Publishing Solutions Group

PSG President & CEO Lori Becker is known for her impressive daily checklist, her “work hard, play hard” philosophy, and her organizational skills, which allow her to find a needle in a haystack at a moment’s notice. Her most important daily task, she says, is ensuring a happy and productive work environment where every PSG team member operates from his or her strengths, while being supported in other areas. Says Lori, “I’ve been told time after time, by new team members, that they thought this kind of workplace was too good to be true, and they are pleasantly surprised to find that it is better than they had expected.“She continues, “My favorite part of my job is coming to work every day. I love what I do and I enjoy every moment with my staff. They are a unique bunch and they always keep me on my toes.”

With more than 20 years of publishing and printing industry work under her belt, Lori’s experience includes key roles in managing editorial development, production, marketing, and art & design.

Lori has cooperative teaching in her blood-after all, her dad has been teaching for over 30 years. One of her first “jobs” was organizing focus-testing materials for her dad and his department. Little did she know that it would lead to proofreading and editing her way through college, teaching after-school art-enrichment programs, becoming a swim instructor and coach, and running for Selectman. She won the Selectman’s race, with the help of many of the teachers in town, and became the youngest female Selectman in the town’s history. Part of her role as Selectman was a seat on the School Board—across the table from the very teachers who had raised her. Since then, she has started three companies, including Publishing Solutions Group.

In her spare time, Lori remains active in economic affairs and volunteer efforts with the City of Boston, and graduated from Boston University’s Entrepreneurial Management Inner City Entrepreneur (ICE) program in 2005.

In fall of 2008 Lori was looking for a new volunteer initiative to benefit our South End community. With PSG’s experience in developing K-12 reading and language arts materials and our staff’s love of literature, PSG Reads was born. Through PSG Reads, staff members visit a local elementary school and read to second grade students including 1 class of special education and ELL students.

Recently, Lori won a spot on the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) 2009 Inner City
100 list. The program is a partnership between ICIC and the BusinessWeek SmallBiz magazine. Chosen from a pool of nearly 6,500 applicants, Publishing Solutions Group is ranked 100 on the list of the fastest growing inner-city companies in America.

Ken Scherpelz, PSG’s Vice President of Sales and Business Development, knows the educational publishing industry inside and out. Since 1979 Ken has worked at leading publishing companies, including ScottForesman, where he was an acquisitions manager; Zaner-Bloser, where he worked as managing editor; and most recently at SRA/McGraw-Hill, where he was the editorial director in charge of special education and intervention programs. Ken also has experience with educational development companies as vice president of two separate development and production houses.

Committed to and passionate about his work, Ken goes about life with a sense of humor that might just leave you in stitches. Typical of someone you’d find in publishing, he is a voracious reader of books, the New Yorker, and spy novels, which he saves for his frequent travels to and from clients.

From his many years in the publishing industry, Ken has learned to:

• listen carefully to his clients’ needs
• offer creative solutions
• anticipate his clients’ needs
• get to know many of his clients personally and professionally
• begin and build relationships

“Establishing a loyal client base is all about relationships,” says Ken. “I can truly empathize with the challenges that my clients face because it wasn’t long ago that I was sitting on that same side of the desk. As clients get to know me, they understand that I used to make the same types of decisions they are now making. That connection helps build the relationship.”

Proud father of “three great kids,” Ken and his wife, Martha, have been in the education business for more than 30 years. Before he entered the publishing field, Ken taught first, second, and third graders; Martha works with gifted students in elementary school. The conversation around their house has always focused on their students and their own kids. “I’m proud of what I do,” says Ken the teacher, father, publisher, and occasional golfer. “I’m happy knowing I contribute to the education of our kids.”

Favorite quote:
“Time flies like the wind; fruit flies like a banana.” -Groucho Marx

PSG is pleased to welcome Susan Panniello to the team as our Office Manager.  As someone who loves organization, problem-solving, and making sure everything is in its right place, Susan is a perfect fit to help keep everything at PSG running as smoothly as possible. 

After attending Aquinas College and Northeastern University, Susan has worked in a variety of different companies using her managerial skills, including Lechmere, Inc., Aigner Associates, Wabash National Company, and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges.  Susan’s take-charge attitude and strong will are excellent assets in making sure every issue is taken care of and no detail is overlooked.

