Meet the experts

Maysa Akbar, PhD, ABPP, is a respected scientist-practitioner, best-selling author, and serves as the chief diversity officer at APA. Her expertise in racial trauma combined with her sustained commitment to dismantle systemic racism within various sectors such as health care, education, and the criminal justice system, demonstrate her relentless pursuit of racial justice and accessible and equitable mental health care. Akbar’s research and written publications illuminate racial trauma approaches as a mechanism by which clinicians and other health professionals can humanize the experiences of people of color. Akbar advances racial justice work through the creation of her ally identity model, which details the stages of allyship in dismantling systemic oppression.

She is a board-certified clinical psychologist and held a faculty appointment from 2004 to 2021 at the Yale School of Medicine, Child Study Center as an assistant clinical professor.

Emily Ayubi is the APA Style director. Her background in psychology, organizational management, and publishing and lifelong interest in language and writing motivated her to establish the APA Style office in 2015. She has been immersed in APA Style both academically and professionally for decades, starting with use of the fourth edition of the Publication Manual as an undergraduate student and continuing through her direction of the creation and publication of the seventh edition and current leadership responsibilities. While in graduate school, she became inspired to help cultivate the next generation of scholars by developing innovative educational solutions and content for new researchers and writers.

Born and raised in Latin America, she is passionate about ensuring inclusion, respect, and intercultural awareness in scholarly communication. She is also an orthography aficionado with a penchant for the proper use of tildes and other diacritics. When she is away from her fellow wordsmiths, she enjoys reading, traveling, eating spicy food, supporting the arts and sciences, spending time with her family and friends, and bonding with her dogs Luna and Sol.

David Becker is a development editor in APA Books. Since starting his publishing career with APA as an editorial assistant in 2010, he has worked with psychologists who write on a variety of topics, helping them refine their books to ensure they meet the needs of their target audiences, follow a coherent structure, and stay up to date with current trends in scholarship and academic publishing. David is passionate about science advocacy and believes that clear, engaging communication and cultivating critical thinking are key.

Outside of work, he enjoys practicing Pilates and a variety of martial arts. He also enjoys lazier, geekier pursuits, like cataloguing his diverse musical tastes in Excel and playing board and video games with family and friends.

Jasmine Bridges is the development specialist for APA Style. She previously served as the book content coordinator for APA’s Content Development team, where she selected new publications to include in the APA PsycInfo database.

She has several years of experience as an educational content writer and scientific journal editor, and she especially enjoyed her time as a full-time English tutor at a community college. Her educational background includes a master’s degree in educational psychology with a focus on student motivation and bachelor’s degrees in English and art history.

She loves reading comics, meeting dogs, and trying to explain the Star Wars timeline to anyone who will listen.

Samantha Denneny is the development manager for APA Style. She has worked in educational publishing for over 10 years in various roles. She holds a bachelor’s degree in international studies and Italian from Vassar College and a master’s degree in international politics from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, UK. Before starting at APA in 2020, Samantha worked closely with librarians and professors in a wide range of subject areas, including nursing, psychology, English, and more. She hopes that her work in product development and promotion can help students, instructors, researchers, editors, and others communicate with clarity, precision, and inclusion.

Outside of work, Samantha enjoys interior design, reading, travel, theater, and spending time with her dogs Henry and Sasha.

Hannah Greenbaum is an APA Style consultant. She also works as a clinical neuropsychologist in private practice. Hannah holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz; a master’s degree in counseling from Santa Clara University; and a PhD in counseling psychology from West Virginia University. She publishes and reviews articles in education, rehabilitation counseling, and neuropsychology journals. She considers raising her children her greatest accomplishment and is committed to making the world a better place for future generations. In her free time, she enjoys swimming, walking her dog, watching reality television, and eating lox and bagels.

David Kofalt is a product analyst in APA Publishing. He started working at APA in 2013 as a member of the PsycExtra team and moved to Product Management in 2015. As a product analyst, David conducts research projects for APA Product Management, analyzes data for business intelligence, and enjoys hearing directly from users of APA products using surveys and interviews. David began working with the APA Style team in 2016, when he helped coordinate the writing of the revised and expanded APA Style JARS articles and later the APA Style JARS Publication Manual (7th ed.) chapter. Since then, he has worked with groups across APA Publishing to create an APA Style JARS website and freely available APA Style JARS resources. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Virginia Tech and worked coordinating psychiatric, neurological, and oncological clinical trials prior to his time at APA.

David loves writing poetry, reading, finding new music, and going on nature walks in the mountains of Virginia with his family.

Chelsea Lee is the instructional lead, APA Style. She has worked at APA since 2007, beginning as a manuscript editor for APA Journals before moving to the then newly formed style team in 2015. She has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The College of William & Mary and a master’s degree in education and human development from The George Washington University. She has written for the APA Style blog since it began in 2009 and is occasionally recognized for her contributions by strangers in elevators. She helped shape the seventh edition of the Publication Manual, in particular, the new referencing system and bias-free language guidelines. She also works on all style-related content, including the learning materials for Academic Writer. She loves promoting a kind and conscientious approach to writing. She believes that people become better writers by becoming better thinkers, and that by becoming better thinkers, people become better people.

She has two young sons who bring both joy and perspective to life. She is also an avid swing dancer and swing dance teacher in a style called Balboa, a classical pianist, and a crossword puzzle enthusiast.

Timothy McAdoo is a manager on the APA Style team. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in writing. He started working in the APA Journals department in 2001, later moving to the PsycInfo/PsycNet, and then Books departments. He has experience copyediting dissertations, theses, and journal article manuscripts, working with authors to maintain their voice while adhering to APA Style guidelines. He has taught APA Style to copyeditors, was an author on the sixth edition APA Style blog, and helped shape the seventh edition of the Publication Manual. He also worked on the related updates to Academic Writer, particularly the reference forms and in-text citation and reference list style guidelines for that platform. He enjoys helping people write clearly and concisely.

He is also an avid indoorsman and loves discovering new music, attending concerts, and sneaking musical and lyrical allusions into blog posts.

Barbara Ungiert manages author marketing for APA Journals. She has worked at APA since 2012, starting out as business development associate for APA Journals before moving to the APA Publishing marketing team. Barbara has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from The George Washington University and a master’s degree in business administration from Georgetown University. In 2018, Barbara helped lead marketing efforts for the updated APA Style Journal Article Reporting Standards (JARS) and has worked on promoting the standards—and in turn, transparency in psychological science—since. In addition to marketing, she has experience developing content related to the topic of publishing and working with journal authors and editors on crafting research summaries.

Born in Poland, Barbara is passionate about staying connected to her culture while learning about the experiences of fellow immigrants from all over the world. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband, solving a variety of puzzles, writing, and crocheting.