Ellen is a scientific communications expert with more than 25 years of experience. She's written or edited more than 500 articles for audiences ranging from sixth graders to physicians. What she enjoys most is editing and making text as clear and polished as possible.
Ellen is a trained scientist (MS in neuroscience from the University of California San Francisco) with more than 10 years of basic, clinical, and translational research experience. Her areas of subject matter expertise include neuroscience, molecular biology, cancer biology, and bioethics. She worked at the University of Washington for 14 years and Seattle Children’s bioethics center for 6 years.
She has edited more than 400 scientific articles and dozens of successful grant applications (Ro1, R34, K08, P50, STTR/SBIR). She has worked with English as a second language (ESL) authors. She is an expert in plain language, appropriate reading levels, and inclusive language.
She is President of the Northwest Science Writers Association, host of a twice-monthly coffee chat for freelancers for the National Association of Science Writers, and VP of the Congress of Regional Science Writers Groups.
Ellen founded WeGotThisSeattle, a COVID-19 emergency relief project, and has fed more than 56,000 frontline and essential workers since March 13, 2020. She has fundraised more than $125,000 and has helped keep more than 150 Seattle restaurants in business. She has been featured in The New York Times, The Seattle Times, Seattle Met Magazine, CBS This Morning, Mother Jones, High Country News, and has been drawn by David Horsey as one of 2020’s local heroes.
MS in Biochemistry, University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
Thesis work in laboratory of John Rubinstein, MD, PhD, Weill Institute for Neurosciences
BS in Organismal Biology, University of Kansas
Intensive Japanese language summer sister city-exchange program, Hiratsuka, Japan
Nonprofit executive director and creative agency director-level experience
Founder, WeGotThisSeattle
Past-President, Northwest Science Writers Association
National Association of Science Writers
Recipient, Diane McGurgan Service Award
Founding member, Writing for K-12 Students Committee
Community Manager, Freelance Writers listserv
Founder, Freelance Writers #SciWriCoffee Chat
Get advice, information, and encouragement to define and reach your goals.
Scientific manuscripts, grant applications, white papers, web content, annual reports, profiles, and features. Expert in plain language and reading level.
Topics include: career paths, science communications, why diversity matters, starting a nonprofit, and plain & inclusive language.
"Kudos to your editor [Ellen] for their time and efforts. It is clear that they went through the paper with a fine-tooth comb, from slight one-word changes here and there to correcting a citation...I am happy with the final product, and I think overall, it is improved over our initial submittal without impacting any of the information." — Manuscript Author, Journal of Environmental Health
"Ellen is an exceptional editor. I had the opportunity to work with her on a project that contained many components. She is well-organized, thoughtful, and has tremendous expertise in a variety of style requirements. She made significant improvements to the materials she was given and she did so in a respectful way, always providing options for consideration. Our project was improved immeasurably by her contributions. I highly recommend Ellen. Not only is she thorough, reliable, and flexible, she is also an absolute joy to work with." — Senior Communications Manager, Washington Health Alliance
"Ellen did a fantastic job editing my program’s annual report. She knows the style guides inside and out and made word choice and grammatical corrections that took the report to the next level of professionalism. I was proud to share it with leaders inside and outside our organization. Ellen has excellent communication skills, is easy to work with, and flexible. I am happy to recommend her as a copyeditor and would enthusiastically work with her again." — Manager, Treuman Katz Center for Pediatric Bioethics
"Ellen knows what concise, effective writing looks like, and sometimes we as writers are too close to the subject matter to see it objectively. Ellen is an exceptional editor who brought out the best in [my text]. Ellen helped me make the most of a PowerPoint presentation. Beyond her knowledge of how to make the most of words and ideas, she brought a genuine concern for the world that really contributed to a great finished product." — Director of Media Relations, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital
"I was deeply impressed with her expert eye on improving the content and clarity of the documents. Her suggestions were excellent and insightful and demonstrated a deep grasp of the detailed issues involved and a great talent in both effective editing and powerful communication skills. She was extremely responsive in a very timely and collegial manner and I would not hesitate to seek her collaboration again." — Clinical Bioethicist, American Society for Bioethics and Humanities
"Ellen is a superb writer and editor; I have seen her raw talent and understand how she has honed her craft with focus and dedication. Ellen is exceptional in her communication: she always seeks to clearly understand the needs of her clients, then makes decisions that fulfill everyone's needs and invariably leads to successful project completion. Her clarity, genuine care, and exceptional craft all contribute to her leadership; she can deliver a very high level of detail while meeting rapid turnaround times and juggling multiple projects without missing a step. Ellen has greatly influenced my own work, and I am eternally grateful for her positive influence on my career growth." — Research Scientist, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas
"Ellen utilizes a wealth of scientific knowledge and extraordinary writing expertise in styles, grammar, and nonbiased language to complete each copy editing project. This combination of scientific and writing expertise is invaluable to scientific publications, resulting in a final product that is scientifically sound, logical, grammatically and stylistically sound, and comprehendible. Her editing is always thorough, thoughtful, and consistent. Ellen is a pure joy to work with, always meeting deadlines, being flexible when needed, and never needing oversight." — Client, Scientific Journal Editor
“Ellen has been a tremendous asset in copy editing for Issues in Science and Technology. She obviously knows grammar and punctuation rules inside and out, but she also has a great feel for flow and wording. She is careful and detail-oriented, precise in her editing and judicious in her choices. She rapidly got up to speed on our publication’s style quirks and takes on dense and knotty prose with élan. When necessary she asks insightful questions of both the author and editors. Her suggested phrasing alternatives are invariably on point. And—a virtue never to be taken for granted—she on time, returning polished, vastly improved essays on deadline. It has been a true pleasure working with Ellen, and we look forward to continuing to partner with her on future projects.” — Managing Editor, Issues in Science and Technology
“Ellen has been an enormous help. She has been a pleasure to work with and I appreciate her so much. Thank you for being so responsive and for squeezing me into your very busy schedule.” — University Professor, R01 Grant Application
Porter, K. M., Cho, M. K., Kraft, S. A., Korngiebel, D. M., Constantine, M., Lee, S. S., Kelley, M., James, C., Kuwana, E., Meyer, A., Diekema, D., Capron, A. M., Magnus, D., & Wilfond, B. S. (2017). Research on Medical Practices (ROMP): Attitudes of IRB Personnel about Randomization and Informed Consent. IRB, 39(1), 10–16.