Aside from her career, Susan is an avid reader whose favorite book is Kathryn Stockett’s The Help.  She also loves any good novel, Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Less Traveled” and enjoys “a good rag magazine while waiting to purchase groceries.”  Thoughtful and sensible, Susan’s motto is “I am what I am.”  In her past, Susan has worked the ever-interesting jobs of liquor store employee and camp counselor, experiences from which we’re sure she has endless entertaining stories. 

With her friendly demeanor and outgoing personality, PSG is happy to have Susan aboard.

A self-described technophile (his favorite magazine is Popular Science) and Mac addict (after using a Mac for the first time he switched his major from Environmental Science to Graphic Design), Don Ayer joined Publishing Solutions Group in early 2009 as our Production Manager. With nearly ten years of hands-on and management experience in the publishing field, Don is a highly skilled professional. He is responsible for all aspects of book production: format and page design; page layouts and page proofs; page checks; placement of photos and figures; and delivery of files to printer. Don spends his days working in InDesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator. He is known for following client specifications to produce high-quality page layouts that are cost effective and always done within the schedule.

Don’s favorite types of projects are Teacher’s Editions. “The pages are complicated and the volume is heavy,” he explains, “but the regular patterns and formulaic nature of the layouts make for lots of ways to save time in page composition; you just have to know what to look for. If I see a step that will need to be repeated many times, I will always look for a faster and cleaner way to do it.” Another part of the job Don enjoys is building accurate and efficient templates. He loves finding little tricks and tweaks that can be incorporated to save a few seconds here and there while also incorporating measures to avoid possible problems further down the road.

Prior to working at PSG, Don did freelance production and consulting work for publishers and developers. Before that, he worked as the manager of the Art, Design & Production Department for a developer. There, he managed production for high-volume, fast-paced English and Spanish products for a variety of educational publishers. Years before that, while still in college, Don had one of his most memorable jobs: a night security guard at a private housing community on Long Island Sound. Basically, he was paid to hang out at the beach all night and keep people just like him from hanging out there.

When Don’s not working hard on his Mac, he’s playing Boggle or Rock Band. Tall and easy-going, he loves word games and can even hold his own against editorial types. A Rock Band expert, Don’s known for easily getting a score of 100% on Modest Mouse’s Float On. Three things he couldn’t live without? His MaciLife, any newspaper with a crossword or Sudoku, and his iPhone.

Annette Cinelli Trossello joined PSG in early 2008. Formerly a client, Annette knew several of the staff members and had already begun building relationships. With a B.A. in English from Assumption College,
strong copyediting skills and great attention to detail and time-management skills she made for an easy transition from publisher to developer. 

As a Project Manager at Publishing Solutions Group, Annette has many responsibilities. She is the primary client contact on projects, and her project management duties include trafficking files to freelancers; monitoring and updating schedules; reviewing and maintaining budgets; chairing weekly status meetings; and generally making sure everything with a project is running smoothly and that the client is happy. She is known for being enthusiastic, upbeat, and very helpful.

As part of Publishing Solutions Group’s Professional Development Initiative, Annette, along with the rest of the staff, took a series of copyediting, proofreading and grammar classes through the renowned Emerson College Copyediting Certificate Program. Instructors came to the PSG offices to teach intensive classes on a variety of publishing topics. Annette was particularly interested in an article from The New York Times titled “Celebrating the Semicolon in a Most Unlikely Location.” The article, which one of the instructors passed out during Punctuation for Professionals class, referred to a New York City Transit public service placard that contained a correctly used semicolon.

During her tenure as a Project Manager and Copyediting Lead, Annette has managed several projects with a strong emphasis on language arts and mathematics. She has worked with numerous publishers including Riverside Publishing, Scholastic, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, School Specialty and Cengage Learning.  Some of her favorite and most challenging projects include:

• State-specific, Mathematics Assessment Item Banks
• Tests for Adult Basic Education (TABE) Fundamentals
• Online Lesson Plans, ELA and Mathematics
• State-specific, Reading Tests, Grades 2-8
• Leveled Readers: Fountas and Pinnell scaled
• Keys to GED Success
• Debate, 1st Edition, Mariann Fedrizzi and Randy Ellis, 2011
• The World of Customer Service, 3rd Edition, Pattie Gibson, 2012

Prior to working at PSG, Annette worked at Davis Publications, a well-known art education publisher, for 3 years. She began as an Advertising Assistant for SchoolArts magazine and quickly worked her way into an Editorial Assistant role for the company’s textbook division. In this role, she was responsible for acquiring art permissions, editing credits and proofreading contracts and manuscripts for Explorations in Art, 1st Edition, Grades K-5, Marilyn G. Stewart and Eldon Katter, 2008; Discovering Art History 4th Edition, Gerald F. Brommer, 2008; and Discovering Drawing, 2nd Edition, Ted Rose and Sally Mahan-Cox, 2007.

