The Department of English is thrilled to host this virtual panel on the publishing industry featuring leaders from Highlights and Zaner-Bloser. Our expert panelists will discuss their companies and their work, giving students an inside look at careers in publishing. They will discuss what their jobs entail, how they got into their fields, and what advice they have for students.
Please register here for the event (you may do so anytime before the event, including day/time of) to get the Zoom link. We will take live questions, but we also welcome questions in advance, and you may submit them via the registration link.
Meet Our Panelists:
Judy Burke is the editor of Highlights, overseeing the day-to-day management of the magazine and its editorial team. Over her 27 years at Highlights, she has edited fiction, nonfiction, and activities, and has written well-loved features such as Goofus and Gallant. She has seen the magazine through a recent redesign and has overseen the launch of numerous new features.
In addition to her magazine duties, Judy has headed up the reader-mail division at Highlights, which responds to thousands of letters and e-mails from children every year. She has also served as the editor of HighlightsKids.com, worked closely with licensing partners on Highlights-branded products, and edited books for the Highlights book division. Over the years, she has spoken at numerous writers’ workshops and conferences throughout the United States.
Katie Ronstadt is the Senior Director of Learning Design at Zaner-Bloser, a Highlights Company, where she leads curriculum design efforts and informs product strategy across ZB’s portfolio of solutions in the areas of supplemental Literacy, Language, STEAM, SEL and Core Reading. Katie has near 20 years of experience within the field of Education. Prior to joining Zaner-Bloser, Katie was Director of Curriculum at Lexia Learning, a Rosetta Stone Company, where she led the curriculum design of Lexia Reading Core5 (2013) and Lexia PowerUp Literacy (2018), two award-winning, evidence-based and research-proven reading programs that provide personalized literacy instruction in for students of all abilities.
Katie’s passion for curriculum design began as a clinician at Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes and evolved as she served as a family advocate for students with dyslexia and executive function impairments. Katie has an Ed.M. degree from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education in Mind, Brain and Education as well as a Bachelors in Classics from the University of Texas at Austin. In addition, she has a certification in Innovation and Strategy from Harvard Extension School and TESOL Certification from TEFL International. Katie is also trained in agile product development processes such as Scrum® and SAFe®
Kent S. Johnson is Chief Executive Officer of Highlights for Children, Inc. and a member of the corporation's board of directors. Johnson is also the great-grandson of the company’s founders, Garry and Caroline Myers, who began Highlights in 1946.
Highlights for Children creates content and experiences that engage, delight and foster joyful learning in children, all in service of creating a kinder, more empathetic and more optimistic world. Operating a family of brands including Highlights, Zaner-Bloser, and Stenhouse Publishers, Highlights for Children reaches millions of children, families and educators in over 50 countries, in dozens of languages and across content platforms and formats.
Johnson also serves on the board of directors of Schurz Communications, Inc., The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, and Momentum Excellence. He is also a member of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO). Johnson received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and his Doctorate in Physics from Harvard University. Prior to joining Highlights, he served in various roles in research and development, manufacturing and operations in the biotech industry.
Mary-Alice Moore, Executive Vice President, Product Development & Strategy, has spent her entire career creating and curating experiences for children, most of it working for children’s publishing companies, including Farrar, Straus & Giroux, HarperCollins and Scholastic, before joining Highlights in 2009.
Early in her career, she was lucky enough to land the dream job of managing a children’s bookstore. Later, she worked as the childcare director for a large community agency serving infants through school-aged kids. Taken together, these experiences have shaped her passion for connecting great kids with great experiences, and her belief that fun and learning should always be intertwined. Mary-Alice is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she studied Spanish and Linguistics.
The magazine copies are provided by the Highlights team.
