We know you have been waiting for this, so here’s our annual introduction to the new faculty members teaching during the spring semester at NYU’s M.S. in Publishing: Digital and Print Media program. Their interests are far-reaching, from expertise in mystery, science fiction and horror publishing to tablet and app creation. Our talented teachers can help students understand worlds ranging from Apple to analytics, consumer marketing to social media marketing, fiction to finance, metadata to magazine editing, video to new views of the future of media. Read on for profiles of the latest publishing executives to join our roster of media leaders in the classroom. Plus, you will learn a few fun facts about what our faculty members do in their time away from teaching:
Stephanie Chan (Magazine Consumer Marketing and Audience Development) is Vice President of Consumer Marketing for InStyle and PEOPLE StyleWatch at Time Inc., having previously been Consumer Marketing Director for InStyle and Essence, and Partnership Director and Senior Brand Manager for InStyle. She has also held positions at Deloitte Consulting and Merrill Lynch. Stephanie earned her M.B.A. in Marketing, Strategy, and Operations from Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Stephanie loves spending time with her identical twin girls, skiing and traveling.
Charles Gallagher (Introduction to Multimedia Financial Analysis) is Chief Financial Officer of Perseus Books Group. He oversees the financial transactions of the largest independent publisher and distributor of books in the United State, currently servicing over 300 independent publishers in both physical and electronic distribution of a wide range of trade publishing content, in addition to operating several wholly owned imprints. Previously, he held senior positions at Direct Brands, Inc., Virgin Media, Viewpointe Archive Services LLC, TradeOut Inc., Baan Company, and IBM Corporation. He earned his Executive M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Diana Gill (Niche Markets: Mystery, Science Fiction, and Horror) is Executive Editor of the Harper Voyager imprint, HarperCollins’ global science fiction and fantasy imprint, where she launched the careers of bestselling authors Kim Harrison, Vicki Pettersson, and Jocelynn Drake, and has worked with Jonathan Barnes, Brom, Trudi Canavan, Richard Kadrey, Sarah Langan, Patrick Lee, Mary Stewart, and more. Previously, she was Senior Editor of the Eos imprint and Assistant Editor and Associate Editor of Avon Books. She started her career at W. H. Freeman and Company in 1996. She received her degree from the University of Chicago.
Diana, who rang in 2013 with the Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge, also has three black belts in karate, aikido, and jujutsu.
Carin Gorrell (Magazine Editing and Management) is the Features Director at SELF, where she directs and edits all health, nutrition, psychology and lifestyle content; conceives and creates feature articles; and represents SELF on national and local television, nationally syndicated radio, and at various press events and conferences. She had previously been SELF’s Nutrition Director and Deputy Health Director, and has also held editorial positions at Redbook, First for Women, Psychology Today, Harper’s Bazaar, and Ladies’ Home Journal. She earned her M.A. from New York University.
Carin sings and plays guitar in a bluegrass band.
Julie Grau (Introduction to Book Publishing) is Senior Vice President and Publisher of Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. Previously she was Vice President and Publisher of Riverhead Books, an imprint of the Penguin Group, where she published numerous bestsellers including Journals by Kurt Cobain, Blue Blood by Edward Conlon, and fiction by Junot Diaz, Sarah Waters, and Nick Hornby. She has also been an Editor at Random House. Julie earned her Master’s from the School of Journalism at Columbia University.
Julie plays paintball.
Mike Haney (Tablet and App Creation and Management) is Chief Creative officer of Mag+, a digital platform for tablets which he helped create as a member of Bonnier’s Research & Development team; he was also involved with the first iPad launch, that of Popular Science in 2010. Prior to his work in R&D, Haney was Executive Editor at Popular Science, where he worked for seven years, and continues to serve as Contributing Innovation Editor. Before that, he worked on a magazine launch for Reader’s Digest and as a staff writer at a magazine in New Zealand. He began his magazine career as an intern at Condé Nast Traveler, where he remains on the masthead as Contributing Technology Editor. Mike holds a Master’s in Magazine Publishing from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
Mike is adept at woodworking and metalworking and builds furniture.
Jessi Hempel (Digital Management Strategies: Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google) is a Senior Writer at Fortune and Co-Chair of Fortune Brainstorm Tech. She was previously Innovation Editor at BusinessWeek (now Bloomberg Businessweek), and has had several writing and teaching positions. Jessi has been a frequent guest on ABC World News Now, CNBC Power Lunch, and other radio and TV programs. She earned her Master’s in Journalism from the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.
