V38 N3 / 2023 

©2023 American Medical Writers Association. All rights reserved.  
ISSN 2163-5315

AMWAJournal.org     41

Named in honor of one of the founders of AMWA, the  
Harold Swanberg Distinguished Service Award is given to  
an active member who has made distinguished contributions 
to medical communication or rendered unusual and distin-
guished services to the medical profession. 

This year’s award goes to Joan Affleck, MBA. Her contribu-
tions to the field of medical writing have impacted not  
only AMWA but also organizations and individuals around 
the globe. 
 Joan is an associate vice president at Merck & Co, Inc, 
where she leads the Medical Writing Department. She 
earned her MBA from Columbia University in New York, 
where she is a Lang Center Innovation Fellow and a regular 
guest lecturer.
 Over the past 25 years, Joan has built several medical  
writing departments from the ground up in the United 
States, Europe, Asia, South Africa, and South America. These 
experiences in pharma, biotech, and contract research orga-
nizations give her a broad and international perspective of 
medical writing. Beyond the influence of her skills on orga-
nizations at large, her leadership and interpersonal skills 
have supported, encouraged, and molded many individual 
medical writers in their professional journeys. 
 Joan has used her adaptive global leadership experience 
to help support AMWA’s strategic planning, development 
of innovative solutions, and prioritization of key needs. 
As chair of the Executive Council from 2018 to 2021, Joan 
led medical writing leaders to develop Executive Forum 
events and projects. In 2019, upon Joan’s recommendation, 
AMWA formed a Workforce Training Committee to iden-
tify the educational content needed to prepare and develop 
the careers of medical communicators in pharmaceutical 
and biotechnology settings and to provide guidance on the 
development of new educational content. In 2020, Joan 
received the AMWA President’s Award, and she has been 
a member of the Board of Directors since 2021. Joan was 

also instrumental in 
conceiving and imple-
menting the Value of 
Medical Writing Work 
Group. This group has 
worked diligently to 
define and quantify the 
value of medical writing, 
producing numerous 
peer-reviewed publica-
tions in support of the 
medical writers’ role in 
the industry. 
      Joan has had an 

active role in shaping the evolution of medical writing over 
the last 2 decades, and her leadership has extended beyond 
AMWA and her employers to help the field at large. She has 
served as an advisor to the Healthcare Businesswomen’s 
Association and is a member of the University of Virginia 
Darden School of Business Leadership Communication 
Council. 
 Join AMWA in congratulating Joan when she receives 
her award this fall at the Medical Writing & Communication 
Conference in Baltimore, MD. 

The Member Awards Recognition Committee members 
were Abbie Miller, MWC (chair); Loretta Bohn, ELS (Board 
of Directors liaison); Elizabeth Brown, MS, PMP; Joanne 
McAndrews, PhD; Christina Barnes, MSN, RN, CPNP-PC; 
Jerm-Day Storms, PhD, MWC; and Susan Aiello, DVM, ELS. 
Diane Noland served as staff liaison, and Susan Krug, MS, 
CAE, served as ex officio. 

Author declaration and disclosures: The author notes no  
commercial associations that may pose a conflict of interest in 
relation to this article.

Author contact: Abbie.Roth@nationwidechildrens.org 

Abbie Miller, MWC / 2022-2023 Chair, Member Awards Recognition Committee

2023 Harold Swanberg Distinguished Service Award Recipient  
Joan Affleck, MBA

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