Our people

Christine Yeates

Chief executive officer

Christine leads the operations of the CIEP and is responsible for the office team. She works with the Council to develop and shape the plan of work to meet the Institute’s Charter Objects and helps guide strategic planning to ensure the organisation remains valued and relevant to its members and the wider profession.

Christine also oversees the financial performance of the organisation, working alongside our external financial adviser to set targets, form budgets and ensure financial discipline.

Christine has thirty years of experience and has worked predominantly for professional membership bodies. Her background is in communications, marketing and external relations and she’s held executive director roles in communications, membership engagement, strategy and transformation. She’s also a qualified business coach.

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

+44 (0) 1908 467770

Sarah Magee

Head of professional development

Sarah is responsible for the CIEP’s professional development portfolio, including its assessed and non-assessed e-learning courses, virtual learning courses and online CPD events. She works closely with the Learning and Professional Development Committee and the CIEP’s tutors, assessing the professional development offering to ensure it meets the needs and requirements of members and others in the editorial profession, in terms of both content and delivery style.

Sarah has worked in professional bodies and membership organisations for almost a decade and has held professional development, product development and education management roles.

Her experience also includes working on academically accredited qualifications, training courses, mentoring and CPD programmes, accreditation schemes, outreach and widening participation initiatives, and peer-reviewed factsheets and guides. Sarah has a Masters in Education from University College London and the Institute of Education.

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

+44 (0) 1908 467770

Diane Davis

Membership and operations manager

Diane takes care of everything to do with our membership – from helping new members join to making sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes. She advises prospective members on the benefits of CIEP membership and offers advice to those searching the directory looking for an editorial professional. She's also responsible for all the operational tasks relating to running the office including our systems, managing our data and privacy processes, and helps organise our conference and other events. 

Diane brings to the CIEP a wealth of experience in office management from her career in the public sector working for the police, NHS and in education. Sandwiched in between her public-sector roles, she worked as a freelance copyeditor with an international client base including many high-profile corporations. 

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

+44 (0) 1908 467770

Donna Hibbert

Membership and operations assistant

Donna is the first point of contact for new members, processing their applications and making sure they receive all the information they need, including their training discount. When members apply to upgrade, Donna ensures their applications are processed correctly, acting as liaison between the applicant and the Admissions Panel.

Amongst her many varied duties supporting the CIEP's operations, Donna assists with the running of the professional development programme by allocating tutors to those enrolled on assessed courses, issuing training test certificates and responding to queries from tutors. She also plays a key role in processing internal invoices/payments and manages the emails sent to [email protected].

Donna brings a wealth of experience from working in a variety of organisations.

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

+44 (0) 1908 467770

Cecilia Kupera

Digital services officer

Cecilia is responsible for maintaining the CIEP's digital platform, which comprises our website, membership and events system, and online shop. Her role also involves supporting the office team with the smooth operation of key activity using her knowledge and experience of digital services.

With a keen eye for detail and a foundation in digital technology, Cecilia brings a diverse background in IT, data management and content management. Her expertise spans social media management, email marketing, graphic design and events marketing.

Cecilia holds a BA in Broadcast Journalism and a Diploma in Digital Marketing from the British Institute of Digital Marketing.

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

+44 (0) 1908 467770

Jessica Hitner

Marketing and communications manager

Jessica has over fifteen years of marketing experience across a mix of industries, including professional services, wellness, hospitality and media. She’s led the delivery of multiple campaigns – both digital and traditional – that have helped organisations to build awareness of their services and increase engagement. In her most recent role, Jessica managed the rollout of a new company identity, helping shape how the business presents itself both inside and out. Over the years, she’s developed and delivered marketing strategies across multiple channels, always tailoring the message to suit different audiences and goals. Jessica especially enjoys working with purpose-driven organisations, and she’s passionate about combining data and creativity to help organisations tell their story in a clear and meaningful way.

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

+44 (0) 1908 467770

Louise Harnby

Chair

Louise started her publishing life in-house, first with Williams & Wilkins in 1991 and then with SAGE Publishing from 1993–2005. In both roles she was responsible for the international marketing of academic books and journals. She went freelance in 2006, joined the Institute that year and became an Advanced Professional Member in 2008.

Louise is a stylistic fiction line editor who works exclusively and directly with crime fiction, mystery, thriller and suspense novelists. She also creates online training courses and books that teach the art of sentence-level fiction editing and the business of editorial freelancing (including social media, marketing and branding). In 2021, Louise authored the CIEP guide Editing Fiction Containing Gender-Neutral Pronouns. She also cohosts The Editing Podcast with Denise Cowle.

As an independent editor, Louise is especially interested in business practice that’s underpinned by the principles of creativity, self-care, sustainability, longevity and legacy. She’s sought to bring those principles to her CIEP work by championing the transformation of operations, governance and strategic planning.

Email:

[email protected]

Abi Saffrey

Vice-chair

Abi started editing and managing editorial projects in 2000, when she joined a small business-to-business publisher within the Bonnier group. She worked at Continuum, Dun & Bradstreet, and Learning and Teaching Scotland before going freelance in 2009. Abi proofreads and copyedits economics, social policy and political publications, and project manages education textbooks and resources.