Annette has also worked as a tour guide, Radio Shack sales associate, and a movie theater cashier (free movies!—free popcorn with real butter!). For four years she volunteered as a Big Sister through Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Annette loves to travel and has been to Italy, France, England, Mexico, Canada, and the Eastern Caribbean.

Colleen Joyce joined the PSG Project Management team in early 2011 and brings with her over ten years of diverse experience in educational publishing, collaborating with numerous publishers including Scholastic, Berlitz, Sundance Publishing, LeapFrog SchoolHouse, SRA/McGraw-Hill, Rigby, the Wright Group/McGraw-Hill, and Measured Progress. With PSG’s continued growth and influx of new projects, we were looking to add another highly skilled project manager to our team. With her strong professional background and friendly demeanor, Colleen is the perfect fit.

Prior to joining PSG, Colleen worked as Managing Editor and Project Manager for another development house for over 5 years followed by several years as Managing Partner of her own small publishing services business.

Colleen holds a Bachelor of Arts, Magna Cum Laude from the University of Massachusetts. She majored in History and minored in English. Colleen excelled in her undergraduate studies, during which she was named a Commonwealth Scholar and a member of the National History Honor Society.

Throughout her career in educational publishing, Colleen has managed all editorial aspects of projects, ensuring high-quality content and a seamless cohesion with the production process. Her extensive and diverse project experience includes:

• Math, Algebra, and Reading assessment
• Language Arts teacher’s guides and ancillaries
• Interactive Language Arts storybooks
• Adult Basic Education programs
• ELD guides, ESL activities, and ELL lesson plans
• Test administrations and audio recordings for Spanish and Arabic test forms

Of her Project Management experience, Colleen says, “There’s nothing better than knowing where everything is at any given moment.” She believes that one of the most rewarding parts of her job is seeing a project come together to create a dynamic program that will help students learn.

When she’s not hard at work in the fast-paced publishing environment at PSG, Colleen can be found caring for her three dogs, a yellow lab, a black lab and a lab-hound mix, or catching up on the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins and a few local college teams. Like the rest of the staff at PSG, she is an avid reader. Some of her favorite books include Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, Gregory David Roberts’ Shantaram, Willa Cather’s My Antonia, and David Wroblewski’s The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. Organized, knowledgeable, and very capable, Colleen is a welcome addition to the PSG team.

 

After completing Publishing Solutions Group’s Spring 2011 Internship, Kaitlin joined the staff as an Editorial Assistant. Kaitlin is a 2011 graduate of Emerson College with a BFA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing and a minor in Women and Gender Studies. She has always been interested in a career working with books, and she is looking forward to learning more about the educational publishing industry.

During her internship, Kaitlin learned valuable copyediting, quality control, proofreading, and literature research skills. When asked to describe her internship experience, Kaitlin said, “I worked on a lot of copyediting and proofreading projects.  It really helped me sharpen my eye for mistakes or possible inconsistencies.  I find it hard to read any sort of material anymore - even books for fun - without noticing something I would potentially change if it was something I was copyediting.”

In her final semester at Emerson, Kaitlin sharpened her multi-tasking and time-management skills. In addition to interning and working at Emerson’s Career Services, she was also focused on her Book Marketing and Sales class and her senior creative thesis.  Not only did Kaitlin create a sales and marketing plan for a nonfiction book about the history of the American highway system, she also wrote a 60-page original fiction piece, which she presented at the annual Writing, Literature, and Publishing department’s Senior Thesis Reading.

Kaitlin is known around the office for her fabulous homemade blueberry scones and her love of Harry Potter trivia. An avid reader, Kaitlin’s favorite books are J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Jack Kerouac’s On The Road, and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. Kaitlin has been a welcome addition to the Publishing Solutions Group team.

Alyssa Guarino was promoted to Editorial Assistant and joined our staff in the summer of 2011. Prior to her new position at PSG, Alyssa was a Spring 2011 Intern. Alyssa is a student at Emerson College. She will be beginning her senior year in the Fall, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts degree in Writing, Literature and Publishing with a Science minor.

