Introducing Debora Holmes



We are thrilled to introduce one of our newer editors, Debora Holmes. Deb has joined us during the past year and works mainly with technical, educational, and Christian nonfiction.

Editor and writer Debora Holmes, Minneapolis, has been helping authors refine and publish their works for over a decade and a half. After graduating with English and music degrees from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, Debora also obtained a degree in pre-vet med (chemical, biological, and animal sciences) from the University of Minnesota before obtaining her Masters in Environmental Studies from The Evergreen State College, Olympia, Washington. Her many strengths include ongoing experience with a diverse set of authors and publications (from devotionals to technical government documents to all sorts of scientific papers), skill working with different levels of writing (including much experience with ESL authors), and the ability to switch effortlessly between topics and styles, including between American, British, and Canadian English; she is also a member of the Editors’ Association of Canada.

For close to a decade Debora was the full-time editor of Environmental Practice, the professional and ethics-centered journal of the National Association of Environmental Professionals (NAEP), for which she received the NAEP President’s Award among many other accolades. Besides the journal, she has ghostwritten, ghost-edited, copyedited, and proofread vast numbers of documents. Large projects before joining the IFW team have included, for example, listed editor (print and e-books) of The State of Sustainability Initiatives Review 2010 and 2014 (available HERE and HERE), books/reports for the Canadian Council of Academies, and hundreds of research articles; favorite projects include inspirational books for women and in the environmental sciences (a list of selected projects is available upon request). Debora comes from a line of Lutheran ministers (occasionally having the privilege to edit her father’s homilies) and is also employed as pianist/organist and vocalist at her church.

Deb is the mother of very different twin boys in the second grade, both of whom fascinate her and inspire a great deal of her writing, including writing on and for children with autism.


Her favorite thing to do when not penning and editing is to grab the family’s energetic Jack Russell mix and experience the love of God through nature with her children.