Scholarly Publishing Shark Tank: Where to Invest to Achieve Our Goals

Although every year in the scholarly publishing ecosystem is a balancing act of innovation, optimization, and value creation, 2025 is shaping up to be particularly challenging as the pace and scale of change is accelerating more than we’ve ever seen before. There is increasing pressure to provide value to and to meet the incredibly diverse needs of the global research community while maintaining financial health for our own organizations, living our values, and continuing to protect the scholarly record. With AI, open access, integrity, and mistrust frequently dominating the conversation, we are in the midst of an unprecedented shift in both our industry and society as a whole. As always, the SSP community continues to focus on bringing together academics, funders, librarians, publishers, service providers, technologists, researchers and countless others with a communal interest and stake in disseminating scholarly information. We look to the 47th Annual Meeting as an opportunity to continue this tradition and welcome all colleagues and community stakeholders.

Dr. Chhavi Chauhan is the Founder and President of Samast AI, Director of Scientific Outreach at the American Society for Investigative Pathology and Director of the Continuing Medical Education (CME) Program at the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics. She is a leader of the Women in AI Ethics Collective, program manager for the Women in AI Accelerate and Raise programs, and an expert at the AI Policy Exchange. She is a biomedical researcher, expert scholarly communicator, and a sought-after mentor in the fields of scientific research, scholarly publishing (serving on several SSP cohorts), and AI ethics, especially for women and minorities. She is a thought leader, a renowned international speaker, and a strong advocate for equitable and accessible healthcare; she is also a co-chair of the SSP’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee. She sits at the intersection of scientific research, scholarly communications, science policy, medical education, and responsible tech in healthcare. Her vision is to provide equitable personalized healthcare to all, beyond geographies, and despite socioeconomic disparities. She was named in the AI Makers 150 AI & Analytics Leaders & Influencers 2021 List and the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics 2022 list.

Dustin Smith is the Co-founder and President of Hum, which provides AI and data intelligence solutions for publishers. For over 15 years, he’s worked at the cross-section of scholarly publishing and tech innovation. He leads Hum’s product vision, strategy and development, and oversees solutions that leverage AI to unify and activate first-party data, including Alchemist, Hum’s deep AI suite. He’s particularly passionate about helping publishers harness data to drive reader engagement, content intelligence, author/reviewer recruitment, and more.

Lauren Kane is CEO of BioOne, the innovative nonprofit collaborative and publisher for 150 societies, research organizations, and independent presses in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences. With two decades of experience in scholarly communications, Kane previously held leadership roles at Delta Think and Morressier, and is a Past President of the Society for Scholarly Publishing. She is a frequent industry contributor and advocate for collective impact approaches. Kane holds a BA from Georgetown University and an MBA from the University of New Hampshire.

Martin Majlund is the Director of Innovation at The Foundry, the innovation hub of the American Chemical Society. With a focus on bridging the gap between the scientific community and the startup ecosystem, Martin drives strategic initiatives that leverage emerging technologies, new business models, and collaborative partnerships to ensure ACS remains at the forefront of scientific discovery and communication.

As VP of Marketing at Silverchair, Stephanie Lovegrove Hansen is responsible for Silverchair’s brand and product marketing strategy, collaborating with internal teams, clients, and partners to facilitate clear communications with Silverchair’s growing community. She has worked in the publishing industry for 18 years, including at the University of Virginia Press and Clarivate Analytics. Through her work at technology providers, nonprofit publishers, & B2C organizations, she's come to believe that community building is one of the most powerful things an organization can do, and one that can be enhanced (but not replaced) by AI.