As a high school student in Wakefield and at Emerson itself, she has participated as an editor and contributor to many literary magazines, including Emerson’s Writer’s Block Anthology and Gangsters in Concrete, as well as the Wakefield Memorial High School newsletter.  She also tutored algebra and served as a lifeguard and aquatics instructor at the Burbank YMCA in Reading and the Boys and Girls Club of Woburn.

Alyssa describes herself as “hardworking, meticulous, and eager to learn.” Perhaps it was her five years spent as a page in the Wakefield Library and her knowledge of the Dewey decimal system that make her so attentive to detail, and her grammar expertise forms the basis of her mantra that “efficiency is key to any successful work environment.”

As part of the PSG team, Alyssa hopes to learn as much about the publishing industry as possible, with focus on copyediting, fact-checking, and marketing. While aspiring to be a novelist, she also considers pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts or a science degree should she decide to pursue her interests in science writing.

Alyssa is a fan of Madeleine L’Engle and cannot live without Scientific American, The Wall Street Journal, and the Outlander series. With an eager mind and a hunger for knowledge, Alyssa is a great addition to the team.

Filemaker Guru Charlie Bohm comes to PSG with more than 15 years of print, prepress, and IT management experience. Charlie created and maintains our robust and revered in-house database, a multilayer, multifaceted FileMaker program that helps us keep track of freelancers, billing, schedules, project reports, and more—namely, just about everything we do.

While Charlie’s list of computer skills reads like a Trekkie convention, he also likes to have fun. He sings a mean karaoke and has adorable twin daughters who definitely keep him busy! When he can sneak in a few minutes of free time, Charlie loves to read Car and Driver, MacWorld, and, if he’s really lucky, some of Stephen King’s “Dark Tower” series, which, as he puts it, is “several thousand pages of goodness with incredible characters.”

For a man who loves laughter and enjoys a good challenge, Charlie is a delight to have around. And for us, whose computers he updates regularly, and who use the database he created for just about everything, we salute him.

Jordan Koluch joined Publishing Solutions Group as a summer intern in 2011. Upon completion of the Summer 2011 Internship Program here at PSG, Jordan was hired as a part-time Sales and Marketing Assistant. A rising junior in Emerson College’s renowned writing program, Jordan joins the team looking to get a handle on how the publishing industry works from as many different perspectives as possible.  Whatever role she takes, she wants to “complete projects of a quality I can be proud of.”

As an intern, Jordan looked to understand the workings of the substantive editing process. Beyond editing skills, she was seeking an understanding of the personal side of the publishing industry. One of her goals is to continue to understand how the client relates to the publisher, and how publishing team members work with one another.

Although she admits to having an interest in the design process and project management, Jordan focused on writing marketing content and quickly became an important part of the marketing efforts here at PSG.  Her ultimate goal is to “do developmental editing for literary fiction or nonfiction at a large house in New York.” Despite the fact that she’s new to the industry, she’s “still looking for her niche and open to changing my mind about what I want to be doing.”

Jordan likes coming in ahead of the due date. As a self-described “punctual” person, she enjoys “being given a task and a due date and being left to come up with the how on my own,” as it “allows me to be creative and use my problem-solving skills.” She’s also organized. “I have an odd affinity for organizing,” she explains. “Specifically jobs that allow me to alphabetize or color-code. I find it calming.” Jordan’s motto: “Do it right. Do it once.”

Some of Jordan’s favorite reads include the short stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Food Network Magazine, and Atlas Shrugged. Ayn Rand is one of her favorite authors. While that “usually causes people to judge me,” you shouldn’t worry: she “really [is] very nice.”

Rachel Amico joined the Publishing Solutions Group Internship Program in the fall of 2011. Currently a Junior at Emerson College, Rachel is majoring in Writing, Literature and Publishing, and is excited to spend her time at PSG expanding upon her knowledge of the inner-workings of the publishing industry. Before starting her college career, Rachel developed an interest in a career in publishing after becoming obsessed with W magazine—a publication that she says she simply cannot live without. She loves that the magazine combines some of her biggest passions, by combining interesting writing with groundbreaking fashion and breathtaking photography. In fact, her dream job is, in her own words, is to take on “literally any position at W.”

