Amy Brand was named the next director of the MIT Press. She will begin her new duties on July 20. Since 2014, Dr. Brand has been vice president at Digital Science, a subsidiary of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group.
From 2008 to 2013, Dr. Brand was program manager in the Office for Scholarly Communication and then assistant provost for faculty appointments and information at Harvard University. Dr. Brand has worked for MIT Press in the past. From 1994 to 2000, she was executive editor in the area of cognitive science and linguistics.
“I am thrilled to be returning to MIT as director of the MIT Press,” Dr. Brand said. “My years as a graduate student and at the press were among the most gratifying in my career, and it is especially exciting to make this homecoming and assume leadership of the press at a time when academic publishers are being challenged to reinvent themselves. Like the Institute itself, the MIT Press has a stellar reputation and a history of taking risks, and I’m looking forward to breaking new ground.”
Dr. Brand is a graduate of Barnard College in New York City, where she majored in linguistics. She holds a Ph.D. in cognitive science from MIT. From 1989 to 1992, Dr. Brand was a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Research in Cognitive Science at the University of Pennsylvania.