projects, both within the CPS and beyond, and how willing she is to help no matter how menial the task.
Please join me in congratulating Isabella Greene, our 2023 CPS Graduate Distinguished Scholar.
