Get to Know Lori Straus

You move in to give a friend a hug and three seconds later find your lips on their cheek, and only because they turned their head.

Were you hoping for more so you’d no longer have to live with unrequited love?

Or did you just have an absence seizure?

For me, it was the latter.

My name’s Lori. I’m a content writer, and I live with a rare epilepsy called epilepsy with eyelid myoclonia, formerly Jeavons syndrome. The main seizure type is absence seizures. This means I'm "absent" for several seconds at a time, dozens of times a day. My dominant form of seizure expression is fluttering eyelids, but I can also have seizures with no noticeable signs.

For years, I happily hid my epilepsy as much as possible and lived with an invisible disability. Neurologists couldn’t do much for me. Because absence seizures are more commonly found in children, research tends to focus there. Therefore, I’ve spent most of my life with uncontrolled seizures.

(Thankfully, I’ve only mistakenly attempted to kiss one person so far. Disability certainly has its undignified moments.)

Life continued: I trained in the performing arts throughout my youth, helped in the family dealership, received my Hons. B.A. in German with a second general major in psychology in 2000 and my M.A. in German with a focus on sociolinguistics in 2002.

Learning became my way of life. As I write this, I’m learning Japanese for a writing project.

After university, I worked first in the arts sector for several years. I moved into tech, and in 2013 found myself back in academia as the administrative coordinator for a research centre. I got to jump right into a sociolinguistic and cultural project and loved it. I received my TCPS2: Core ethics certification in 2014.

I started my writing and editing business in 2010, writing first for magazines. That expanded quickly into content writing for businesses. My academic background also became useful: I offered dissertation editing services in the humanities and social sciences.

What had started as a part-time business became a full-time one. I’ve written about automotive, AI, real-world data and real-world evidence, advocacy, and manufacturing, among other topics. No matter what I've written about, though, my writing has always focused on one purpose: connecting the people behind the company with the people reading the content.

If you’re trying to make the world a better place with your research, I want to help you communicate your research to the world. I specialize in plain language communication, excel at patient stories, spotlight employees in special ways, and understand the challenges of managing a disability and living with a rare disease.

Contact me today via the form in the footer, and let’s see if we can work together.