Old Greenwich, Connecticut, United States
Veteran media executive across multiple platforms including theatre, film, book, audio, e-book and d-audio. Project management, content development and production. Digital rights negotiations. Extensive relationships throughout creative and business communities. Association with premier projects and talent. Specialties: Content development and production, Book editing, Audio Production, Event Producing, Digital Rights Negotiations and consulting, Writing Coach
I'm an award-winning audiobook producer and director with over 400 titles to my credit. As a veteran media executive and creative with over twenty-five years in the entertainment industry, my wide range of experience offers a unique insider perspective on what it takes to produce a quality program and a first-rate performance. Recent successes include Audie Award for Best Fiction for CITY OF GIRLS by Elizabeth Gilbert, narrated by Blair Brown, and finalist for Best Audiobook of the Year for the full cast recording of Margaret Atwood’s THE TESTAMENTS. Other notable titles are Robert Iger’s THE RIDE OF A LIFETIME: Lessons Learned from 15 Years as CEO of the Walt Disney Company, MY LIFE ON THE ROAD by Gloria Steinem, JUST MERCY: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson, SHOUT by Laure Halse Anderson, BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson, MY DARK VANESSA by Kate Elizabeth Russell, RAYMIE NIGHTINGALE by Kate DiCamillo, EVICTED: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond, and MEMORIAL DRIVE: A Daughter’s Memoir by Nathasha Trethewey. In consultation with publishers, independent authors and thought leaders, I work on a project-by-project basis as a producer and/or director across all genres, recording authors, award-winning actors, audiobook pros and first-time narrators My goal is to produce an audio program of outstanding excellence that sounds like it was recorded flawlessly in one take, thus ensuring that a perfectly clean, polished final product is delivered to the client. My projects have been published by Penguin, Random House, Listening Library, HarperCollins, Audible, Brilliance, Hachette, Blackstone, and Live Oak Media.
In late 2009 I was introduced to The Great Books Summer Program, an academic summer camp for 6-12th graders that caught the attention of the Wall Street Journal. Arriving at Amherst College that first summer was like a dream. A group of multi-talented kids who shared a love of books and the arts, an idyllic campus, small group discussions about big ideas. In the beginning, I reached out to my network and promoted the program to publishing insiders and recruited triple threat, award-winning and best-selling authors and screenwriters to visit the Stanford and Amherst campuses as special guest speakers. Later, a partner and I expanded our role to programming special classes and marketing. We managed speaker logistics, and our events included a book selling component (and book donations from major publishers for scholarship students), greater engagement by all through social media and launching a Student Ambassador program. We continued to enhance the website with new content, maintained a blog I helped curate and write. The program expanded to a third campus -- Oxford in England. Alumni speakers taught master classes and students had the unique opportunity to engage in personal dialogue in a classroom setting with award-winning, and popular authors. Speakers recruited include: Dennis Lehane, Chris Columbus, Garrison Keillor, Da Chen, Alan Zweibel, Peter Straub, John Rocco, Sharon Robinson, Jodi Picoult, Andre Dubus III, Joanna Hershon, Jamie Byng, Matt Haig, Lee Woodruff, Peter Hedges, Julia Glass. Results were gratifying: enrollment went up dramatically and the total student population reached 47 states and 26 countries. I feel privileged to have worked with such passionate and devoted educators, administrators and students in a collective effort to provide a stimulating and nurturing environment to our future readers, writers and thinkers.
Rob Weisbach and I met early in our publishing lives when we both worked in the editorial department of Bantam Books. Although our paths diverged when I began to pursue a career in film, I followed his rise to prominence in the book business with avid interest. Years later Rob and I became re-acquainted and when he announced the launch of RWCM I was intrigued. The role of enthusiast, advocate and champion of creative talent had been a common thread through my various jobs, and I had often been encouraged to ponder the pursuit of author representation as a possible role. Working with Rob as a senior associate as he was building his company was an experience I will always value. With Rob's sure hand at the helm, we were a dynamic team, each offering expertise in individual areas to advance RWCM's mission to provide comprehensive development, representation and strategic career management to the company's clients. Early on, I came to represent Jacqueline Woodson, the award-winning memoirist, YA and picture book author, whom I had met directing the audio editions of two of her books (one of which won the coveted Audie Award). This celebrated author had a prodigious backlist in multiple formats. Not including foreign editions, she had titles across seven separate publishers and at the time was preparing to make her playwriting debut at the Kennedy Center. There were a host of different deals to negotiate, reversion of rights to pursue, frontlist and backlist titles to manage and strategic questions to address. As a new agent, I had to hit the ground running. Rob was the ideal mentor, adviser and supporter -- generous, accessible, always constructive -- and there were many successes!
I joined HarperCollins in 2006 when it was in the forefront of the emerging digital media marketplace, about to launch its digital warehouse initiative. My job was multi-faceted. I researched, educated and recruited potential authors for digital content creation. I negotiated over 1000 amendment letters for E-book publication of backlist titles. I grew the children's digital publishing list and negotiated digital rights and published downloadable children’s audio programming for distribution by Fisher-Price. I initiated content ideas, edited scripts, and produced original short-form audio programs for the HarperCollins website and for iAmplify. I collaborated with editorial staff and production team members to coordinate production of audio titles for sale to consumers. My role at HarperAudio shifted the trajectory of my career back to production and work as a creative. Relationships in the literary community with authors, agents and publishing executives grew. I had the privilege of working on outstanding titles by such authors as: Jamie Lee Curtis, Luc Besson, Dennis Lehane, Mariel Hemmingway, Cindy Post Senning, Paulo Coelho, Francine Prose, Bernard Cornwell, Jack Prelutsky, William Joyce, Jane O'Connor, Katherine Paterson, Jan and Stan Berenstain, Len Kessler, Mary Engelbreit, Arnold Lobel.
After I shut down Gotham Scouting Partners, I took time to reconnect with my theater roots and become more politically engaged. I worked with various partners to create, organize, market, fund and publicize a variety of events, including: • Founders’ Celebration of the American National Theater Helped to build a benefit committee, attract individual and corporate donors and sponsors and create a program that featured excerpts of 15 new works . Event co-chaired by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward and honored the late August Wilson with the Arthur Miller Founders’ Award. • Writers & Artists Speak Out for Change Mobilization of the artistic community for political change featured keynote speakers Frank McCourt, Oscar Hijuelos and Andrew Cuomo, and attracted support from over 250 artists across the country. • John Kerry for President Fundraiser Key organizer of fundraiser of an intimate event in a private home on Park Avenue targeting women in media that raised $10,000 and featured keynote speaker Peggy Kerry, introduced by Blair Macinnes.