American Journal Experts

Deric Corlew, PhD – Director of Editing Operations

Dr. Corlew is our Director of Editing Operations. He is responsible for our ongoing commitment to delivering a high quality and efficient service for each client. He has a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor's degree in Neurobiology from the University of Washington. His dissertation explored the parallel modernization of space in poetry and neuroscience.

Kurt Spurlock, MA – Editor-In-Chief

Mr. Spurlock oversees the quality of work produced by AJE's editing division and develops AJE's editing standards. He has an MA in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor's degree in Physics. As a graduate student, he taught numerous writing classes, including classes on writing in the natural sciences.

Amy Rawls, PhD – Editing Team Leader

Dr. Rawls is a Team Leader and manages a small group of Managing Editors who sustain the high quality of our editing service. She received her PhD in Molecular Genetics from Washington University in St. Louis and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Hematology. For four years prior to joining AJE, she was a contract-based scientific writer and editor.

Brandon Jernigan, PhD – Editing Team Leader

Dr. Jernigan leads a team of managing editors who are dedicated to providing high quality editing services. He received a PhD in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he taught literature and composition from 2003 to 2009. His dissertation focused on the evolution of the novel form at the turn of the twentieth century. While completing his doctoral work, he worked as a contract editor for AJE.

Sarah Mudrak, PhD – Editing Team Leader

Dr. Mudrak supervises a team of managing editors who approve manuscripts edited by our editing contractors. She has a PhD in Genetics from Duke University and a bachelor's degree in Biology from Emory University. She worked as an editing contractor for AJE for a year and a half before joining AJE full time as a managing editor.

Sarah Taylor, PhD – Editing Team Leader

Dr. Taylor leads a team of managing editors. In this role, her primary duty is to maintain AJE's high editing standards by overseeing managing editor approval quality. She has a PhD in Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a bachelor's degree in Biology. Prior to joining AJE, she studied blood vessel formation during mammalian development and tumorigenesis.

Janaina Pantoja, PhD – Senior Managing Translator: Portuguese, Spanish

Dr. Pantoja oversees and approves Portuguese and Spanish translations at American Journal Experts. She completed her PhD in Neurobiology at Duke University, and also has an MS in Physiology/Neurobiology and a bachelor's degree in Speech Pathology/Audiology from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She also worked as a speech pathologist in Brazil prior to coming to the US for her graduate studies.

Kyongsook Kim, MA, PhD – Managing Translator: Korean

Dr. Kim reviews and approves Korean translations. She has a PhD in Philosophy from the Catholic University of America, an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Warwick, UK; an MA in Philosophy from Sogang University, South Korea; and a BA in English Language and Literature from Sogang University. Her published books include two original collaborative works and four translations. She is passionate about languages and has reading knowledge of Latin, German, and French in addition to English and Korean.

Mara Daltabuit, DVM, PhD – Managing Translator: Spanish

Dr. Daltabuit approves Spanish translations at AJE and supervises a team of translators. Originally from Mexico City, she studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) leading to a DVM with a focus on small-ruminant lentiviruses. She earned her PhD in animal virology at the Instituto Vasco de Desarrollo Agrario NEIKER/ Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain. She moved to North Carolina after completing her postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) where she researched retroviral-induced diseases, specifically SIV and HIV.

Valerie Guerin, PhD – Managing Translator: French

Dr. Guérin reviews and approves French translations at American Journal Experts, and manages a team of translators. She received a Maîtrise in Teaching French as a Foreign Language (Mention Bien) from the Univeristé de Nice Sophia-Antipolis, France; a Master in Linguistics with a minor in TESL from the University of Minnesota; and a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa. Prior to joining AJE, Dr. Guérin taught French and Linguistics at various universities in Scotland, Canada, and the USA. From 2004 to 2006, she directed the Language Documentation Training Center at the University of Hawai'i. Dr. Guérin is currently affiliated with the Linguistics Program at North Carolina State University as a part-time lecturer.

Ayca Akal-Strader, PhD – Managing Translator: Turkish (Türkçe)

Dr. Akal-Strader oversees and implements the quality control step in Turkish translations at American Journal Experts and supervises a pool of translators. She completed her PhD in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology and MS in Biochemistry at the University of Tennessee. She holds a BS degree in Chemistry from the Middle East Technical University (METU – “ODTÜ”). During her postdoctoral studies, she has worked on a variety of subjects, including neurodegenerative diseases research (University of Tennessee Medical Center), cell cycle regulation/cancer research (National Institutes of Health-National Cancer Institute), and signal transduction and membrane traffic (Georgetown University). Currently, she also teaches Molecular Biology & Recombinant DNA Technologies at the National Institutes of Health.

Yoshiko Misumi – Managing Translator: Japanese

Ms. Misumi oversees and approves translations completed by a large pool of contractors working in Japanese. After graduating from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a degree in Psychology, she worked for a Japanese publishing company in Hawaii as an account executive. She has worked as a translator and editor for local newspapers and magazines.