A self-professed Scrabble champ, Rachel is the Assistant Poetry Editor for the esteemed college literary magazine the Emerson Review. She began writing poetry during her Freshman year of college when she couldn’t decide what type of writing course to take and ended up surprising herself with her love for poetry. In addition to her enthusiasm for wordplay, Rachel boasts an eclectic arsenal of skills and hobbies. She minors in photography, has performed in numerous choirs and a cappella groups, has volunteered for a number of charities and organizations in her home state of New Jersey, and has even taken lessons in the Korean martial art of the sword, called Kumdo.

Aside from her many impressive talents, which also happen to include a knack for artfully decorating with Christmas lights without getting frustrated, Rachel has also held a number of different jobs throughout high school and college. She was a set and costume designer for a summer theatre arts camp, a server at a Persian restaurant, an associate at a party supply store (which unfortunately has given her a bit of a distaste for balloons), and most recently she interned as a restaurant reviewer for Alex the Magazine.

Despite what may seem like a jam-packed schedule, Rachel prides herself on being an efficient worker but a happy and easy-going person nonetheless. She describes herself as quick, funny, and helpful, and would like for everyone to know that she is “always very chill.”

Tracy Brickman joined Publishing Solutions Group as part of the PSG Fall 2011 Internship Program. A Long Island native, Tracy is in her final semester at Emerson College pursuing a BA in Writing, Literature and Publishing. In addition to her WLP degree, she is also working towards minors in both Philosophy and Marketing.

Tracy is excited to be a part of PSG’s Internship Program and is looking forward to working with the enthusiastic PSG team. She comes to PSG with working knowledge gathered through her experience at various publishing organizations at Emerson including literary journal Emerson Review. She has served as Treasurer and Publicist of the Emerson Review as well as the Publicist and Lead Designer for Undergraduate Students for Publishing. One of the things she has discovered about the publishing industry is that there’s always something new to learn. And Tracy is always looking for new things to discover. Tracy loves the fact that she is able to utilize both her left-brain and her right-brain in order to create something that she’s very passionate about—books.

Another one of Tracy’s loves is cooking. Her dream is to be able to combine both publishing and cooking to become a cookbook editor. Not only would she get to work on cookbooks, but she’d also get try out new recipes and fun cooking ideas! From cooking to creating all-natural cosmetic products, Tracy has a quite a bit of knowledge and personal experience. Her favorite saying is “que sera, sera”, which goes to show that she is willing, ready, and able to deal with any task that’s given to her.

Hailing from the beautiful island of Puerto Rico, Jorge Cortes, a senior at Emerson College, began his internship at Publishing Solutions Group in the Fall of 2011. At Emerson, his academic focus is Writing, Literature and Publishing where his interests span from courses like copyediting, to a wide range of literature, including Shakespearean comedies and mutant novellas.

Previously, Jorge worked as an English Mentor in the Language Development Across the Disciplines program at Universidad del Sagrado Corazon in Santurce, Puerto Rico during his sophomore and junior years. Throughout the program, Jorge taught several ESL (English as a Second Language) laboratory sessions while editing and providing feedback for college level student essays, PowerPoints, and presentations.

After working diligently to improve the English skills of other college students, Jorge made the decision to broaden his own horizons. He explained: “Getting an internship in publishing is why I came to the US. I decided that I wanted to work in publishing and that one of the best ways to get into the business and get to meet people was through an internship”. To complement his studies, Jorge wanted an opportunity for real-life experience. He selected PSG’s internship because the company offers a wide variety of development services that align with his copyediting and production interests, but also because he prefers to work only with friendly, respectful, and diligent employees — something never lacking here at PSG.

During his high school summers, Jorge worked in a different kind of laboratory where instead of editing essays and power point presentations, he worked with starfish, frogs, cow eyeballs and a sheep’s heart and maintained the school’s bio-lab facilities and equipment. His scientific interests, combined with a love of mythology, graphic novels, and Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett’s novel Good Omens, have no doubt played a part in Jorge’s goal to one day work as an editor of science fiction and fantasy at Harper Collins or Penguin.

A fully bilingual reader of El Nuevo Dia, a newspaper he frequents to stay up to date on news from home, and a die-hard fan of author Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files series, Jorge is the calm, quiet, and resourceful type. Though he has a passion for publishing, you won’t always find him buried in books. A self-proclaimed sports enthusiast, Jorge’s competitive spirit can be found in the bowling alley, or in his mastery of Trivial Pursuit and Dominos.

Though he was a little flustered on his first day learning about all the services offered by PSG, he finished strong saying “I think I’m starting to get the hang of it”.