Faculty and Staff Bios

Vaughn Benjamin
Adjunct Lecturer
Professor Vaughn Benjamin was the Vice President of Magazine Publishers of America or MPA from 1991 to 2003. He has been an Adjunct Professor in Pace University’s MS in Publishing program since 2003, teaching PUB 622D, the “Creating a Magazine” seminar.
He is also a Pace University alumni, from the Lubin School of Business where he received his MBA in 1996. Professor Benjamin completed his undergraduate education at Queens College, where he received a Masters in Education in Special Education and Teaching.

Joseph Caserto
Adjunct Lecturer
Professor Joseph Caserto is an award-winning graphic artist, educator, and consultant, who is based in New York City and specializes in publication art direction and design.
Joseph earned a BFA with honors in Graphic Design from Pratt Institute, where he completed one of the first classes that covered the Mac as a design tool.
With over 25 years of professional experience, he is currently a freelance art director and designer whose clients have included Billboard, BusinessWeek, Fortune, Marie Claire, and Vibe magazines. He has won American Graphic Design Awards from GD USA magazine annually, since 2008, when he also received a Create Award. Joseph is a member of Freelancers Union and has been a member of AIGA, Graphic Artists Guild, and the Society of Publication Designers (SPD).
Joseph has taught at The City College of New York and NYU, and is a contributor to Udemy.com.
He is currently Contributing Creative Director of ADDitude magazine, published by New Hope Media.
Joseph was featured in our “Faculty in the Spotlight” series in March 2017.

David Delano
Adjunct Lecturer
The Pace Publishing Blog featured Delano in the “Faculty in the Spotlight” series in April 2012.

Kerstin Diehn
Adjunct Lecturer
Professor Diehn has a Masters degree in Communications/Design from Pratt Institute and an undergraduate degree in Literature from American University. Fascinated by books her whole life, she brings a unique literary aesthetic to her visual work. She loves working with type and welcomes large-scale book and magazine projects.
The Pace Publishing Blog featured Diehn in the “Faculty in the Spotlight” series in September 2012.

Thomas A. DiMascio
Adjunct Lecturer
The Pace Publishing Blog featured Di Mascio in the “Faculty in the Spotlight” series in April 2013.

Barbara A. Egidi
Program Manager
The Pace Publishing Blog featured Egidi in the “Faculty in the Spotlight” series in March 2012.

Kristen Flanagan
Adjunct Lecturer

Christine Ford
Adjunct Lecturer
She has been teaching for the MS in Publishing program since 2011 and will be teaching PUB 622J “Seminar on Books & Magazines: Practical Applications of Product Management in Digital Media” this summer with Professor Aaron Goldsmid. Professor Ford attended Chester College at Liverpool University in the United Kingdom and graduated from the State University of New York College at Plattsburgh in 1993 with a BA in English. She received her Master’s in Publishing at Pace University in 2000 and served as the Graduate Assistant at the Pace University Press while completing her education.

Vincent Forgione
Adjunct Lecturer

Karen Holt
Adjunct Lecturer
She has been deputy editor of Publishers Weekly, books editor at O, the Oprah Magazine, founding editor of the Reservoir Square Books imprint, and managing editor for Primedia. Her writing has appeared frequently in publications including Essence, Parade, the New York Post, Folio, Working Mother, and many others.
Holt has been an adjunct professor at Pace since 2016, when she began teaching the Editorial Principles and Practices course. Her other courses at Pace include Publishing Business Communication Skills, Professional Editing: Books, and Graduate Seminar: Publishing Strategies I.
She holds a BA from Western Washington University and an MAW from Manhattanville College.

