Heather Alexander is a children’s entertainment veteran. She got her start in print publishing at Dial Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Penguin Random House. She left Dial for the other side of the desk as a literary agent at Pippin Properties. Wanting to return to creative development, she joined Audible in 2016 to form the Children’s Original Publishing division in the US., creating audio programs ranging from single narrator to a cast of 25 and a full orchestra.

Chair, Fundraising: Charlie Schroder

Occupation: Chief Catalyst, Charlie & Co.
Committee(s): Fellowship Committee
Website: http://www.charliecom.com

Charlie Schroder works at the nexus of people, technology and products. A digital veteran with deep experience in engaging with and motivating parents, kids, teens, educators and Millenials, she heads Manhattan-based consultancy Charlie & Co. Drawing upon learnings across a broad range of brand, content, retail and technology experience, Charlie & Co. creates actionable business, market and development strategies for content and technology companies.

Chair, Scholarships and Fellowships: Cecilia de la Campa

Occupation: Executive Director, Global Licensing and Domestic Partnerships at Writers House
Website: Writers House
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cecilia-de-la-campa-4a00979/
Twitter: @cdelacampa

Cecilia de la Campa is the Executive Director, Global Licensing and Domestic Partnerships at Writers House, a leading full-service literary agency in New York with hundreds of bestselling and award-winning clients. She oversees the agency’s global licensing department as well as all domestic/media rights channels including audio, film & television, theater, and educational reprint licensing. Cecilia attends the major international book fairs each year, and has taken part in various global conferences including the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) and the historic US Publishing Mission to Cuba in 2016 lead by Publishers Weekly. She’s a regular speaker on industry panels, and has presented at events hosted by Global Kids Connect, New York Rights Fair, Bologna Rights Fair, the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA). She is also recurring guest lecturer at the Columbia Publishing Course and is an active member of the Women’s Media Group (WMG). A graduate of Williams College in Massachusetts, Cecilia worked for several years at Simon & Schuster before joining Writers House in 2009. 

Chair, Membership: Chandra Turner

Occupation: Founder and CEO of Ed2010 and Talent Fairy

Website: Ed2010 and Talent Fairy
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chandra-turner/ 
Twitter: @Ed2010News 

Chandra Turner is the founder and CEO of Ed2010 and Talent Fairy. She has helped countless media professionals find their dream jobs in content creation — so much so that she was often referred to as the industry’s “fairy godmother.” Chandra has held top editorial positions at brands such as Cosmopolitan, CosmoGirl, Parents, and Scholastic. In her 20+ year career, Chandra created award-winning consumer magazines, managed print and digital content teams, and executed content strategy for dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

Co-Chair, Programming: Candi Sue Cross

Occupation: CEO & Principal Ghostwriter, You Talk I Write 
Committee(s): Programming Committee, Scholarship & Fellowships Committee
Website: You Talk, I Write
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/candi-s-cross-1631a51/
Twitter: @CandiWords

Candi’s unique combination of skills matches the needs of aspiring authors who have a tale to tell but no understanding of the publishing industry or flair for forming the right words. Candi’s clients range from execs and entertainers, to doctors and attorneys, from as far away as China, England, Japan and Germany. As ghostwriter and/or editor, Candi has co-developed 100+ nonfiction books published by McGraw-Hill Professional, Taylor & Francis, Sloan Publishing, Writer’s Digest Books, Melange Books, Springer UK, Future Horizons, and self-publishing outlets.

Co-Chair, Programming: Stephanie Bowen 

Occupation: Senior Manager, Publishing Development & Author Platforms at PRH

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sfbowen/

Stephanie Bowen is Senior Manager, Content Development on Penguin Random House’s corporate Author Platforms team, where she works on a range of initiatives to help PRH authors expand their reach and revenue through developing digital content products that are complementary to their books (podcasts, online learning, etc.). She started her publishing career in Doubleday editorial before moving to Sourcebooks in 2012, where she managed the nonfiction imprint and was quickly promoted to Senior Editor for successfully implementing a new nonfiction strategy that increased sales by 39%. In 2015, she rejoined PRH as a Senior Editor at TarcherPerigee and started her current role in Author Platforms in 2017. She loves to help authors share their stories, ideas, and advice through a variety of formats with readers everywhere.

Chair, Communications: Brianna Yamashita 

Occupation: Marketing Director, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianna-yamashita-1b32639/

Brianna Yamashita, Senior Marketing Director, has strategized and executed New York Times bestselling campaigns for such authors as Dr. Daniel J. Siegel (Brainstorm), Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything), Neal Katyal (Impeach), B.J. Fogg (Tiny Habits), Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski’s (Antoni in the Kitchen), and Animal Planet’s Jackson Galaxy (Catification), among others. In addition, she has spearheaded the marketing for major franchises such as The Whole30, established marketing partnerships with leading lifestyle brands, and instituted marketing best-practices and analytics-driven book marketing systems. Prior to joining Scribner, Brianna headed up the Lifestyle marketing division at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and before that, served as Executive Director of Publicity and at Penguin Random House’s TarcherPerigee imprint. 

General Board Member: Lea Beresford

Occupation: Editor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lea-beresford-65698775/
Twitter: @leaberesford

Lea Beresford is an editor of accessible literary fiction and non-fiction that turns an unfamiliar lens on modern society. Most recently she was a senior editor at Bloomsbury; she has also worked at Random House, the Irene Skolnick Literary Agency, and SheWrites.com. A graduate of Cornell University and the Columbia Publishing Course, she lives in Brooklyn.

General Board Member: Kelly Hoey 

Occupation: Author, Speaker, Podcast Host

Website: https://jkellyhoey.co/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyhoey/ 

Podcast: Build Your Dream Network

Networking Expert, Kelly Hoey is the author of Build Your Dream Network:Forging Powerful Relationships In A Hyper-Connected World (January 2017 / Tarcher Perigee) and host of the Build Your Dream Network podcast.   

President Emerita: Dee Dee DeBartlo

Occupation: President, DeBartlo & Co. Publicity, Marketing, Publishing Services
Website:  www.debartlo.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dee-dee-debartlo-46b2bb29/
Twitter: @DeeDeeDeBartlo

Dee Dee DeBartlo is the president of DeBartlo & Co, a boutique book publicity and marketing firm. Prior to launching her own business, she was a Senior Director of Publicity at William Morrow/HarperCollins, where she worked for twelve years. Current and former projects include Freakonomics, American Gods, Founding Mothers, Mavericks at Work, The Only Street in Paris, The Big Life, Living with the Monks, and What to Eat When. She has worked with celebrated crime writer Elmore Leonard, political analyst Cokie Roberts, Academy Award-winning writer/director Guillermo del Toro, University of Chicago economist Steve Levitt, Chairman of jetBlue Joel Peterson, and bestselling author Neil Gaiman.