In 2025, SYP Oxford is running the Into and Ahead streams of the mentorship scheme.
Click here to apply to the mentorship Into stream.
Click here to apply to the mentorship Ahead stream.
SYP Oxford Mentors 2025
Giulia Maggiori (she/her)
Publisher, Oxford University Press
Giulia is a Publisher at Oxford University Press. Prior to joining OUP she completed an MA in Publishing at Oxford Brookes and a BA in English Literature at John Cabot University.
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Sophie Shepherd (she/her)
Marketing Manager, Oxford University Press
Sophie is a Marketing Manager at Oxford University Press, with over 5 years of experience working on non-fiction titles in the publishing industry. In her current role, she works in international marketing in the Education division. Prior to this, she worked on academic titles at OUP and her first role in publishing was a Sales & Marketing Assistant at Crimson Publishing in Bath. Sophie was also Co-Chair of the Oxford branch of SYP in 2023.
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Sarah-Louise Alsop (she/her)
Assistant International Sales and Marketing Manager, Princeton University Press
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Jason Mitchell (he/him)
Senior Acquisitions Editor, Elsevier
Jason Mitchell is Senior Acquisitions Editor at Elsevier. Jason’s career has been focused in the academic / STM publishing sectors after completing an M.Phil in Publishing Studies at the University of Stirling. He has worked for Taylor & Francis, Palgrave Macmillan, and Elsevier in England, Scotland, and Ireland. Jason has been a volunteer committee member of STM Association, a mentor for the Crankstart Scheme and is a committee member of Oxford Publishing Society (OPuS). Further information about Jason can be found here and here.
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Rachael Wass (she/her)
Editor, Oxford University Press
Rachael is currently an editor at OUP working in the International Education team. The majority of her work focuses on developing digital products, resources, and processes for students aged 11-18 across the globe. Rachael started her publishing journey as an editorial assistant at OUP and completed the MA in Publishing Oxford Brookes in 2022.
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Bella Green (she/her)
Production Sub-Editor, the Stage Media Company
Bella is a production sub-editor at the Stage Media Company, working primarily on The Bookseller magazine. She was previously an editorial assistant at Oxford University Press, working on Humanities and Trade titles. She has a BA in Classics and completed an MSt in Literature and Arts in 2023, which she pursued part-time alongside her EA role.
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Finn Watts (he/him)
Continuous Improvement Associate for the Higher Education, Oxford University Press
Looking for a new career post-pandemic, Finn enrolled onto the Publishing Media MA course at Oxford Brookes and graduated with a 2:1. His first role in publishing was as a Production Assistant at Frontiers, a scientific journal publisher. In this role Finn worked managing the production process for their oncology journal, while also getting involved with a number of departmental process improvement initiatives, and he was promoted to Production Specialist after 9 months. He knew he wanted to focus on publishing processes and systems, and so after almost a year as a Specialist, got a role at Oxford University Press as the Continuous Improvement Associate for the Higher Education division, where he’s now been working for a year.
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Aoibheann O’Flynn (she/her)
Marketing Assistant, Polity
Aoibheann graduated from NUIGalway in April 2022 with her MA in Literature and Publishing, having previously studied English and Politics at University College Cork. While studying for her master’s, she was Managing Editor of the ROPES Literary Journal. Since June 2022, she has been a Marketing Assistant at Polity, an independent publisher focusing on the social sciences and humanities. While she works across a range of subjects, her expertise is in Politics and International Relations. Despite working in the field, her bookshelf rarely features non-fiction unless it’s a title she’s working on or a celeb autobiography!
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Isabelle Cowles (she/her)
Rights Executive, Bloomsbury
After completing a Masters in Publishing at Oxford Brookes and interning at Princeton University Press, Izzy has now worked in the Rights Department for Bloomsbury Publishing for two years! She also spent two lovely years with SYP Oxford, first as Conference Captain and then as Co-Chair.
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Sarah Hafeez (she/her)
Freelancer
Sarah is a former Oxford University Press social sciences editor, now working as a freelancer, she completed her MA Publishing Media at Oxford Brookes.
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Gemma Middleton (she/her)
Editor, Oxford University Press
An Oxford Brookes Publishing MA alumni, Gemma is currently working as an editor in the Higher Education department at Oxford University Press. With a background in media and education, she has had experience teaching abroad and now spends her time editing a diverse range of university-level textbooks, from Philosophy to Law. As a South African working on a trans-Atlantic team, she hopes to bring a more international perspective to any prospective mentees.
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