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Officers | President President-Elect Vice
President Treasurer Past President |
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Directors |
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Officers | |
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President
Casabonne has spent his entire career in education and trade publishing and is now CEO of Casabonne Associates Inc. Previously, he was Principal and Senior Consultant at MarketingWorks, a full service consulting firm, where he headed up research activities and strategic planning for many different educational publishing houses, distributors, and non-profits providing services to education. Prior to his appointment at MarketingWorks, Casabonne was President, Educational and Training Group, LeapFrog Enterprises where his responsibilities included leveraging the highly acclaimed LeapFrog platforms into education. Before LeapFrog, he served as Senior Vice President of Planning and Business Development for Harcourt, Inc, and educational publishing company comprised of over 20 divisions that covered a range of educational needs. While at Harcourt, he was active in acquiring the NEC Companies, which included Steck Vaughn, a leading publisher of supplementary education materials for kindergarten through adult education, where he served as President and CEO. Earlier, Casabonne held senior management positions at Grolier, Inc., McGraw-Hill Educational Resources, Random House School Division, and consulted with myriad educational and trade publishers. He also consulted for Apple Computer's education initiatives for eight years. He serves on numerous Boards for both companies and institutions. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Brown University and a master of education degree in instructional technology from Boston University. |
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Suzanne Barchers began her career as a teacher and administrator, working in primarily urban settings across the country. She also served as education director and deputy director of the Children’s Museum of Denver. After the publication in 1990 of her first book, Creating and Managing the Literate Classroom, Suzanne became acquisitions editor for Teacher Ideas Press, a division of Libraries Unlimited. She next developed a line of books for teachers, parents, and children for Fulcrum Publishing, a trade publishing company in Colorado. From 1990 to 1999, she served as an affiliate faculty member at the University of Colorado, Denver. Suzanne has written extensively for the education market, completing two college textbooks, 18 teacher resource books, more than 50 articles, a geography CD-ROM, and a keyboard curriculum. She wrote 23 books for LeapFrog’s decodable series, bringing her total number of published books to 43. She is a seasoned speaker, having presented at regional, national, and international conferences. Before going to LeapFrog, she was Managing Editor at Weekly Reader. Suzanne has a bachelor’s degree in elementary Education from Eastern Illinois University, a master’s degree in education from Oregon State University, and a doctorate of education in curriculum and design from the University of Colorado, Boulder. |
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Dan Caton is President of McGraw-Hill Learning Group, America’s premier publisher of PreKindergarten through adult alternative basal and supplemental materials. The McGraw-Hill Learning Group consists of two publishers, SRA and the Wright Group, which publish such well-known products as Open Court Reading (now Imagine It!), Everyday Mathematics, the Direct Instruction line, Contemporary Publications, Breakthrough to Literacy, and many others. Dan began his career as a middle school teacher in southern California. He moved to educational publishing, where he oversaw the development of textbook programs in such areas as early childhood development, spelling, reading, bilingual reading, English, elementary social studies, secondary history and geography, secondary and elementary mathematics, secondary foreign language, and secondary science. Dan also served in marketing capacities, most notably in Product Management and as a supervisor of Market Research. Beginning in 1986, Dan also supervised the development of electronic education, beginning with stand-alone disc-based software and moving on to early CD-ROM development. Dan also oversaw development of some of the first educational web pages in the areas of biology, chemistry, physics, and elementary and secondary mathematics. Prior to joining McGraw-Hill in April of 2007, Dan served as President of Pearson Learning Group, the Pearson unit responsible for alternative basal, supplemental materials, and formative assessment. Prior to joining Pearson Learning Group, Dan served as Vice President, Product Development for Computer Curriculum Corporation in Sunnyvale, California. Dan also served in Product Development, Marketing, Technology, and Operations positions at educational publishers such as Addison-Wesley, Scott Foresman, D.C. Heath, and Silver Burdett & Ginn. Dan’s experience with mergers and acquisitions includes the merger of Scott Foresman and Addison Wesley in 1997, the acquisitions of Dominie Publishing in 2004 and of AGS Publishing in 2005, both of which were merged with Pearson Learning Group when he was President. Dan serves on the board of the Association of Educational Publishers and on the board of the Yes I Can! Foundation, a non-profit arm of the Council for Exceptional Children, promoting educational opportunities and respect for students with disabilities. In addition, he visited the Soviet Union in 1989 and Japan in 1991 at the invitations of those governments to advise on educational publishing issues and trends. 