We are excited to announce that the MS in Publishing program is scheduled to host the Distinguished Professor Lecture entitled “Book Banning” on October 22nd at 6PM. This will be an online event and an opportunity for students and faculty to learn more the state of book banning in the US as discussed by industry professionals.
We are honored to welcome Carl Lennertz, Leslie Gallager, Michelle Leo, and Jeff Trexler to this panel. The event will be moderated by Professor Manuela Soares.
Matt Nosanchuk, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Operations and Outreach in the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education is our special guest and will introduce the discussion. He is an accomplished strategist, thinker, leader, lawyer, public speaker, and writer. Over the course of his career – working in the executive branch, the Senate and House, and in the non-profit and private sectors – Matt has developed breadth, depth, and expertise working on policy, strategy, advocacy, communications, and stakeholder engagement. Matt is a graduate of Stanford University and Stanford Law School.
Carl Lennertz is the Executive Director of the Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader. He worked in sales and marketing for 30 years at Random House and HarperCollins, followed by non-profit work at the American Booksellers Association and World Book Night US.
Leslie Gallager is a life-long lover of books and has been in the “book business” since 1987. She worked in Penguin Random House’s Children’s Marketing department for 12 years and then got her master’s in library science from Pratt Institute. She is the founding librarian at Brooklyn Prospect High School, and the founder of the NYC chapter of the Human Library, an international non-profit learning platform.
Michelle Leo is Vice President, Director of Education & Library Marketing for Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing. The daughter of two librarians, Michelle graduated valedictorian of Fordham University in the Bronx and won a Fulbright Scholarship to teach English in France for a year after college. Michelle began her career at Simon & Schuster in 1998. She is grateful that her job allows her to interact daily with teachers, librarians, authors and illustrators.
Jeff Trexler is the Interim Director of the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting free expression and the legal rights of the comics community. He has extensive experience providing strategic advice to librarians, teachers, retailers, publishers, creators, legislators, and even law enforcement on responding to attempts to restrict access to graphic novels. He holds a J.D. from Yale Law School and a Ph.D. from Duke University, and he is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court and in New York.
This event will only be open for students and faculty of the MS in publishing at Pace University. If you are interested in attending, please check your email; an invitation from the pub office with all the details was sent earlier this week. All attendees need to RSVP in order to get the zoom invitation to the panel.