Carol is a native San Franciscan who has worked in the printing industry for over thirty years. She is a graduate of San Francisco State University in Filmmaking. She has worked in Sales and Customer Service for W.A. Krueger, Ringier AG, and R.R. Donnelley. She is currently Vice President of Prepress, Inc. and ePress Books. Prepress specializes in working with magazines and catalogs from scanning, preflighting and proofing pages to shipping to various printers throughout the US and Canada. ePress Books prints short run, on-demand flyers, brochures, books and catalogs. For more information visit our websites www.prepress.com and www.epressbooks.com.

A creative, strategic self-starter, Kate Byrne has been a leader in the media realm for over 20 years. Most recently as Vice President of the Technology group at Future US, Byrne oversaw the print, and digital outlets associated with Maximum PC, Mac|Life, Windows, launched a new brand, Maximum Tech, and ushered the global company into the mobile world, by building an award winning app. She was awarded one of the media industry’s top honors by being named to the Folio:40 where she was recognized as one of the 40 most influential and top performers for 2011. Marrying her interest in technology and how it can be used to forward publishing, she has been successful in helping launch key brand initiatives at such well known media outlets such as BusinessWeek’s small business edition, Fast Company’s Social Capitalist Awards – the first of its kind to recognize and honor the world of Social Entrepreneurship, recognizing creative education practices and next generational thinking by building both the website and the digital magazine edition for Edutopia, the publication and website for The George Lucas Education Foundation. Byrne put her entrepreneurial spirit and desire to help empower women into action as Vice President of Sales at Ladies Who Launch, a web and event offering that guides women entrepreneurs in starting and growing their businesses. Byrne graduated from Stanford with a BA in Psychology and lives in Corte Madera with her husband and two amazing daughters.

With a successful career spanning more than twenty years, Dorothy Marschall has created award-winning design for consumer publications, books, print collateral and advertising. She applies her experience across multiple design disciplines, from web to environmental design. As Art Director for Health, she received recognition from the Society of Publication Design, Print magazine, American Illustration and the Art Director’s Club.

Marschall Design’s Sausalito office provides a perfect backdrop for the creative process. Whether working individually or with a team of like-minded colleagues, Marschall helps clients increase their visual impact. Recent projects include Designwire, an electronic newsletter and blog for the San Francisco Design Center and a direct mail campaign for AFAR magazine.

Jacqueline is a versatile Creative Director, who has been translating visions for commercial media into distinctive collateral for over 15 years. Following photography studies at Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, CA, she photo edited at the national publications Bon Appétit and Sunset magazines. She graduated to leading creative and integrated marketing vision for multiple brands under the Williams-Sonoma umbrella, such as Pottery Barn Kids and Williams-Sonoma Home. Having cultivated an eye for design and art direction early on, it was in this environment she developed strengths in brand identity and strategy. Today she is a creative consultant with a client list including Williams-Sonoma, Restoration Hardware, Roost, and Architecture for Humanity. As Board Secretary her goals are to increase EWIP’s visibility and opportunities for partnering, expand its reach, and make membership informative and valuable to its members.

Claudia Smukler currently works for the Foundation for National Progress as production director for Mother Jones magazine. A versatile and insightful manager with over 25 years experience, Claudia has held production management positions for award-winning national magazines including Macworld, PC World, and Yoga Journal. She has started several entrepreneurial ventures of her own as well as helped launch several startups, including IDG’s early venture into multimedia, Sumeria, and Multimedia World and The Web Magazine. The Web Magazine was one of the first to launch a website simultaneously with its print publication. It also spawned the Webby Awards where she served as business manager. Claudia has sought out innovative organizations with stints at CNET and Ask.com, and production projects for Slow Food Nation and TED.com. She has successfully navigated the many technology transitions over the course of her career and still enjoys working with creative teams to produce quality content. Claudia lives in Berkeley, California with her partner where she is planning her next and greatest entrepreneurial adventure.

At Next Steps Marketing, Thea supervises digital publication creation, directs audience marketing efforts and creates corporate marketing for print and online media properties. Thea has launched numerous magazines on the newsstand from small special interest titles to record-breaking 1.5 million copy launches of electronic games magazines. Thea was the CEO of Light Green Media, and managed the investment strategy and advertising for the flagship digital publication, greenlight-digital.com.

She also produced organicstylemag.com, a custom digital publication for Organic Style LLC. She has written articles for Circulation Management and Folio magazine, conducts workshops at industry conferences, and is a founding member of Exceptional Women in Publishing (EWIP). Thea holds an MBA from the University of Oregon and A.B. from the University of California at Berkeley.

Máire Walsh is VP, Sales & Marketing at Next Steps Marketing, a company that specializes in building audiences for media companies online, in print, and at retail. In this role, she oversees retail marketing and works closely with clients on content strategy and marketing across multiple platforms (desktop, mobile, and tablet). Prior to Next Steps Marketing she lead a team that helped build retail sales of over 70 national magazines at the Independent Press Association. Máire has been featured in Folio, Audience Marketing, Newsstand Resource, and Yahoo Finance and is a regular speaker at industry conferences. Máire is a native of Ireland and has an MBS from National University of Ireland, Galway.

Linda Ruth is the president of Publisher’s Single Copy Sales Service and has almost 20 years of experience in single copy sales. She has held management positions at McGraw Hill and IDG Communications, writes regular columns for national trade publications, gives publishing seminars throughout the country, and is President of Newsstands of America, one of the largest wholesale-distributed chains in the country.

Sheila A. Robinson is the founder and publisher of Career Network magazine, a regional publication that provides ideas, solutions and resources to business professionals at all levels. Due to the overwhelming national response from diverse and multicultural women leaders, the publication expanded nationally in April of 2008 becoming Diversity Woman, a professional business magazine for women leaders, executives and entrepreneurs.

Sheila speaks at numerous schools, conventions, universities and professional associations such as Women on Wall Street, Bennett College for Women, and the Johnnetta B. Cole Global Diversity Institute. She is a member of several organizations such as NAFE, (National Association for Female Executives) and NAWBO, (National Association for Women Business Owners). She serves on the board of directors of EWIP and BPW, (Business and Professional Women). She is a member and chapter publicist for Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, a private, non-profit organization whose purpose is to provide services and programs to promote human welfare. She is the founder of the non-profit organization Iamaleader.org (The IAAL Foundation), a program that teaches leadership skills and provides resources about careers and entrepreneurship for students in K-12.

Sheila is a graduate of the North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. She is a graduate of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce and The State of North Carolina Leadership Classes. She completed Stanford University’s Professional Publishing Program in 2007.