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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Neal Goff has spent most of the last two decades in the publishing industry, much of that time involved in children's and educational publishing. From 1982 to 1993, Neal worked at Time Inc., where he held senior positions at Time-Life Books and Book-of-the-Month Club. While there, he led the start-up of Children's Book-of-the-Month Club and managed the club through its initial launch to profitability. Neal later became President of Prentice Hall Direct, which at the time was the direct-marketing division of Simon & Schuster, and President of Scholastic Library (formerly Grolier) Publishing. He joined Weekly Reader in February of 2004, when it was a division of WRC Media. (WRC's owner, Ripplewood Holdings, acquired The Reader's Digest Association in March of 2007, at which time Weekly Reader became part of RDA.) Neal was named President of Weekly Reader in October of 2005. In the fall of 2006, he became President of the Weekly Reader School Publishing Group, with managerial responsibility for Weekly Reader magazines and books, Gareth Stevens Publishing, and World Almanac Education Library Services. Neal graduated from Trinity College in Hartford, CT, and has an MBA from the Columbia Graduate School of Business. He is a former Board member of the Association of American Publishers, the Book Industry Study Group, and of AuthorHouse, the leading self-publishing company based in Bloomington, IN. |
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Past President
Rachelle Cracchiolo is founder, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Teacher Created Materials, Inc., a California-based educational publishing company with worldwide distribution. As a leader in providing supplementary materials to the education market, Teacher Created Materials has a long-standing tradition of developing high quality products and professional development trainings that are research and standards based. In 1977, Rachelle launched the company’s first book for teachers, Quick Fun Art. Since then, Teacher Created Materials has published thousands of supplemental resources for use in the classroom. Teacher Created Materials’ many lines of products have won such prestigious honors as the Distinguished Achievement and Golden Lamp Awards from the Association of Educational Publishers. Other awards include the Teacher’s Choice Award from Learning Magazine, Best Product Award from Instructor Magazine, the Outstanding Curriculum Award from the National Association for Gifted Children, the Program of Excellence Award from the Middle States Council for the Social Studies, and the Program of Excellence Award from the New York State Council for the Social Studies. Currently, Rachelle serves as President of the Board of Directors of the Association of Education Publishers. She is a member of the Advancement Board for the College of Education at California State University, Fullerton. This year, 2008, Rachelle is honored to be one of California State University, Fullerton’s 50 Prominent Alumni. In 2006, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the university’s Vision & Visionaries Alumni Association. In 2004, she was awarded Contractor of the Year for 2003–2004 by the Community Rehabilitation Industry, Long Beach, California. Serving on the Ed Tech Committee and Manufacturers Council from 1998–2001, she received the Leadership and Distinguished Service Award by the National School Supply and Equipment Association. Rachelle earned her B.A. degree in Psychology from California State University, Fullerton where she also received a Masters of Science in Elementary Curriculum and Instruction. She has two daughters, who work alongside her at Teacher Created Materials, and four grandchildren. |
Directors |
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David Beacom is currently Associate Executive Director and Publisher for the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), where he heads the product development effort—which includes books, professional journals, a newspaper, websites, and e-newsletters. David joined NSTA after two decades with the National Geographic Society, where he developed hundreds of school programs—ranging from traditional print and audiovisual media to advanced technologies. During his tenure at the Society, he was the lead creative and editorial voice in education and developed Geographic’s pioneering electronic media titles. He has written on travel and design for National Geographic Traveler, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and other publications, and on publishing for ASAE’s Association Now. David lives in Washington, DC. |
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Bill Edwards is President of Siboney Learning Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Siboney Corporation and a publisher, integrator, and provider of comprehensive and motivational educational software for K-12 schools and the adult learner market. While working at Siboney, Bill has held the positions of CFO, COO, and Executive Vice President. Before joining Siboney, Bill spent seven years as COO of G. A. Sullivan, an international information technology consulting and software development company. In this role Bill was responsible for the day-to-day operations of G. A. Sullivan’s world-wide operations. Between 1986 and 1996 Bill worked for Grant Thornton LLP, an international accounting and management consultant firm where Bill was a Partner in the management consulting practice. Bill holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Master’s in Business Administration-Finance from St. Louis University. Bill actively serves on the Board of Directors for the following organizations; Siboney Learning Group, G. A. Sullivan, Encore Building Solutions, Covenant Technology Partners, and the Association of Educational Publishers. |
