APA Board BIOS
ERIC BARNETT, V.P. MEMBER COMMUNICATIONS
Eric is the Director of Sales and Marketing at Supporting Cast, where he helps publishers, authors, and podcasters sell their audiobooks and audio subscriptions directly to customers. Prior to that, Eric worked for Findaway, where he launched K-12 direct sales, worked with retail partners around the world, and oversaw the expansion of Findaway’s full-service audiobook production business, Audioworks.
ERIN BENNETT, V.P. VOICE TALENT COMMUNICATIONS
Erin Bennett is a Los Angeles-based actress whose passion for storytelling makes her a natural fit for audiobooks. Winner of multiple Earphones and Audie nominations, she narrated one of AudioFile’s “Best Audiobooks of 2016,” and has recorded over 450 titles. Her genres vary widely, and has been named by Audible, a "pied piper narrator. If she narrates, I listen!" She recently sang for First Lady Dr. Jill Biden in Washington, D.C. with her Andrews Sisters trio, The Harmony Dolls.
LORI BENTON
Lori Benton is the President of Scholastic Audio and Weston Woods and the VP & Picture Book Publisher for the Trade Publishing division of Scholastic Inc, a global children's publishing, education and media company. In this capacity, Lori oversees all aspects of Scholastic Audio, Weston Woods, and the picture book publishing, as well as the digital strategy for all imprints of the Trade division. Prior to joining Scholastic, Benton was Vice President, and Publisher of the Children’s Books Division at Harcourt; Associate Publisher, Director of Marketing for Henry Holt Books for Young Readers.
LAUREN CANNAVINO
Lauren Cannavino is the Manager of the Publisher Account Services team at OverDrive. Lauren serves on the APA Board of Directors, EBMA Board of Directors and has her MA in English from Cleveland State University. At OverDrive, Lauren manages large independents, audiobook, children’s and educational publishers.
MICHELE COBB, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Michele served on the board from 2001, as a director and officer, becoming Executive Director in 2015. She is a partner in Forté Business Consulting, which provides PR, Sales, Marketing, and Business Development services for the publishing industry.
DANIELLE D’ORLANDO, SECRETARY
Danielle D'Orlando is the Curator of Audio at Princeton University Press, home to the first in-house university press audiobook division: Princeton Audio. She spent much of her career at Yale University Press where she spearheaded their audio program, including the development of Yale Press Audio.
ANA MARIA ALLESSI
Ana Maria, VP, Publisher of Hachette Audio, is an industry veteran with over 20 years of audiobook and digital content publishing and business development experience. Ana Maria spent most of her career at HarperCollinsPublishers, working as the audiobook publisher and also VP Publisher of Harper Media, and VP Digital Innovation. She lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.
SAMANTHA EDELSON, VICE-PRESIDENT
Samantha is the Vice President of Marketing at Macmillan Audio where she has worked for the past thirteen years. She oversees all of the marketing and publicity as well as relationships with digital retailers.
HEATHER FAIN
Heather Fain is a Media Executive with deep experience across book publishing and podcasting. She is the former COO/CMO at Pushkin Industries, Malcolm Gladwell's audio production company, where she helped launch dozens of podcasts as well as an audiobooks publishing program. She was also SVP of Marketing Strategy at Hachette Book Group and Deputy Publisher at Little, Brown and Company, where she oversaw marketing for authors such as Gladwell, Elin Hilderbrand, and Michael Connelly.
LAURA GACHKO
Laura Gachko is Vice President of Content at RBmedia, the largest independent audiobook publisher in the world. As VP of Content at RBmedia, Laura oversees the acquisition activity for the RB, HighBridge, and Ascent imprints.
VICTORIA GERKEN
Victoria Gerken is the Publisher at Podium Audio. She has welcomed independent authors into the Podium family since 2016. She previously worked with authors in traditional publishing roles - at Random House and Alfred A. Knopf - where she was a publicist and sold subsidiary rights. She got her first taste of entrepreneurship in publishing as the founder of the Random House Speakers Bureau.
LEE JARIT, TREASURER
Lee Jarit is the Global Head of Publisher and Partner Relations at Audible. He joined Audible over a decade ago and has held numerous positions within the company across business affairs and content and publisher partnerships. In his current role, Lee collaborates with independent creators and audio publishers, large and small, to ensure that their recordings are made available to millions of Audible listeners around the world. To date Lee has listened to over 500 audiobooks.
SEAN MCMANUS, PRESIDENT
Sean McManus has been a part of the audiobook industry for close to 15 years. He has held posts at Audible, HarperCollins, Spotify & Scholastic. He is currently the President & Publisher of Dreamscape Media, LLC.
BRAD HILL
Brad Hill is the Associate Publisher of Audio at HarperCollins. He was previously the Studio Production Manager at Brilliance Publishing, an Amazon company. He has worked in the publishing industry for over 20 years and resides in Nashville, TN.
COLLEEN PRENDERGAST
Colleen Prendergast is the Associate Director of Licensing at Spotify, where she currently leads the company's audiobook publishing division. Previously, she oversaw the audiobook publishing and international content strategy for Findaway. She has worked in the publishing industry for more than 10 years.
DAN ZITT
Dan Zitt has spent the past 27 years of his audiobook career in the audiobook industry. He is the creative catalyst for over 2000 audiobooks, collaborating with artists, thinkers, politicians, musicians and writers such as Barack and Michele Obama, Bill Clinton, the Beastie Boys, Dolly Parton, Rick Rubin, and other notable award winning actors, celebrities and public figures. 13 of his audiobooks have been nominated for Grammys with 4 winning the award. He is also the founder of Ahabtalent.com , a casting website designed to create opportunity for actors around the world.