Testimonials
‘Swiss Army knife of communicators’
Ever-versatile, brilliant and personable, Diana D’Abruzzo is like the Swiss Army knife of communicators. She writes beautifully about any topic our agency throws at her, whether it’s in her “wheelhouse” or not, and can be trusted to copy edit to exacting detail, adhering to any number of style guides. She never misses a deadline or an opportunity to be encouraging or helpful. Simply put, she is one of the finest writers, editors and humans I’ve worked with.
—Ellen Barnes, Red Havas vice president of content
‘careful and conscientious’
Diana is not only exactly as careful and conscientious as you would hope, but she also cares more than any editor I’ve ever met. Somehow she keeps her eye on the minutiae and the big picture at the same time.
—Julie Van Keuren, freelance contractor
‘very lucky to have her’
I don’t know anyone who has the writing, editing, reporting and design skills Diana has. No one I know can write a “Welcome Back Otter” headline, design a website and ALSO write a long-form report on the prison system. Incredible. If she ever goes back to the workplace, someone will be very, very, very lucky to have her.
—Sushant Sagar, POLITICO copy chief
Regarding a job editing and designing a 200-page book from scratch:
‘a beautiful, polished, and professional finished product’
I worked with Diana on a book project—an edited volume of Yiddish family letters translated into English, with additional material, including a preface, family history section, and an explanation of the research process.
Working with Diana was everything I could have asked for—and more. She was able to take my roughly assembled first draft and create a beautiful, polished, and professional finished product. And she was a pro at her own work of translation—taking my sometimes vague ideas about design, improving them, and then executing on them. She helped to create the entire design aesthetic for the book and made it all work. She also worked magic with the section of photographs in the book, many of which were old and poor quality; she figured out a way to make them look crisp and clean.
She was also a pleasure to work with. She was always responsive and diligent, making sure she got everything right. I went through a million rounds of edits toward the end, requiring rearranging and reformatting, and somehow she kept it together and made sure everything stayed just right.
I would heartily recommend her as an editor for your project and would gladly work with her again.
—Greg Margolis, author of May You All Live Happily! Margolis Family Letters, 1908–1933
Regarding a job helping the nonprofit Arnold Ventures move its content over to a redesigned website, including rewriting display text and articles for a wider audience, designing article pages, writing headlines, and ensuring all parts of the site were working as needed:
‘I knew and trusted that it was in good hands with her eyes on it’
Diana's emails were filled with attention to detail, solutions to problems I didn’t even know existed, and feedback that made the site better every minute. I felt like true colleagues, in the trenches, and I can imagine that working in the newsroom with her would be a pleasure. The site looks amazing, and it would not have been possible without her. I didn’t always have the bandwidth or distance to look at the site with a critical eye, but I knew and trusted that it was in good hands with her eyes on it. She graciously accepted any request that came her way and was good at everything.
—Stephanie Getman, Arnold Ventures, digital communications manager
‘see the big picture’
Her ability to see the big picture without forgetting the details made this launch a success.
—Helen Spencer, Arnold Ventures, vice president of communications
‘smart and thorough’
Diana is both careful and thoughtful, with an excellent sense of the difference between an odd but intentional choice and a mistake. Her queries are smart and thorough, and she is dogged in pursuit of relevant fact-checking.
—Loren Noveck, Random House production editor