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Dennis’s career in educational publishing spans 22 years with one company, Frog Publications, a publisher of K-5 supplemental materials. He joined his wife, Mary Jo Hand, in the operation of the company upon their return to Florida in 1985. As Vice President of Operations, Dennis is responsible for accounting, purchasing and manufacturing, shipping, conferences, and building maintenance. Prior to his entry into educational publishing, Dennis was involved in the development of training materials for operators and engineers at nuclear power plants. He worked at various plants across the southeastern U.S., with his last assignment at the Riverbend plant north of Baton Rouge. In this last assignment he co-authored a six-volume text and was part of the group that trained the initial operations and engineering staff for the plant. Dennis holds certifications as a Senior Reactor Operator on two different types of power plants. He is a graduate of University of South Florida, with a degree in management and is a veteran of the U.S. Navy where he served in the submarine service as a nuclear power plant operator. |
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Joel works for Discovery in a role where he is formulating strategic partnerships and setting and executing the division’s strategies for expanding the distribution of its K-12 digital services and hard copy products both domestically and internationally. Joel joined United Learning in 1992, which Discovery acquired in 2003, and has been one of the key architects behind the success of Discovery Education’s K-12 business. As a Sales Director he helped build the team which grew distribution of the digital video-on-demand service, unitedstreaming, which is the division’s flagship product into 70% of the schools in the country. |
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With over 20 years of business leadership and success in driving new business growth through innovation, Fady Khairallah is currently the General Manager of MDR, a Company of Dun and Bradstreet in Shelton, CT. MDR is a leading provider of sales and marketing solutions for the education sector. Fady brings MDR and its customers extensive experience in marketing, technology and operations to solve challenging business problems. Before assuming the GM role in April 2005, Fady served as MDR’s COO. Khairallah has driven an accelerated product development process and championed investment in sales and customer support to meet MDR customer needs. Previously, Fady served as COO of Sound Vision Inc, a VC-backed startup in Wayland, MA. Fady was recruited to assist the Chairman in implementing a transition strategy that moved the company’s business focus from a supplier of ASICs to a player in the consumer digital photography market. In 2000, Fady founded Deligent, a web consultancy focused on creating state of the art CRM systems. Deligent’s client list included Aetna, Johnson & Johnson, Schering Plough, Fidelity, HelpCare, and iPRO Exchange. Deligent developed Answer Center™ a unique system that captures best-of-class CSR behaviors implemented in a self-service environment. Before founding Deligent, Fady was Managing Director at Zentropy Partners, where he managed 200% company growth and spearheaded the company’s launch, transition and integration from several of the Interpublic’s interactive companies including Hill Holliday Interactive, where he served as Chief Technology Officer. Prior to joining Hill Holliday Interactive, Fady was Chief Technology Officer at SiegelGale. Among Fady’s proudest achievements is his work as director of research and development for the Associated Press, where he oversaw and designed the conversion of AP’s photo operation to satellite delivery. He was instrumental in the engineering of the first digital news camera in a joint venture with Kodak. Fady resides in Fairfield County, CT with his wife, Pamela, a reading teacher, and his two school-aged children. Fady holds a B.S. in engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology, a master’s degree in computer engineering from Syracuse University, and an executive M.B.A. from Columbia Business School. He is fluent in French and Arabic. |
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Andy Lacy is the President of Quality Education Data (QED), a division of Scholastic Inc. Scholastic is a world leader in education and education publishing with such recognizable brands as Clifford the Big Red Dog and Harry Potter. QED is an end-to-end marketing solutions provider dedicated exclusively to the education market. Since 2001, Andy has led QED through a period of strong growth and product expansion. Prior to QED, Andy was Managing Director of Multum Information Services, a division of the Cerner Corporation. Multum provided patented pharmaceutical and disease information to the health-care market, and was the leader in providing web-based medical information and personal health records for consumers and physicians. All told, Andy has managed data, research and advisory firms in the education, health and banking markets for over 18 years. Andy began his career in corporate and international banking moving into financial, product and market analysis for Eastman Kodak Co. He later worked in product, business, and market development for IHS Group, a major data and information company. Andy has significant experience in product marketing, finance and acquisitions, and business planning and organization. He has a BA in International Relations from Bucknell University and an MBA in Marketing and Finance from Emory University. |