Jessi is a mentor for Girls Write Now, which pairs teen girls with professional writers for workshops and weekly meetings.
Seth Holladay (Web Analytics) is Senior Director of Audience and Monetization at NBCUniversal, Inc., having until recently been Senior Director of Yield Management at Rodale, Inc. He had previously been Manager and Director of Web Analytics. He has also held positions at Bluefly.com. He received his degree from Georgia State University.
When not in front of a computer, Seth likes to spend his time outdoors, hiking or cycling.
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Jacob Lewis (New Fiction Formats) is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Figment, an online community for teens and young adults to create, discover, and share new reading and writing. He is the former Managing Editor of The New Yorker, where he worked for more than twelve years. Jacob left The New Yorker in 2007 to help launch and run, as the managing editor, Condé Nast Portfolio. Since founding Figment in 2009, he has become a regular speaker at conferences about Figment’s disruptive model and the future of book and magazine publishing. He received his degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Jacob runs ultra-marathons (races of 50 to 100 miles).
Miriam Parker (Social Media Marketing) is the Online Marketing Director for Little, Brown and Company, where she builds and executes social media strategy and campaigns for all of Little, Brown’s authors, as well as managing Little, Brown’s own social media branding and outreach. Previously, she served as Marketing Director for Mulholland Books, an imprint at Little, Brown and Company. She has spent the past fifteen years building websites, creating online communities and trailblazing in social media for such brands as MTV; ABC; Warner Books; and Grand Central Publishing and for authors including J.K. Rowling, James Patterson, Michael Connelly, David Sedaris, Sidney Sheldon, David Baldacci, George Pelecanos, Nelson DeMille, and Brad Meltzer. She received her M.F.A. from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington.
Miriam’s dog, Leopold Bloom, has a Facebook page that he updates regularly. (
http://www.facebook.com/leopoldbloomthedog
)
Melanie Pereira (Digital Financials: The Web; Digital Financials II: Apps, Tablets, and Video) is Vice President of Finance and Editorial Operations at Newsweek/The Daily Beast, having previously been Vice President of Finance, Sales & Content Operations for International Program Syndication at MTV Networks International. She has also held positions at NBC Universal and Pratt & Whitney/United Technologies Corporation. She earned her M.B.A. in International Business from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Melanie has developed a strong yoga practice to balance out all the stress of life in the media world.
Chris Sanborn (The Role of Video in Publishing) is the founder and President of Sanborn Media Factory (SMF), a 30-person interactive agency that produces digital campaigns and products focusing on web, mobile, social and video. Outside of publishing, SMF services a range of brands including E*TRADE, Esteé Lauder, The Girl Scouts of the USA, Ann Taylor and others. Prior to starting SMF, Chris worked primarily in publishing (Newsweek, The New York Times Company, GQ and The Irish American News). He earned his degree from Trinity College.
Chris’ immediate family members have all attended NYU in some capacity.
Richard Stark (Book Metadata and Infrastructure) is the Director of Product Data at Barnes & Noble, Inc. and has chaired the BISG/BISAC Metadata Committee since 1999. He has been a leader in the development of many book industry standards and practices, including ONIX, the ISBN standard, and BISG’s Product Metadata Best Practices. Richard has worked in bookselling and publishing for over twenty years. In addition to his long tenure at Barnes & Noble, he has worked for McGraw-Hill, Muze, Borders, Waldenbooks, and several independent bookshops. He was educated at St. John’s College in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Richard owns over five thousand (physical) books – and has read almost half of these.
Susan Weinberg (Capstone Thesis course) is Group Publisher for Basic Books, Nation Books, and PublicAffairs, Perseus Books Group. Her background includes overseeing editorial, marketing, publicity and budgeting. She joined Perseus seven years ago, as Publisher for PublicAffairs. She had previously been Publisher at HarperCollins and HarperPerennial, and was with Book-of-the-Month Club before that. She earned her M.B.A. from Columbia University.
Susan likes to knit. Her latest projects are lace scarves.
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Gretchen Young (Book Acquisition and Editing) is Vice President and Executive Editor of the Grand Central Publishing imprint at Hachette Book Group USA. She previously held high-level positions at The Walt Disney Company-Hyperion Books, ranging from Editor to Editorial Director of ABC Synergy to Vice President, and worked at HarperCollins, Ailes Communications, and ABC’s Good Morning America. She received her Master’s from the University of Chicago.
Gretchen is a wicked ping pong player!
