Boman Editing → Boman Communications: A Journey of Growth and Purpose
Six years ago, I started assisting a senior science editor—Rona Briere—who became my mentor and helped me develop skills from proofreading to copyediting to developmental editing to science writing. Rona also helped me fall in love with science communications.
The authors we served had so much passion for their work and deep expertise, but their language was often impossible for lay readers to understand. Excellent, insightful editing helped them communicate their science for the public good.
Over time, I began taking clients on my own as Boman Editing. I earned an Editing Certificate from the University of Chicago, and I began a master’s program in public health (which I’m completing one class at a time, so I might graduate by the time my first grandchild is born).
As my client base grew, I had more work than I could manage alone. I was also getting clients interested in design, project management, and outreach work, so I began bringing on new team members to help with these additional services.
The four main contributors at Boman Communications—Allie, Danielle, Whitney, and Yasmeen—all share a deep belief in the power of communication for the public good, and a desire to spend our days on meaningful work.
We work as a team to help clients craft clear messaging and connect with people in their digital, visual worlds while maintaining the highest professionalism.
This isn’t an entirely new direction for me (Allie). Before becoming an editor, I spent 15 years working in nonprofit work. Among many responsibilities, I helped our community-based organization reach out to college students—an ever-changing demographic. Leading the communications team experience shaped my understanding of how organizations connect with the people they serve.
Through our work with researchers, public health leaders, and nonprofit organizers, we’ve seen that it’s often not just a lack of understanding but ideological and structural barriers that hinder effective communication.
To be heard, we need to build trust between institutions and the public and create messaging that resonates with diverse and ever-changing audiences. Indeed, effective communication is just as critical as excellent research—because eventually, research needs to reach the public and/or policymakers in an accessible, compelling way in order to be useful.
Too often, valuable scientific research remains locked in academic circles, never making it into policy, public discourse, or practical application. So much funding poured into science never translates into meaningful change because the communication isn’t there. Research dissemination—bridging the gap between discovery and implementation—has become a critical part of my mission.
This transition from Boman Editing to Boman Communications reflects that expanded vision. While we continue to refine text, we also aim to help clients shape how their messages are received, how they engage with the public, and how they adapt to a shifting demographic landscape.
This has been a journey of discovery, collaboration, and purpose. I’m incredibly excited about this next chapter, and I’m grateful to my clients—old and new—for trusting us with their work. Boman Communications is here to help you make an impact, and I can’t wait to see where we go next!
Allie occasionally visits Washington, DC, as a rapporteur for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Allie’s family—my husband and I educate our kids on environmentalism by spending lots of time outside.
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