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Editor for National Educational Publisher

Client: PCI Education, Inc., national publishing house

Project: Editor in New Product Development of educational materials for special needs & traditional students

Established in 1991, PCI Education offered more than 7,500 instructional materials via its website for teachers of students with special needs, including those with significant or developmental disabilities such as autism. The company’s products were used in English language learner and adult literacy classes, and especially were beneficial to students performing below grade level and/or with special educational needs. Based in San Antonio, PCI Education was a renowned educational resource to educators helping students in traditional and home schools nationwide.

The entity PCI no longer exists. In December 2012, PRO-ED Inc. acquired PCI Education’s entire product line.

TASKS

As an Editor in New Product Development division of PCI, Bastian edited a variety of K-12 educational materials (e.g., math, economics, language arts, science, history). She was required to exhibit outstanding copyediting, proofreading, fact-checking, organizational and communication skills. She helped develop new and updated materials from pre-design to final-approval stages. Throughout all processes Bastian was expected to achieve near 100% accuracy (spoiler alert: she did just that).

After a few months on the job, Bastian identified a need to revamp some of PCI’s internal processes. After she got management approval, she formed and lead a small team of fellow editors to help with the revamping effort. The resulting new processes decreased editing time, improved product quality, helped identify more qualified candidates for the editor jobs, and increased profits. (As part of that process, Bastian rewrote the test given to editor candidates to obtain higher-quality editors.)

Note: She worked part-time but did the same amount of quality work as a full-time editor.

SKILLS

Editing, writing, research, strategic planning, media relations.