Speakers
Dr. Karen Billings
Vice President, Education Divison, Software and Information
Industry
Association (SIIA)
Dr. Karen Billings has over 30 years of experience
in the education technology industry with positions in management,
development, marketing, sales, and classroom teaching. She
is currently the Vice President of the Education Division of
the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) in
Washington DC, where she drives the association's work with
its 150 member companies for whom educational publishing is
a primary business.
Prior to SIIA, Dr Billings, was Vice President, Major Business
Initiatives for bigchalk Inc, where she drove relationships with
major industry partners to respond to new business opportunities
and Vice President and General Manager of its MediaSeek Division.
She worked at Microsoft Corporation, managing K-12 Strategic
Relations and at Claris Corporation, where she ran the Worldwide
K-12 and Higher Education Marketing Programs. She served as Director
of Sales at Logo Computer Systems, Inc. and as an Executive Editor
in the School Division at Houghton-Mifflin Company.
Dr. Billings taught for 12 years in K-12 and Higher Ed classrooms
and has authored four books and numerous articles foreducation
journals. She received her BA at the University of Northern Iowa,
her MA at the University of Oregon, and her EdD at Columbia University
Teachers College, where she specialized in the uses of technology
in education.
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Kathryn Capizzani
Director, National Sales Support Services
McDougal Littell a Division of Houghton Mifflin Company
Kathryn Capizzani is the National Director of Sales
Operations for McDougal Littell, the secondary education division
of Houghton Riverdeep Group in Evanston. In this capacity Kathryn
oversees the areas of Inside Sales, text evaluation processes,
call center, bids & contracts, grants & funding research
and marketing production support for sales reps at the territory
level.
Kathryn received a B.S. in Education from Southern
Illinois University, did graduate work in Education at Concordia
and received a Masters in Business Communication, MSC at Northwestern.
Kathryn is also a greenbelt in Six Sigma and a member of the American
Society for Quality.
In the academic environment, Kathryn spent 14 years
in education serving as director of a preschool-kindergarten academy
and middle school teacher. She has business experience in customer
service, call center management, distribution operations, and
inside sales in the medical products and educational & edutainment
software industries. Kathryn played a critical role in the implementation
of “Just in Time” medical supply delivery to Northwestern
hospitals in the 1980’s and was part of the continuous improvement
programs. She enjoys collaborating with a variety of functional
teams to implement best practices incorporated from both academic
and business strategies.
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Dan Caton
President, McGraw-Hill Learning Group
Dan Caton is President of McGraw-Hill Learning Group. Previously,
he was President of Pearson Learning Group. Dan began his career
as a middle school teacher and moved to educational publishing
in 1976, where he began in sales. He moved to the editorial department
overseeing textbook and supplemental materials development, and
then to technology development in most all subject areas and
grades. Dan also served in marketing capacities, most notably
in Product Management and as a supervisor of Market Research.
Dan joined Pearson Education in 1991, with Addison-Wesley Publishing
and then Scott Foresman. He served as Vice President of Product
Development for Computer Curriculum Corporation in Sunnyvale
(CA). He began with Pearson Learning Group in 2000 as Senior
Vice President for Product Development and was named President
in August of 2003.
Dan holds a BA in Literature from Claremont McKenna College
and an MA in Education from Claremont Graduate School, both located
in Claremont, California.
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Dennis DeCock
Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Heinemann-Raintree
Denny DeCock, Vice President, Sales & Marketing for Heinemann-Raintree,
the PreK-8 nonfiction publishing division of Harcourt Education,
has over 32 years of business experience. He has held senior
consulting, corporate general management, sales and marketing
management and operations management positions, with most of
that time spent in the educational publishing industry.
He started his business career after serving four years as an
Air Force pilot, working for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture)
for five years, specializing in the airline, education, and publishing
industries. He then joined Rand McNally and during his
23 years there held senior management positions including Division
Vice President/General Manager (Education Division) and Vice
President of Operations, where he was in charge of all corporate
supply chain activities.