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Kevin McAliley is the CEO of Triumph Learning, the largest publisher of books and software that help teachers and students prepare for state tests. Triumph's 350 employees are located in Austin, Iowa City, Manhattan, Northborough, Massachussetts, and in field offices in 24 states. His 12 year-CEO experience includes HCC’s Reference Group, which included the largest US publisher of unabridged audio books, Channel One Communications, a $115MM educational media group and the worlds largest private satellite network, and Films Media Group. Earlier in his career he lead the team that launched Newbridge Educational Publishing, which grew into a $24MM literacy publisher, and was twice nominated for an Emmy Award as an educational TV producer. Mr. McAliley has been the principal in over $500MM of mergers and acquisitions in print and digital educational media. He has been a speaker at SIIA, EdNet, and AEP events. He earned an MBA from Columbia and an A.B. from Harvard. |
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Paul McFall is currently Senior Vice President Curriculum Group, Pearson. 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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Tom Milano is the President and CEO of Saddleback, which he founded in 1985. At that time, Saddleback provided special needs curriculum materials to educators nationwide in a single high-interest catalog. Currently, Saddleback produces eight high-interest catalogs and is a leading supplier of high-quality classroom supplementary materials. The management team reports directly to Tom, who oversees all aspects of the company’s sales, marketing, production, and operational efforts. Saddleback maintains an aggressive publishing schedule with over 500 titles in print. The company’s materials include high-interest fiction and nonfiction, English and language arts reproducibles and curriculum material, test preparation, study skills, life skills, mathematics, adapted classics, and graphically illustrated classics. Each season Saddleback adds to its growing list of popular high-interest learning material. Tom has over 40 years of experience in education. He earned his B.S. in Mathematics at Penn State and an M.S. in Administration from Villanova University. After teaching secondary mathematics in Bucks County, PA for six years, Tom began his career in educational publishing. Currently, Tom sits on the board of the Educational Paperback Association and was its president in 2002 and 2003. |
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Robert M. Page is president of Zaner-Bloser Educational Publishers, Inc., in Columbus, OH. A wholly owned subsidiary of Highlights for Children, Inc., Zaner-Bloser has been a leader in publishing language arts instructional materials for the preK-8 marketplace for more than 100 years. Bob is a graduate of Williams College and the University of Virginia. He taught middle school language arts in Newburyport (MA) for five years, then began his publishing career at Houghton Mifflin. There, and later at D.C. Heath, he developed and marketed basal programs. He also worked at Steck-Vaughn, where he helped develop programs for supplemental educational markets. He has been at Zaner-Bloser since 1995. Bob lives in Hilliard, OH, with his wife, Gail, and their two sons, Chris and Sam. |
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Bernice Stafford is an educational technology industry consultant. Her principal
client is the Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration. Prior to her
current position, she was Vice President of School Strategies and Evaluation at
PLATO Learning, a company she joined in 2003 at the time of the Lightspan merger
where she was a Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Business Development and
Government Relations. Before Lightspan, she was Director of Sales Programs for
Jostens Learning Corporation (now Compass Learning) and, prior to that, a marketing
executive for the Tandy Corporation/Radio Shack Education Division. Bernice currently serves on the boards of Agency for Instructional Technology, Partnership for Dynamic Learning and the WestEd Regional Educational Laboratory Board. She is a member of the California Comprehensive Center Advisory Board and California Public Schools Accountability Act Advisory Committee where she serves on the Alternative Accountability Subcommittee. She is a past chair of the National Education Knowledge Industry Association, distinguishing herself as the first person from the private sector to serve in that capacity. She is also a past board member of the Software Publishers Association (now Software and Information Industry Association), and most recently was co-chair of that organization’s Textbook Adoption Committee. She is a frequent presenter at education conferences on topics ranging from closing the minority achievement gap to using state-of-the-art learning. Her most recent publication, “A Science-based Development and Implementation Model for Online and CD-ROM Curriculum Programs”, included in the Second Edition of the International Handbook on Literacy and Technology published by Lawrence Ehrlbaum Associates. Bernice earned a B.A. in Sociology and an M.A. in Early Childhood Development from the University of California at Berkeley. |
