In many places, employees come and go all the time. The American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) is different, and clearly is a wonderful place to work. The Society enjoys a relatively low turnover rate amongst the staff and a number have been with us for 10 years or more. Over the past 35 years, The Plant Cell has seen perhaps a dozen ASPB employees who contribute to managing the journal—managing editors, production managers, and other staff—move on to other endeavors. Only one has remained a constant all those years: Annette Kessler.
After nearly 35 years at ASPB, Annette is retiring from her position as the peer review manager for The Plant Cell at the end of April 2022. As the longest serving employee of ASPB, Annette has been a part of The Plant Cell since the very beginning. She joined the staff at ASPB in October 1987 and began to work as an editorial assistant for The Plant Cell when it was founded, with the first issue published in January 1989. Annette has been an invaluable part of the journal’s success ever since. As peer review manager she has always been on the front line, working with authors, editors, and peer reviewers to guide and ease their navigation through the journal’s manuscript submission process. Her expertise and experience in this work span the era from the days of paper submissions and FedEx to our current electronic system. Annette is the face (or the name) that is most familiar and most recognized by our authors, reviewers, and editors.
As the successive Editors-in-Chief of the journal since its inception (seven of us) and a staff editor for the journal for nearly 22 years (N.A.E.), we want to thank Annette for her dedicated efforts, and for providing continuity and solid grounding behind the scenes that benefited the journal immeasurably for 35 years. Annette’s professionalism and dedication to excellence were instrumental in establishing and maintaining The Plant Cell as a premier journal. Her guidance, gentle reminders, and archival knowledge have been invaluable. All of us have many fond memories of Annette’s remarkable patience in dealing with editors, authors, and reviewers, even when they occasionally behaved in an unruly or frustrated manner (if you are one of those editors, authors, and/or reviewers, surely we do not mean you)! Annette’s patient and kind assistance is probably unrivaled in the history of journal peer review managers.
Congratulations on a remarkable career, Annette, and thank you for everything! We wish you the best for your retirement.
Contributor Information
Robert B Goldberg, Founding Editor (1987–1991), The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA; Department of Molecular, Cell, and Developmental Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, USA.
Brian A Larkins, Founding Associate Editor and Editor (1992–1998), The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA; School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, 85745, USA.
Ralph S Quatrano, Founding Associate Editor and Editor (1999–2003), The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA; Emeritus Dean and Professor, Department of Biology, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, 63130, USA.
Richard A Jorgensen, Editor-in-Chief (2004–2008), The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA; Emeritus Professor, School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Arizona 85721, USA.
Cathie Martin, Editor-in-Chief (2009–2014), The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA; Department of Metabolic Biology, John Innes Centre, Norwich, NR4 7UH, UK.
Sabeeha S Merchant, Editor-in-Chief (2014–2019), The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA; Department of Plant and Microbial Biology and Department of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA.
Blake C Meyers, Editor-in-Chief (2020–2024), The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA; Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St Louis, Missouri 63132, USA; The Division of Plant Science and Technology, University of Missouri–Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA.
Nancy A Eckardt, Senior Features Editor, The Plant Cell, American Society of Plant Biologists, USA.