Jula Gilstein ’08: Online Editor at NEJM Catalyst

I edit, write for, and manage the website for NEJM Catalyst, a sister publication to The New England Journal of Medicine that showcases efforts to improve health care delivery. I’m also NEJM Catalyst’s social media manager and e-newsletter writer. I found the job thanks to a fellow Colby English major alumna, but my background in content marketing, and before that in development editing for academic publishing (primarily history and science), landed me the job. I also attended the Columbia Publishing Course after graduating from Colby, which helped me navigate the start of my publishing career.

I did consider trade (i.e., book) publishing when at Columbia, but one of the perks of academic and medical publishing is the eight-hour workday. In the evenings, I go home and dabble in fiction writing. I haven’t published anything yet, but I recently joined an amazing writing group that is pushing me to do more.

I’ve known I wanted to work in publishing since high school, so being an English major made perfect sense. My early career, editing history textbooks, combined both my English and History major backgrounds. I never thought I’d go from there to health care—or end up immersed in social media for work, for that matter—but I took the chance in 2015 and haven’t looked back since.

The NEJM Catalyst team calls me “Eagle Eye” and “Grammar Goddess.” I wouldn’t have those nicknames (or that eye) if it weren’t for the beginnings of my editing career at Colby—rigorous paper writing and rewriting! Shout outs to The Colby Echo and the Farnham Writers’ Center, too. I read everything I laid out for the newspaper, and tutors learn a lot.