Besides Dr. Karen, The Professor Is In team includes these amazing editors and coaches. Kel runs all live interview and campus visit prep and the Unstuck Productivity program. Petra, Verena, Nica, Maggie, Kristy, Laura, and Paige work together with Karen daily on client correspondence and document editing – maintaining a CONTINUAL daily group text and email dialogue about current client document editing judgments, special requests and circumstances, and crowdsourcing for optimally individualized responsiveness to all client needs. All editors have been intensively trained by Karen, and all guarantee total confidentiality. We run a tight ship with a complete commitment to professionalism. I (Karen) vouch for the work of the team 100%. Dr. Kate Dugan has joined us as a Teaching Demo coach and consultant. And we have an ace Executive Assistant who brings order to the chaos, while asking to remain anonymous.
Kel Weinhold is a former university professor in the fields of journalism, communication, and literary non-fiction who now works as a strategic communications coach and consultant. In addition to having twelve years of experience in the university setting, and enormous savvy about the ways of university hiring and politics, Kel is a dedicated advocate of work life balance and is the sworn enemy of neoliberal work creep. In addition to her university experience, Kel has spent almost 40 years as a working writer, 25 as an editor and five as a productivity coach. She knows all of the sneaky ways that imposter syndrome and perfectionism try to run the show. She created Professor is In’s Unstuck: The Art of Productivity to combat the Blue Meanies that try to make you believe they tell the truth.
Petra Shenk completed a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2008. She is the longest-serving editor for The Professor Is In and also runs her own editing business, The Doc Doc. She’s an educator and writing/language specialist who assists people with their educational and professional goals. During her time as a graduate student, she cultivated a parallel career track as an academic editor and student adviser and mentor, focusing on nontraditional and international college students.
Verena Hutter completed a Ph.D. in German Studies with an emphasis in Feminist Theory at the University of California, Davis in 2012. Having experienced the ups and downs of the job market for many years, she hopes that TPII helps clients to survive the job market as sane as possible. An enemy of unnecessary jargon and a friend of succinct prose, Verena will tell you when to keep it real. She lives in Portland, where she teaches at the Sophie Scholl Immersion School.
Nica Davidov is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Graduate Director of the MA Anthropology program at Monmouth University in New Jersey. She holds a PhD from New York University (2008) and has previously worked at Maastricht University and Leiden University in the Netherlands. She does consulting on graduate school applications for The Professor Is In. She lives in Brooklyn.
Margarita (Maggie) Levantovskaya completed a PhD in Literature at the University of California, San Diego in 2013. She has taught a wide range of courses at UCSD, the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Lafayette College, from Russian language to graduate seminars in Translation Studies. She brings this experience to her work at TPII, where she helps clients of all disciplinary backgrounds wow search committees by presenting their qualifications in specific and exciting ways. Maggie will make your materials stand out within ever-growing pools of applications! She currently lives in the Bay Area, where continues to teach, write and live her best life as a culture vulture.
Laura Graham completed a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland in 2013. She has held positions in Peace and Justice Studies at Tufts University and Sociology at Trinity College Dublin. As an ethnographer, she has published research on Northern Ireland’s Troubles as well as Black Lives Matter activists in Ferguson, MO. In 2014, she started a copy editing business working with academics on a range of scholarly documents. Laura’s international experience brings knowledge of British and Irish higher education institutions to the TPII team. She has recently started Law School.
Kristy Lewis is Assistant Professor of Biology at University of Central Florida. She completed her Ph.D. in Oceanography and Coastal Sciences from Louisiana State University in 2014. Outside of her research as a quantitative and applied fisheries ecologist, she focuses on helping graduate students prepare for the next phase in their careers. She is also interested in closing the gender gap in the STEM fields and currently leads a Women in Science Lunch Series at her university. Kristy handles most of TPII’s hard science clients.
Paige Morgan completed a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Wyoming in 2018. After a year-long postdoc at the University of Alaska, she returned home to Wyoming, where she now works as an advisor for Student Educational Opportunity (a TRIO program) and teaches in the School of Pharmacy. As a first-generation college student and female in STEM, Paige is fervently committed to improving student success and serving as an ally for underrepresented students of all varieties. Outside of work, Paige is a wildlife enthusiast that spends many summer nights sleeping on the ground.
Kate Dugan is an Assistant Professor of Religion at Springfield College in Massachusetts and studies contemporary Catholicism in the U.S. She completed her PhD in Religious Studies from Northwestern University in 2015. She spent two years on the job market and knows how hard it is. Kate offers Teaching Demonstration interventions and document work for clients of TPII.
Karen’s Eugene-based Ace Executive Assistant keeps the inbox organized, and keeps Karen on track – a full time job in itself. She requests anonymity at present due to some complicated personal circumstances, but she’s all-in on helping our clients get the help they need.
Kel, Petra, Verena, Nica, Maggie, Laura, Kristy, Paige, Kate and the Executive Assistant are fierce proponents of the message and the methods of The Professor Is In, and allies in the effort to get you hired, funded, promoted, and productive! (And also: allies in any decision you might reach to say “enough,” and decide to move on to a post-ac life!)