While IMPACT magazine might only be six years old, its mission to “capture and illustrate the breadth” of research at Brown has already attracted an audience of more than 45,000 readers, wrote Sherri Miles, research communications manager and editor of the magazine, in an email to The Herald.
Founded in 2018, IMPACT magazine is dedicated to highlighting top faculty and student research engagements at the University. Unlike an academic journal, IMPACT is “designed to be informative, entertaining, attractive and accessible to a general reader,” Miles wrote.
Combining feature-length articles, interviews and sections such as “Future Impact” and “Brown Invents” — which look to the future of research at the University and the commercial potential of Brown inventions respectively — the magazine aims to make rigorous research an engaging topic.
According to Vice President for Research Jill Pipher, who has been involved with conversations about the magazine since 2016, IMPACT’s stories “show how research is closely intertwined with our educational mission — in classrooms, laboratories and faculty collaborations with undergraduates and graduate students.”
This spirit of collaboration is also part of IMPACT’s staffing system, as the magazine has employed many student interns throughout the years as part of its mission to train a new class of writers, journalists and editors, Miles wrote.
For Brenda Subilhaga '25, a research intern for IMPACT and copy editor for The Herald, working for IMPACT has been life-altering.
“I joined because I wanted to try something new,” Subilhaga said. “The magazine changed my whole perspective,” ultimately motivating Subilhaga to switch her concentration from psychology to English.
Kathleen Meininger '23, a recent Brown graduate and former Herald section editor, also worked for IMPACT. Meininger served as a staff writer for the magazine, conducting interviews and developing stories.
“It was a great position for me personally because I had been writing (about) science for so long,” Meininger said. She added that she valued the amount of input she was able to have at the magazine, explaining that Miles always listened to her opinions.
Looking back, Meininger recognizes the many skills she was able to develop while at IMPACT, such as communication and asking “the right questions.”
For Miles, working with student interns has been imperative to ensuring the magazine’s vitality. “The magazine does not have the budget for professional staff, so the collaboration with student interns is essential to the process,” she wrote. “The impact of their efforts is profound.”
In fact, Miles considered Subilhaga so essential to the IMPACT team that she nominated her for Brown’s 2023 Student Activities Office Leadership Award for Student Employee of the Year, an award Subilhaga ultimately won. According to SAO’s website, the award is given to a student employee who “positively impacts their work environment” and demonstrates leadership qualities.
As an English concentrator, Subilhaga said she has grown to appreciate IMPACT’s conscious effort to highlight both STEM and humanities research. “My boss and I are not STEM people,” she explained. “We were trying to embrace all (of) the Brown community.”
The newest edition of the magazine chose the topic of “Aging” to unify different research projects underway at the University. “Over the past 10 years, Brown researchers have had more than 200 federally-funded aging-related research projects,” Miles wrote.
Some of the featured projects research cell studies and elder care, Indigenous enslavement, melting Arctic ice and even models of predicting crowd behavior.
But readers who have picked up IMPACT’s newest copy will have to hold on to it for a little longer since the publication is going on a break for 2024. According to Miles, the purpose of the break is twofold: addressing staffing and developing a new website for the Office of the Vice President for Research.
According to Pipher, the new website is her “highest communications priority in the coming year.”
IMPACT will also migrate to a digital platform. “The website will allow us to incorporate more dynamic content, such as video and audio clips from interviews, photo galleries and related content that couldn't make it into the print edition,” Miles wrote.
For Miles, a combination of both print and digital products would be the best way to “most effectively share Brown's stories of groundbreaking discoveries and scholarship and commitment to making a difference in the world.”
Julia Vaz is the managing editor of newsroom and vice president on The Herald's 134th Editorial Board. Previously, she covered Environment and Crime & Justice as a Metro editor. A concentrator in political science and modern culture and media, she loves watching Twilight (as a comedy) and casually dropping the fact she is from Brazil.
