Full-Time Faculty
Manuela Soares
Director

Jennifer Romanello
Associate Director
Jennifer Romanello began her career in book publishing as a publicity assistant at Macmillan and its imprints, Scribner and Atheneum. She then moved on to Dutton, where she rose to Associate Director of Publicity and worked with a roster of critically acclaimed authors including Julia Alvarez, Joyce Carol Oates, and Jamaica Kincaid.
In 1995 she joined Warner Books, now Grand Central Publishing, an imprint of Hachette. She was VP, Executive Director of Publicity there for many years and worked with a wide range of bestselling authors including Nicholas Sparks, David Baldacci, Nelson DeMille, and Brad Meltzer, among others.
Jennifer has previously taught as an adjunct instructor in the undergraduate Publishing Studies program at Hofstra University. She recently completed her MFA in Creative Writing with Distinction from Hofstra University and her poems have been published in Ovunque Siamo and VIA: Voices in Italiana-Americana (forthcoming). Her poems “Omphalos” (2018) and “I terri” (2015) received first place in the Concorso Internationale di Poesia held in Messina, Sicily.
Karen Jenkins-Holt
Lecturer

In January 2019, Karen Holt joined the full-time faculty of the Pace MS in Publishing Program, where she teaches writing and editing courses.
Prior to teaching, Holt enjoyed a decades-long career writing and editing. She began her career working as a newspaper reporter before moving on to books, magazines, and websites. She has been deputy editor of Publishers Weekly, books editor at O, the Oprah Magazine, senior editor at Guideposts Books & Inspirational media, founding editor of the Reservoir Square Books imprint, and a managing editor for Primedia. Her writing has appeared in publications including Essence, Parade, the New York Post, Folio, Working Mother, Publishing Research Quarterly, and many others. She discovered her love of teaching after joining the Pace MS in Publishing Program as an adjunct professor in 2016. She holds a BA from Western Washington University and an MFA from Manhattanville College.
Graduate Assistant and Student Aide

Shianne Henion

Kaitlyn Keel
Faculty and Staff Bios

Joseph Caserto
Adjunct Lecturer
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.

Jacqueline deMontravel
Adjunct Lecturer

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.

Britney Fitzgerald
Adjunct Lecturer
Britney Fitzgerald is a Pace Publishing alum who has worked in New York’s editorial and social media sectors for over a decade. Her writing has been featured in The Huffington Post, Parents magazine, Brit+Co, The Knot, and more. She has managed social strategy at several magazines and for an advertising agency. Currently, she is the head of social media at the American Museum of Natural History. Britney lives in Brooklyn with her husband and French bulldog, Sir Walter.

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.

Ivy Jacobson Ford
Adjunct Lecturer

Vincent Forgione
Adjunct Lecturer

Richard Johnson
Adjunct Lecturer
Most recently he was Vice President of Lion Forge Comics, where he was instrumental in transforming a publisher best known for 1980s nostalgia comics, into an award-winning graphic novel publisher. In 2017, its first year of relaunch, he acquired Lighter Than My Shadow a graphic memoir that was named Best Graphic Novel of the Year by Amazon.Johnson was Co-Founder and was the Co-Publishing Director for Yen Press a new graphic novel and manga imprint for Hachette Book Group. 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. Currently he is V.P. of Sales and Business Development at Diamond Book Distributors.
He was co-editor of COVID Chronicles: A Comics Anthology – which was included on the Washington Posts’ list of Best Graphic Novels of the Year 2021. He is the author of the graphic memoir Invisible and is one of the founding partners in the book and media IP packaging company Endpaper Entertainment. He is currently writing a series of Marvel art books for Rizzoli Books’ Universe imprint-which includes the title Spider-Man: Webslinger, Hero, Icon and Captain America: Avenger, Hero, Icon.

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.

Elena Mauer
Adjunct Lecturer

Jillian McBain
Adjunct Lecturer

Thad McIlroy
Adjunct Lecturer
McIlroy is the author of An Authoritative Look at Book Publishing Startups in the United States (2017), The Metadata Handbook, 2nd Ed. (2015) (co-authored with Renee Register), and Mobile Strategies for Digital Publishing: A Practical Guide to the Evolving Landscape (2015). McIlroy is a consultant to a variety of publishing and media companies, including Disney, MIT Press, Microsoft, and Pearson. He served as Program Director for Seybold Seminars, the publishing industry’s premier technology conference, for five years.

Tina McIntyre
Adjunct Lecturer
Tina McIntyre has nearly 20 years of experience in trade marketing, digital marketing, publishing strategy, content development, and business development. Currently, she is VP, Marketing for Wattpad WEBTOON Studios. Previously, she was Senior Executive Director of Content Development at Hachette Book Group where she worked with all of Hachette’s publishing divisions to develop initiatives designed to generate revenue beyond the core publishing programs. In addition to building and overseeing the marketing department, she spearheaded all marketing efforts for The Twilight Saga, including the creation of thetwilightsaga.com—one of the first social networking sites created for a YA book series.
In 2011, Tina moved into the Young Readers publishing office as Executive Director, Digital Publishing and Operations, directing all digital publishing initiatives and business development. In 2014, her role was expanded to Executive Director, Strategic Planning; Digital Publisher where she led the NOVL digital imprint and the overarching operations and strategy for the division.
She started her publishing career at Scholastic where she worked on the paperback and digital marketing, for such bestselling properties as Captain Underpants, Animorphs, Goosebumps, and the PUSH teen paperback imprint.

Jessica Napp
Adjunct Lecturer

Kathleen Ortiz
Adjunct Lecturer
Kathleen Ortiz (she/her) founded KO Media Management in 2022, after working in publishing and international licensing for over a decade, including roles as Director of Translation, Subsidiary Rights Manager and Literary Agent. She earned her M.S. in Publishing from Pace University, and has spent her career helping build and elevate creative brands.

James Perry
Adjunct Lecturer

Carl Potts
Adjunct Lecturer
For most of his 13 years at Marvel Entertainment, Carl was an Executive Editor, whose duties included spearheading Epic, Marvel’s imprint of diverse creator-owned titles.
He discovered and mentored top comics creators including Jim Lee, Whilce Portacio, June Brigman, Scott Williams, Larry Stroman, Jon Bogdanov, Art Adams and Mike Mignola.
While at Marvel, Carl developed original and established entertainment properties. Some of these properties became cross media franchises, spawning numerous publications, games, licensed products, and dramatic productions.
When he should have been sleeping, Carl also wrote and drew comics, covers and posters. He created new entertainment IP and developed established IP for contemporary audiences.
Watson-Guptill/Random House published Carl’s book, The DC Comics Guide to Creating Comics: Inside the Art of Visual Storytelling.

Peggy Samedi
Adjunct Lecturer

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, and 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.

Carla Stockalper
Adjunct Lecturer

Jason Wells
Adjunct Lecturer

Veronica Viviana Wilson
Adjunct Lecturer
Veronica Wilson serves as National Digital Sales Director for PeopleEnEspañol.com, at Dotdash Meredith, where she is responsible for driving advertising revenue. Prior to People en Espanol she worked at The Nielsen Company, as Business Development Director from 2017-2019. She was Associate Publisher–Sales at Meredith Corporation from 2009-2017, for Latino focused lifestyle and parenthood brands, Associate Publisher–Sales at Conde Nast for the Bridal Group in 2008, and Time Inc./Essence from 1999-2008, where she last held the position of National Ad Sales Director.