Mark Stevens is the Vice President, Professional and Web Solutions for NEA Member Benefits, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Education Association, representing America’s 3.2 million educators. NEA Member Benefits is the affinity marketing and service organization to the Association. In Mark’s new position he is responsible for development of professional products, management of the marketing and sales of the NEA Academy, NEA Professional Library, Bookstore, Teacher Toolkit, new products and programs media, and sponsorship sales program for NEA print (NEA Today, This Active Life, and NEA Advocacy) and online advertising (NEA.org and NEAMB.com). Additionally, Mark’s responsibilities include Web development, content acquisition and online brand presence and integration with the NEA. Prior to joining the NEA Member Benefits, Mark was the Executive Director and General Manager at AOL Education. The education group provided online school services and resources for teachers, students and parents through AOL@SCHOOL. In 2004 he added the responsibility to direct the KOL Education group (Kids Online), AOL’s online service just for kids. The KOL service offers children a fun integrated online and broadcast experience that airs on CBS Saturday morning (KOL Secret Slumber Party) containing entertaining and educational content. As a professional educator, he has over 28 years of experience in education with 11 years as a teacher, counselor and administrator, and 2 years as a teacher for the Department of Defense school system in Asia. He has held senior management positions at Macmillan McGraw-Hill School Publishing, Jostens Learning, T.H.E. Journal, Turner Learning (Turner Broadcasting Systems), and The JASON Foundation for Education. He has received awards for print, online and broadcast productions including George Foster Peabody, Telly, AEP Golden Lamp, and SIIA CODIE. Mark holds an undergraduate degree in Education from The Evergreen State College and M.Ed. and MBA from Pacific Lutheran University. He has served on the Board of Directors for the Fairfax Education Foundation and the U.S. Department of State, Office of Overseas Schools and Software Industry Information Association (SIIA). He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Association of Education Publishers (AEP), Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC), and Hiakuls.com. | |
Bret D. Thomas is President and CEO of Bayard, Inc., part of a worldwide, dynamic, and creative multimedia group committed to publishing Christian materials for schools, parishes, and homes. Its three divisions in the United States include Twenty-Third Publications, publisher of Into the Fields, a curriculum for religion teacher training; the Bayard Magazine Group, publisher of Catholic Digest, Religion Teacher’s Journal, and other periodicals; and Creative Communications for the Parish, publisher of religious instructional books and supplemental resources. Bret has earned graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Dayton. He came to Bayard, Inc., after most recently serving as President and CEO of Peter Li Education Group and as National Sales Manager of Technology Publishing Company. Bret is a former high school biology teacher. Bret’s authorship credentials include a contributing essay on “The Value of Catholic Education” in I Like Being a Catholic (2000, Doubleday) and a chapter on “The Catholic School Market” in The Expert’s Guide to the K-12 School Market (2002, Internet Monitor). Active in many education trade associations, he has spoken at numerous seminars and conferences. Bret currently serves as president of the National Catholic Educational Exhibitors association and sits on the Catholic Book Publishers Association board of directors, the board of trustees for the Bergamo Center of Lifelong Learning, and the advisory council for the University of Dayton’s School of Education and Allied Professions. | |
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Randy Wilhelm currently serves as CEO of Thinkronize, Inc., an award-winning Cincinnati-based Internet development company that he co founded in 1999. Randy’s lifelong passion for helping children succeed and learn led to the development of netTrekker, now the #1 educational search engine in the United States, serving more than 9 million students nationwide. Under Randy’s direction, Thinkronize was named to the Inc. 500 list in 2006 as one of the fastest-growing companies in the U.S. Prior to Thinkronize, he spent over a dozen years consulting Fortune 500 businesses on how to better analyze and control costs in their benefit packages. As Executive Vice President at USI, he helped lead the consultancy of one of the world’s leading insurance brokers. Wilhelm also serves on several youth-related, not-for-profit boards, and is active in many educational associations. He lives in Mason with his wife and 5 children. |
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Lee has been a Senior Marketing, Sales, and Business Development Executive at Harcourt, Pearson, Apple, and Chancery Software. He consults on strategic direction, marketing programs, and sales management for publishing and ed-tech companies. His recent focus has been the blending of technology and print solutions with emphasis on virtual worlds, video games, and Web 2.0 technologies. He currently serves on the board of the Association of Educational Publishers (AEP), is a former board member and chair of the Education Division at the Software Information Industry Association (SIIA), and was one of the founding board members of the Schools Interoperability Framework (SIF). He blogs regularly at www.education-business-blog.com. Lee earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Princeton University. |
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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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