Kraft, S. A., Cho, M. K., Constantine, M., Lee, S. S., Kelley, M., Korngiebel, D., James, C., Kuwana, E., Meyer, A., Porter, K., Diekema, D., Capron, A. M., Alicic, R., Wilfond, B. S., & Magnus, D. (2016). A comparison of institutional review board professionals’ and patients’ views on consent for research on medical practices. Clinical Trials, 13(5), 555–565. https://doi.org/10.1177/1740774516648907
Taylor, H. A., Kuwana, E., & Wilfond, B. S. (2015). Challenging cases in research ethics [Series]. The American Journal of Bioethics : AJOB, 15(4), 75. https://doi.org/10.1080/15265161.2015.1011002
Puelles*, L., Kuwana*, E., Puelles, E., & Rubenstein, J. L. (1999). Comparison of the mammalian and avian telencephalon from the perspective of gene expression data. European Journal of Morphology, 37(2-3), 139–150. https://doi.org/10.1076
*Authors contributed equally
Qiu, M., Anderson, S., Chen, S., Meneses, J. J., Hevner, R., Kuwana, E., Pedersen, R. A., & Rubenstein, J. L. (1996). Mutation of the Emx-1 homeobox gene disrupts the corpus callosum. Developmental Biology, 178(1), 174–178. https://doi.org/10.1006/dbio.1996.0207
Cole, A. M., Baldwin, L. M., Keppel, G. A., Kuwana, E., Mollis, B. L., & Wilfond, B. S. (2017). Conflicts of Interest and Distribution of Resources to Community Partners: An Organizational Ethics Dilemma. Progress in community health partnerships : Research, education, and action, 11(1), 99–106. https://doi.org/10.1353/cpr.2017.0013
Cho, M. K., Magnus, D., Constantine, M., Lee, S. S., Kelley, M., Alessi, S., Korngiebel, D., James, C., Kuwana, E., Gallagher, T. H., Diekema, D., Capron, A. M., Joffe, S., & Wilfond, B. S. (2015). Attitudes Toward Risk and Informed Consent for Research on Medical Practices: A Cross-sectional Survey. Annals of Internal Medicine, 162(10), 690–696. https://doi.org/10.7326/M15-0166
Puelles, L., Kuwana, E., Puelles, E., Bulfone, A., Shimamura, K., Keleher, J., Smiga, S., & Rubenstein, J. L. (2000). Pallial and subpallial derivatives in the embryonic chick and mouse telencephalon, traced by the expression of the genes Dlx-2, Emx-1, Nkx-2.1, Pax-6, and Tbr-1. The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 424(3), 409–438. DOI
Fan, C. M., Kuwana, E., Bulfone, A., Fletcher, C. F., Copeland, N. G., Jenkins, N. A., Crews, S., Martinez, S., Puelles, L., Rubenstein, J. L., & Tessier-Lavigne, M. (1996). Expression patterns of two murine homologs of Drosophila single-minded suggest possible roles in embryonic patterning and in the pathogenesis of Down syndrome. Molecular and Cellular Neurosciences, 7(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1006/mcne.1996.0001
Kuwana, E. (2023). “Nursing Annual Report 2022" Seattle Childrens.
Kuwana, E., Shirts, C., & Lamberg, Lynne. (2021). “Science Writing for Kids: Tools, Tips and Techniques for a Tough Audience" National Association of Science Writers.
Kuwana, E. (2021, February 5). “Science Writers in Extraordinary Times: COVID-19 Time Capsule.” National Association of Science Writers.
Kuwana, E. (2020, July 1). “Science Writers in Extraordinary Times: COVID-19 Time Capsule.” National Association of Science Writers.
Kuwana, E. (2020, May 3). “Science Writers in Extraordinary Times: COVID-19 Time Capsule.” National Association of Science Writers.
“How a Simple Gesture Morphed into a Full-Time Effort to Feed the Frontline.” (2020, April 27). Timmerman Report.
