Dr. Lori Desautels, Assistant Professor at Butler University’s College of Education and founder of Marian University’s Educational Neuroscience Symposium, writes about introducing brain-based research to trauma-informed schools. During my tenure as Edutopia’s blog editor, I worked with her to strengthen her written voice, and she later invited me to continue that partnership on three of her books (to date).

 

 

The Challenge

• Lori’s exuberant presentation style engages audiences with warmth and enthusiasm. In videos of her speaking, it’s easy to recognize how she reaches and empowers her listeners.

• Listeners, however, don’t receive information in the same way as readers. Lori’s writing style often needs reining in to project the gravitas expected by academic readership. Her prose works best by retaining a conversational tone grounded in the formalities of written exposition.
• Lori’s books rely on tables, boxed lists, diagrams, and illustrations, all of which often require edits for consistency of language, punctuation, and layout.

 

 

The Books

Connections Over Compliance: Rewiring Our Perceptions of Discipline (Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing, 2020)

My first book for Lori was not a plug-and-play edit. Her frequent co-author had stepped away from this project at the last minute, and she was undertaking it on her own. The book changed shape a few times as she figured how to best incorporate everything she wanted to include. I helped her manage and refine the material that she continued to create, collect, and rework.

 

Intentional Neuroplasticity: Moving Our Nervous Systems and Educational System Toward Post-Traumatic Growth (Wyatt-MacKenzie, 2022)

Lori brought me into this project with the expectation that I would be her collaborator. While she was clearly the subject matter expert, my role included advising on the cadence of presenting the material and the best language for introducing and framing the charts, tables, and first-person educator stories that were so integral to the book.

 

Body and Brain Brilliance: A Manual to Cultivate Awareness and Practices for Our Nervous Systems (TeacherGoals, 2024)

I worked on this project in the role of developmental editor, as the publisher already had an in-house copyeditor. With its profusion of charts, tables, and expressive artwork by Regan Desautels and Alexis Gómez, the manual was less labor-intensive than the previous books, which helped us keep pace with the publisher’s accelerated timeline.

 

 

My Client’s Response

For Connections Over Compliance

“I wish you knew how grateful I am! I truly cannot thank you enough for your partnership on this project. Part of me is so sad we are coming to an end. You have been my co-author!”

 

For Intentional Neuroplasticity

“I always want your word mastery and brilliance in conveying my thoughts! Connections Over Compliance is being read worldwide, and I am so grateful for YOU!”

 

For Body and Brain Brilliance

“I could not have done this without you. It has been grounding and steadying working beside you on this project!”