The latest issue of the UMass magazine features an article about UMass alumni working at Merriam-Webster’s in Springfield:

https://www.umass.edu/magazine/spring-2022/chasing

Linguistics and Philosophy (’99) major Emily Brewster is on the cover of the magazine, and had this to say about her path to her profession (she is senior editor and editorial ambassador):

Brewster says she actually got her job at Merriam-Webster because of one of her UMass linguistics professors, Kyle Johnson. “I didn’t really know what I was going to do next, and I was thinking about going to graduate school, but I wanted to stay in the area. When he mentioned that Merriam-Webster was down the road in Springfield, it was the proverbial light bulb. I just thought ‘Oh, people write dictionaries, maybe I want to write dictionaries!’ So I absolutely credit him with even the notion that lexicography was a thing that a person can do. And then studying linguistics and philosophy together—I remember taking syntax and logic at the same time—and I feel like those two classes are really very useful in defining.”

Linguistics alum (’16) Sarah Carragher (assistant editor) says that she “graduated with the attitude of a modern-day linguist. My linguistics education equipped me with the tools to observe language in all its complexity without judgment.”