He returned to consulting for 3 years after leaving Rand McNally
and was involved in a number of process improvement engagements
with educational publishers in sales, marketing, and supply chain
management areas before joining Heinemann-Raintree in 2004.
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Jay Diskey
Executive Director
AAP School Division
Jay Diskey was named Executive Director of the Association of
American Publishers’ School Division in June 2006. In
that role he directs and coordinates all of the division’s
activities including public policy development, advocacy, and
communications.
Prior to joining AAP, Diskey headed Diskey & Associates,
a public relations and public affairs consultancy specializing
in education and workforce development.
Diskey has served as Communications Director for the U.S. House
of Representatives’ Committee on Education and the Workforce,
and as Vice President of the education practice at Hager Sharp
Inc., a Washington-based public relations firm.
In the early 1990s, he was special assistant and press aide
to U.S. Secretary of Education Lamar Alexander, having been Alexander’s
communications officer when he was President of the University
of Tennessee. Diskey also worked as a journalist at The
Knoxville News-Sentinel and The Evansville Press.
A native of Fort Wayne, IN, Diskey holds a B.A. in philosophy
and a master’s degree in journalism from Indiana University.
He is a member of the Advisory Commission on Textbook Specifications. He
previously served as a member of the board of directors of the
Literacy Volunteers of America (Washington, DC chapter); a member
of the White Initiative on Rural Development; and president of
the Knoxville Job Corps Center Advisory Council.
Diskey is headquartered in AAP’s Washington office. He
can be reached at jdiskey@publishers.org and
202/220-4549.
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Nelson Heller, Ph.D
President
The Heller Reports, a QED Company
Nelson Heller is president of The Heller Reports,
a QED company. He is publisher of The Heller Reports/QED News
Alert , an e-mailed industry headline service reaching over 24,000
education industry executives worldwide weekly. The Heller
Reports sponsors the annual EdNET: the Educational Networking
Conference, the leading venue for networking and professional
development for education industry executives. Since just after
9/11, The Heller Reports has offered periodic EdNET
Virtual Roundtables providing 90-minute telephonic discussions
with panels of experts regarding key issues impacting educational
sales and marketing. As many as 150 sites, with over 500 participants,
have interacted in individual Virtual Roundtable programs. Additional
information about The Heller Reports and QED is at http://HellerReports.com.
Prior to starting The Heller Reports in 1988, he served as research
vice president for SFN, the holding company for educational publishers
Scott, Foresman; South-Western Publishing, University Park Press
and Silver Burdett, as well as owner of radio and television
stations, information service, legal and medical publishing businesses.
Nelson holds a PhD degree from U Pennsylvania, Masters and graduate
Engineers degrees from MIT and a bachelor of electrical engineering
degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is recipient
of the “Making It Happen” education industry award.
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Charlene Gaynor
CEO
The Association of Educational Publishers
Charlene F. Gaynor is CEO of the Association of Educational
Publishers. AEP safeguards the professional and business interests
of the country's leading print and digital supplemental publishers.
Supported by over 500 members of all media and sizes, AEP provides
the information, training, and outreach necessary to the development
of quality K-12 publications, software and instructional materials.
It facilitates communication between key interest groups such
as educators, policy makers, foundations, associations, business
and the media. AEP also seeks to increase public awareness of
the importance of a wide range of learning resources to successful
teaching and learning
Charlene is a graduate of Marquette University. She came to
AEP from Learning, a national magazine for elementary
teachers, where she was publisher. Charlene has over 20 years
experience in startups and turnarounds. She is an alumna of the
Stanford Professional Publishing Course and the Center for Creative
Leadership. She has served on the advisory boards of the Bicentennial
Commission of the United States, the Learning Center of Philadelphia,
and the Rowan University School of Communications.