Abi joined the SfEP in 2005, becoming an Advanced Professional Member in 2012. She co-created the CIEP’s Editorial Project Management course (for which she is a tutor), and wrote its Editorial Project Management guide. Abi volunteered to coordinate the SfEP blog in the summer of 2018, with that evolving into a position on the information team in January 2020. While on the information team, Abi produced the CIEP’s bimonthly external newsletter, Editorial Excellence, and continued to coordinate the blog, as well as writing several fact sheets and project managing the production of a guide. Abi was elected to the CIEP Council in September 2021.

Email:

[email protected]

Hester Higton

Vice-chair

Hester started her working life as an academic historian and museum curator. In 2005 she moved into freelance editorial work, joining the Institute in the same year. She became an Advanced Professional Member in 2009 and an LCGI in Editorial Skills in 2013.

Hester’s primary editorial focus is academic texts in the arts and humanities, particularly history, theology and classics. She works for publishers and individual authors.

Hester was elected to the CIEP Council in September 2022. However, she’s been immersed in the Institute’s training programme for years. She was among the first batch of tutors recruited to work on new online courses in 2013 and has continued as a tutor since then.

She has also developed live webinar courses and enhanced the accessibility of the CIEP’s in-person training provision for editors all over the world. Efficient Editing launched in 2020 and Copyediting 1: Introduction in 2022.

She has brought all this experience to bear in discussions of the development of the new online training platform.

Email:

[email protected]

Richard Hutchinson

Richard spent 25 years working as a software engineer in the defence, telecommunications and law enforcement domains before joining the then SfEP in 2011 while retraining as a proofreader and copyeditor. He became an Advanced Professional Member in 2013, and enjoys using his maths degree and computing background in editing academic books and journal papers.

Since joining the Council as digital services director in 2018, Richard has overseen the day-to-day running and updating of the digital systems supporting CIEP operations and the membership; undertaken a complete rebranding exercise in the transfer from SfEP to CIEP; rationalised the file sharing and calendaring for CIEP operations; introduced a flexitime system to support the office staff; implemented and supported online participation in EGMs and AGMs; introduced a conference app to support and connect delegates; and researched, specified, procured, and is in the process of implementing, a new digital platform to integrate the CIEP's disparate back-office and member- and public-facing systems.

Email:

[email protected]

John Ingamells

John came to freelance editing later in life having first pursued a career in the Diplomatic Service followed by 10 years in the City. He served as press attaché at the British Embassy in Buenos Aires from 1990 to 1994, giving him an early appreciation of the importance of careful and accurate use of language.

He joined the then SfEP in 2015 and was elected to the CIEP Council in 2021, taking over the community remit. Since becoming a director, John has worked with the local groups in navigating the challenges of returning to in-person meetings after the pandemic. He has overseen the completion and publication of a new guide for local group coordinators and helped get three new special interest groups up and running.

John had been a forum moderator for a few years before joining the Council, giving him valuable background for his directorial role in overseeing the team of moderators. He has helped bring four new moderators onto the team.

Email:

[email protected]

Sharon Rutland

Sharon began her career as a primary teacher, spending twenty years in the profession. During her time in education, she supported other teachers and staff in teaching grammar and writing, and worked with pupils to boost their writing skills. Her love of writing eventually led her to pursue a career in fiction editing.

Sharon is now a full-time freelance fiction editor, working for both independent authors and publishers. She enjoys editing a variety of genres but specialises in historical fiction, fantasy and children’s fiction.

Since joining the CIEP, Sharon has been an active member. She joined her local group soon after becoming a member and attended the monthly in-person meetings. In 2022, she became a local group leader for the East Midlands. She regularly contributes to the forums, particularly the fiction forum, and has attended the last four conferences. Sharon is delighted to be voted in as a member of the Council.

Email:

[email protected]

Jennie Seitz

Jennie has over fifteen years of experience copyediting and proofreading academic papers for journal publication, specialising in fields such as education, information science and technology, and social sciences. Since joining the CIEP around three years ago, she has broadened her focus to include ESL textbooks and trade nonfiction and fiction. Originally from the UK, Jennie’s background includes roles as a flight attendant and English instructor in Japan, and she now lives in the US, bringing a rich global perspective to her editorial practice.

In addition to her editing work, Jennie has created a self-paced course on academic copyediting for the Editorial Freelancers Association (EFA), supporting editors transitioning to academic work. A Professional Member of the CIEP, she attends the CIEP’s Cloud Club West and has travelled from the US to participate in the last three annual conferences in person.

Jennie contributes to the editing community as the newsletter editor for the EFA and Editors Canada’s Academic Editing Chapter. She also co-leads an AI-focused working group for a Community of Interest with the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) and has presented on the impact of AI on academic editing for PEN. Her clients include Big Five publishers, academic editing agencies, university presses, and independent authors and researchers.

Email:

[email protected]

Manda Waller

Manda has been involved with publishing for her entire professional life. She worked as an Editorial Assistant, then Production Editor, then Managing Editor for Butterworths Law Directory and other Martindale-Hubbell publications. She also worked for LexisNexis and Reed Elsevier before setting up her editing business in 2019. 

She now works exclusively with fiction, primarily with indie authors, and specialises in line-editing and developmental editing of fantasy, romance and science fiction manuscripts. The cornerstones of her editing business are honesty, transparency, encouragement and support, and she believes there is space for kindness in every interaction. 

She is the CIEP group coordinator for her local Kent group, and a member of the Learning and Professional Development Committee. She joined the Council in 2025. 

Email:

[email protected]