Hui Nie, MD, PhD – Managing Translator: Chinese

Dr. Hui Nie (聂辉) approves Chinese-language translations for AJE and manages a team of translators. She worked as a Lecturer of physiology after completing her M.D. from Wuhan University, China while at the same time studying neuroscience, specifically using electrophysiological approaches. Dr Nie obtained her Ph.D. from Tongji Medical University, China. She then secured a postdoctoral fellowship at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas where she focused on pain research within the Department of Anesthesiology. She also performed research on neurodegenerative diseases in NIEHS and the University of Washington.

Laura Stemmle, PhD – Director of Operations

Dr. Stemmle directs the Translation division and New Services team, which includes AJE's NewReview, Journal Recommendation, Formatting and Figures services. The New Services team's mission is to make it easy for researchers to navigate the publication process. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from Duke University, where she studied Wnt and G protein signaling pathways. Dr. Stemmle completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Pathology at Duke University and has undergraduate degrees in Entomology and Biochemistry from the University of Maryland.

Jeffrey Grigston, PhD – Director of New Product Development

Dr. Grigston oversees AJE's software research and development operations, with a focus on building online tools to boost scientific productivity and facilitate communication among researchers. He has a PhD in Pharmacology from Duke University, where he studied the cell biological processes that underlie learning and memory. Prior to joining AJE, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill investigating signal transduction in plants.

Charles Marotta, MD, PhD – Senior Research Director, NewReview™ Manager

Dr. Marotta (MD, Duke; PhD, Yale) oversees AJE's NewReview private peer review service, managing recruitment of peer reviewers and approving final reviews. Dr. Marotta was previously a faculty member of Harvard Medical School and a laboratory chief at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to joining AJE, he was Professor of Neuroscience and Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University.

Chrissy Prater, PhD – Journal Recommendation Manager

In addition to overseeing AJE's Journal Recommendation service, which is designed to help authors choose the most appropriate journal for their submission, Dr. Prater also provides managerial support for AJE's NewReview service. Dr. Prater received her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoc at Duke University. Prior to joining AJE in 2009, Dr. Prater served as a Biologist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

Stacy Lavin, PhD – Formatting Manager

Dr. Lavin oversees AJE's journal-specific formatting service, developing the workforce and tools to support customers as well as formatting and approving final formats. She received her PhD in English at Duke University in 2008 and graduated Magna cum Laude in English from Cornell University in 1998. Prior to joining AJE, she taught English literature and composition/rhetoric to first-year students at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

Jody Plank, PhD – Senior Figure Formatter

Dr. Plank is responsible for the new Figure Formatting service, providing figure services as well as developing guidelines and standards for contractors. He received his PhD in Biochemistry from Duke University, where he studied Double Holliday Junction metabolism by Drosophila Topoisomerase IIIα and Bloom's Helicase. In addition to his role on the AJE team, Dr. Plank is a Postdoctoral Fellow studying DNA repair at the University of California at Davis.

Shashi Mudunuri, MBA – Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Mudunuri brings 10 years of business management, entrepreneurship, and software experience to American Journal Experts as its CEO. Prior to his current role, Shashi spent three years helping to grow the Federal division of MarkLogic Corporation from a $1 million to an $18 million annual business. Shashi has also worked for consulting and finance firms, and studied computer science, philosophy, and business at Duke University.

Keith Collier, MEd – VP of Business Development

Mr. Collier brings over 18 years of business management and consulting experience to AJE. Prior to joining, he was VP & General Manager of ScholarOne, a Thomson Reuters business. Prior to his role at ScholarOne Keith spent 10 years at Accenture where he focused on change management consulting. Keith has degrees in Business Management and Information Systems from Baylor University and a Masters Degree in Instructional Technology from the University of Virginia.

Rochelle Cupelli, MBA – Director of Finance

Ms. Cupelli is responsible for all accounting and finance activities for AJE. She received her bachelor's degree from the State University of New York at Geneseo, and her MBA with a concentration in Accounting from Rochester Institute of Technology. Ms. Cupelli has over 10 years of comprehensive accounting and finance experience, with a specialty in technology-driven companies. She has worked in diverse industries including telecommunications and biotechnology.

Vic Vijayakumar – Director of Technology

Mr. Vijayakumar oversees overall technical design for all major web applications and is involved in nearly every technical aspect of the company. He develops new applications, manages the development process, and hires talented programmers. Mr. Vijayakumar has a degree in Computer Engineering from Iowa State University.

Lisa Pautler, MBA – Director of Marketing

Ms. Pautler is responsible for overseeing all marketing activities for American Journal Experts. She has over 15 years of marketing experience in a variety of industries and settings, including international and technology-based companies. She received her bachelor's degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and her MBA with an emphasis in Marketing from Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business.

Alicia Parr, MMC – Director of Human Resources

Ms. Parr oversees the Human Resources function at AJE. She earned a bachelor's in Business Administration from the University of Georgia with a major in Marketing. She completed an MMC from the University of Georgia with a concentration in Advertising. Ms. Parr also studied towards an MA in Experimental Psychology at Hollins University, and is a Certified Human Patterns Administrator. She has over ten years of human resource and talent management experience, supporting both technical and service-oriented businesses from the corporate side and as a consultant.