Richard Johnson
Adjunct Lecturer
Johnson is Co-Founder and was the Co-Publishing Director for Yen Press a new graphic novel and manga imprint for Hachette Book Group. There he established a new imprint with a focus on partnering with top Japanese publishers to create a new imprint that focused on manga and graphic novels. He also co-founded Yen Plus a monthly manga anthology magazine.
Previously he was Vice President of Book Trade Sales for DC Comics where he took the forefront in establishing graphic novels in the bookstore market. Johnson is held largely responsible for the creation of graphic novel sections in bookstores and libraries, where previously the medium had little, if any presence in these markets. The expansion into the market helped to popularize an American art form. It is still the biggest growth category in the bookstore market and it had crossed into other mediums. Film and television have embraced the medium, where not only super-hero based properties like Iron Man and Batman break box office records, but where graphic novels become critically acclaimed films and television shows. Most notably The Road to Perdition, A History of Violence and The Walking Dead are all based on graphic novels.
He has worked for such companies as Archaia Entertainment, The Will Eisner Studios, Valliant Entertainment, Legendary Entertainment/Comics and Penguin Random House, Storm King Comics from film director John Carpenter, CME (Creative Mind Energy), Random House Books for Young Readers, Insight Editions, Lion Forge Comics and Diamond Comics.
He has worked in sales, marketing, acquisitions, business development, licensing, foreign rights and editorial.
He is the author of the graphic memoir INVISIBLE and is represented by Judith Hansen of Hansen Literary Agency. He is also one of the founding partners in Atomic Clock Entertainment, a film and television production and development company.
He is an adjunct professor at both Drexel University in Philadelphia and Pace University in New York. He is often a speaker at such shows as San Diego Comic Con, New York Comic Con, BookExpo America, the American Library Association Mid-Winter and Annual Meetings, The Center for Cartoon Studies, and the School of Visual Arts.

Paul Levitz
Adjunct Lecturer

The Pace Publishing Blog featured Levitz in the “Faculty in the Spotlight” series in February 2013 and another Spotlight article in April 2012.

Xiao Chuan Lian
Senior Staff Associate, Adjunct Lecturer

Elena Mauer
Adjunct Lecturer

Michelle Richter
Adjunct Lecturer
As an editor, Michelle edited MELISSA EXPLAINS IT ALL, the memoir from “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch” and “Clarissa Explains It All” actress Melissa Joan Hart, and RENEWABLE by science writer Jeremy Shere. She worked on a variety of fiction and nonfiction for her own list and an executive editor’s list, with such writers as Dr. Ian Smith, Gene Wilder, Albert Brooks, Tom Perrotta, and Joe Eszterhas.
As an agent, Michelle represents writers of women’s fiction, contemporary romance, and mystery and crime fiction, including Agatha Award-winning author Kellye Garrett.
She teaches General Interest Books (PUB 610). She is also a graduate of the Master of Science in Publishing Program.
For more information on Michelle, visit www.fuseliterary.com/michelle-richter/or follow her on Twitter at @michrichter1.

Bette Rockmore
Adjunct Lecturer
She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Cincinnati and is an Adjunct Professor in the in Pace University’s MS in Publishing program. Prof. Rockmore teaches PUB 622D, the “Creating a Magazine” seminar.”

Melissa Rosati
Adjunct Lecturer
Professor Melissa A. Rosati, CPCC, is a certified professional co-active coach (CPCC) and the owner of Melissa’s Coaching Studio, LLC. Her clients include the Institut Van Gogh in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, and individual writers and artists.
An award-winning publisher, Professor Rosati has lead strategic initiatives and teams in the areas of business planning, reorganization, partnerships, content acquisition, print and digital product development, contract negotiation, staff training and development, and global market planning for publishers such as HarperCollins College, Van Nostrand Reinhold, Routledge, and McGraw-Hill International. These experiences and skills enriched Professor Rosati’s approach to coaching and consulting with clients who face daunting professional challenges.
At Pace University, where Professor Rosati is an adjunct faculty member in the Master of Science in Publishing program, she co-leads the U.S.-China Publishing Dialogue and designs and delivers executive leadership seminars for the top management of China’s premier media conglomerates, including China Publishing Group Corporation (CPGC), Phoenix Publishing and Media Group (PPMG), and Hunan Publishing. These seminars grapple with the profound structural changes in the global consumption and distribution of print and digital content. She is also co-founder of Writers, Readers, Publishers: Present Tense, Future Bold, a special-interest group focused on publishing issues in our culture and society.
Professor Rosati earned her coaching certification from the Coaches Training Institute. She is a member of the International Coaching Federation, the Creativity Coaching Association, and the Women’s National Book Association. Currently, Professor Rosati has several projects in development about women working in writing and the arts. She lives in New York City with her husband Michael and her cat, Social Media Max.
The Pace Publishing Blog featured Professor Rosati in the “Faculty in the Spotlight” series in February 2012.