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RuthAnn Green
President and Founder
Peters&Green
RuthAnn Green, President of Peters&Green, a
consulting company specializing in providing business solutions,
communications training, and marketing services to the publishing
community, has over 30 years experience in educational publishing.
Prior to founding Peters&Green in 1994, she held a variety
of senior management positions in marketing, sales, product development
and administration for Houghton Mifflin, Riverside Publishing
Co., McDougall-Littel, and Open Court.
Ms. Green started her professional career as a
junior high school teacher, and cut her teeth in publishing as
an educational consultant working with teachers in the Dept. of
Defense Schools in Europe and the Middle East and with K-12 schools
throughout the United States. She had the good fortune to work
with many innovative and respected educators and authors in both
product and professional development and taught classes at a number
of universities including USC/Los Angeles and San Francisco State.
She won the “Golden Reel of Excellence” award for
a videotape staff development program and designed a series of
seminars on sales and marketing strategies including a popular
presentation skills workshop - “Why Should I Listen?”
A native of Streator, IL, Ms. Green holds a B.S.
in education from the University of Illinois, and an M.S. in reading
from Michigan State University. She currently makes her home in
Chicago after having lived on both coasts and having spent a major
share of her time living out of suitcases. While continuing to
share her “knowledge breeds success” philosophy with
educational publishing companies and organizations, Ms. Green
is also active as VP, Board of Directors for Urban Gateways, a
nonprofit organization that provides multicultural literary, performing,
and visual arts programs and education for Chicagoland children,
teachers and parents.
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Paul McFall
President, Pearson Elementary School Group
Pearson Scott Foresman
Paul McFall is currently President of Pearson Scott Foresman
and Pearson Elementary Group, which also includes Pearson Learning
Group and Pearson Early Learning. He is responsible for the development,
marketing, and selling of basal products for the elementary market
in the areas of Reading/Language Arts, Mathematics, Science,
Social Studies, Music, Art, English Language Learning, and Religion.
Scott Foresman’s offerings include both print and online
materials.
Paul is currently serving on the Executive Board of the AAP
and is also on the Central Regional Board for Jumpstart, a non-profit
Pre-K organization.
Paul grew up in Pensacola, Florida. He completed his BA degree
at Troy State University in Alabama, and taught fifth and sixth
grades in the Escambia County school system. He received his
master’s degree in elementary education in 1968 at the
University of Georgia. In 1970, he became a sales representative
for Harper Row Publishing in North Carolina. At Macmillan/McGraw-Hill,
he was named regional vice president of the Southeast. In 1994,
he became senior vice president, national sales manager for Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
in New York.
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John Morse
President and Publisher
Merriam-Webster Incorporated
John M. Morse, President and Publisher of Merriam-Webster
Incorporated, joined Merriam-Webster in 1980. As Manager of
Editorial Operations and Planning beginning in 1983, and as
Executive Editor in 1991, he assumed overall responsibility
for all product-development operations. He was promoted to
the position of Publisher in 1996, widening his responsibilities
to include all company operations, and was named President
and Publisher the following year. He continues to be actively
involved in the company’s
editorial process, including the creation of Merriam-Webster’s
Collegiate® Dictionary, Eleventh
Edition in 2003 and Merriam-Webster’s Primary Dictionary in
2005. He is a strong advocate for cross-media development and has written
and spoken widely about the evolution of reference books in both print
and online formats." Mr. Morse is a graduate of Haverford College
and holds a Masters of Arts degree in English Language and Literature from
the University of Chicago.
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Michael Ross
SVP and Education General Manager
Encyclopaedia Britannica
Michael Ross is the Education General Manager
at Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., where he heads worldwide electronic
and print publishing. Prior to joining Britannica in 2002, he
was the Executive Vice President and Publisher of World Book,
Inc., and has held executive positions at other publishing companies,
including NTC Publishing Group. He began his publishing career
as an editor for Time-Life Books and worked for three years in
their Tokyo bureau.
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