MIT Press Publicity Manager Recognized for Service to University Press Community
New York, NY— Colleen Lanick (MIT Press) was named the 2018 AUPresses Constituency Award honoree at the June 17 Opening Banquet of the 2018 Association of University Presses Annual Meetingin San Francisco. The Award was introduced by Greg Britton (Johns Hopkins University Press) and Catherine Tice (New York Review of Books).
The AUPresses Constituency Award recognizes staff at member presses who have demonstrated active leadership and service to the Association and the university press community. Lanick has served the Association tirelessly both officially and as a mentor and advisor to many throughout the community.
Lanick has served on the University Press Week Task Force since the campaign’s inception in 2012, and has been instrumental in its growing success. She regularly organizes one of the Week’s most popular and effective elements—the University Press Blog Tour, and is currently the chair of the 2018 University Press Week Task Force. Lanick served on the Association’s Marketing Committee from 2006-2012, authoring multiple articles for The Marketing Handbook, an essential professional resource for university presses.
Lanick has organized or presented on countless annual meeting panels, workshops, and seminars, including a wildly oversubscribed 2010 marketing and publicity workshop that helped university presses find their footing in new media. Her career within the Association began at Beacon Press and took her to the University of California Press before she returned east to, first, Harvard University Press and, since 2004, MIT Press.
Many of the nominating letters stressed that Lanick prefers the spotlight to shine on the work and people she is promoting, or, as Britton put it in announcing the award: “This person gathers the right people on the right topics and makes sure they are the ones to shine—which is to say, this person takes on thankless jobs for no credit on behalf of this Association, and then persuades others to do thankless jobs for no credit on behalf of our community.”
Seemingly tireless in her efforts to both showcase best practices through her work at MIT Press and answer questions, brainstorm ideas, and provide guidance to colleagues throughout the Association, Lanick is an exemplar of the qualities the AUPresses Constituency Award has honored since 1991. The Association of University Presses is proud to recognize Colleen Lanick as a community leader and to thank her for all of her contributions to the work of university presses and to a rich and vibrant publishing culture.
Recent Constituency Award Winners have included Michael Donatelli (UNC Press) and Greg Britton (Johns Hopkins).
Read more about the history of the Constituency Award and see its complete Honor Roll.