Kirsten Sandberg
Adjunct Lecturer
Professor Sandberg teaches PUB 618, “The Legal Aspects of Publishing,” and PUB 632, “Academic Publishing,” both from a publishing innovator’s perspective. She serves on the editorial advisory board of the Journal of Business Models. With Professor Lian, she periodically co-directs professional development programs for Chinese publishing executives.
For over a decade, she served as executive editor at Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, where she contributed to the opening of HBSP Corp Ltd in Mumbai/New Delhi. Professor Sandberg also wrote over a dozen articles for various HBS periodicals. Prior to Harvard, Professor Sandberg spent eight years at HarperCollins, first in the college division as a development editor and a marketing R&D manager and then in HarperBusiness as an acquisitions editor.
She started her media career as a computer graphics designer in the newsroom of WEEK-TV, an NBC affiliate at the time. Professor Sandberg holds a B.A. in English and TV/Radio Production from Bradley University and started an M.A. in English at Marquette University. She is a Chicago Cubs fan by birth and a Yankees fan by naturalization.
The M.S. in Publishing Blog featured Professor Sandberg’s work in “How Blockchain Could Change Publishing” in February 2018 and in “Beijing Meets Big Data” in July 2018. She was also featured in the “Faculty in the Spotlight” series in April 2012.

Kenneth Slivken
Adjunct Lecturer

Manuela Soares
Director of the M.S. in Publishing Program and Pace University Press
Manuela Soares is the Director of the MS in Publishing program and Director of the Pace University Press, having been a full-time faculty member and Associate Director of the Pace University Press since 2004.
Prior to teaching, Soares had a 30-year career in the publishing industry, working in both books and magazines. Most recently, she was Managing Editor for the Scholastic Trade Book division (overseeing eight hardcover imprints and the publication of the first five Harry Potter books). Before that, she was a Senior Editor at Rizzoli International.
As the Director of the Publishing program, Soares oversees the development of curriculum and works closely with faculty and the Advisory Board to expand and support this unique and successful program.
As Director of the Pace University Press, Soares works with editors on a variety of academic journals. Well-known for its studies of Virginia Woolf and medieval literature, more recent additions to the list of publications include journals on acting, comics, philosophy, and psychology.
She is a member of the Editorial Board of Springer-Verlag’s Publishing Research Quarterly, where some of the Graduate Theses papers from the program have been published in abbreviated form.
Her own published works encompass magazines, journals, and books including: The Joy Within with Joan Goldstein (Simon & Schuster), One Hand Clapping with Rafe Martin (Rizzoli), Butch/Femme (Crown Publishing), Scholastic Bookfiles: A Reading Guide to A Wrinkle in Time, Heart Throbs: The Best of DC Romance Comics (pseudonym Naomi Scott, Fireside Books), ESP McGee and the Dolphin’s Message (pseudonym Jesse Rodgers, Avon Books), “The Purloined Ladder” (Journal of Homosexuality, V.34, Issue 3-4), among others. In 2011, she contributed a short short story to the anthology Sudden Flash Youth, (Persea Books). In 2013, she wrote a cookbook with artist Jeanne Betancourt, Farm Stand Fresh.
An avid photographer, her photographs are in private collections and have been used for the covers of three books of poetry, various blogs, and included in several exhibitions.
Professor Soares holds a BA degree in English from Rutgers University and an MFA in Creative Writing from Goddard College.

Veronica Viviana Wilson
Adjunct Lecturer