Rachel Berchten (Poetry and Poetics Editor) received a B.A. in English from Hunter College, CUNY, and an M.F.A. from Brooklyn College, CUNY. A published author (under the name "Rachel Salazar"), she taught in the English department at Brooklyn College and was an editor at Grove Press. She has been at UC Press since 1996 and has been sponsoring books in poetry since 2007. As a project editor at UC Press, she has worked on many poetry books, including the collected works of Ted Berrigan, Robert Creeley, and Lorine Niedecker, as well as all the titles in the New California Poetry series. Recent books include Poems for the Millennium, Volume Three, edited by Jerome Rothenberg and Jeffrey C. Robinson; Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Exilée and Temps Morts: Selected Works; David Lau's Virgil and the Mountain Cat; Brian Teare's Sight Map; and Keith Waldrop's Transcendental Studies.
Areas of acquisition: poetry and poetics Laura Cerruti (Director of Digital Content Development) received a B.A. in English from UC Davis and has worked at UC Press since 1997. Before taking her current position, she sold to book clubs and special markets, managed the paperback list, worked on revised editions in the California Natural History Guide series, and acquired books in poetry and classical studies. She has given numerous presentations on publishing topics and has served on a number of committees related to online publishing: Editorial Board for SPARC's Campus-Based Publishing Resource Center (2009-present), the American Philological Association (APA) Task Force on Electronic Publication (2006-2007), and the Annual Meeting Program Committee of the Association of American University Presses (2004 to 2006). Recent projects include Mark Twain Project Online and UC Publishing Services (UCPubS).
Area of acquisition: Mark Twain, Online Academic Resources, UC Publishing Services Charles ("Chuck") R. Crumly (Publisher for Science) holds a B.A. in biology from UC San Diego, an M.S. in biology from San Diego State University, and a Ph.D. in zoology from Rutgers University. After a Smithsonian Institution research fellowship at the National Museum of Natural History, Chuck spent three years at the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, as a visiting curatorial associate. Returning to his home state, he taught for several years at San Diego State, Cal State San Marcos, and UC Davis before joining Academic Press in 1992. Over the past 18 years, Chuck has sponsored nearly 300 titles including major references, textbooks, and groundbreaking monographs. Sometimes active in research, he has been a visiting researcher at the Museum of Paleontology at UC Berkeley and is a research associate of the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Areas of acquisition: textbooks and major references in organismal biology, ecology, evolution, environment Blake Edgar (Senior Acquisitions Editor) has B.A. degrees in anthropology and zoology from UC Berkeley and a graduate certificate in science communication from UC Santa Cruz. Before joining UC Press in 2000, he worked for 12 years as a magazine editor at the California Academy of Sciences and as a freelance writer and editor. He has coauthored three books on the subject of paleoanthropology, including The Dawn of Human Culture and From Lucy to Language, a New York Times notable book of 1996, and has written for such magazines as Scientific American, Discover, and Archaeology, where he is a contributing editor. Recent trade books on his list include Dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations, Skin: A Natural History, American Chestnut: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Perfect Tree, Earth under Fire: How Global Warming Is Changing the World, and The Science of Wine.
Areas of acquisition: general interest and scholarly books in biology, archaeology and biological anthropology, wine and viticulture Stephanie Fay (Art History and Classics Editor) has an A.B. in history from Hunter College, CUNY, an M.A. in English from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in English (American literature) from UC Berkeley. She taught for several years in the writing program at UC Davis before beginning to edit manuscripts for UC Press. She has been at UC Press since 1988 and has been sponsoring books in art and art history since 1996 and in classics since late 2007. With a husband in Southern California and a son in Poland, she is one of UC Press's most frequent fliers and happily experiences the alternative cultures of a small city in the desert and a capital city of Eastern Europe.
Areas of acquisition: art history and classics Mary C. Francis (Music and Cinema Studies Editor) did her undergraduate degree in music at Brandeis University and her graduate work in musicology at Yale. She worked at Yale University Press, Oxford University Press, and Mayfield Publishing before coming to UC Press in 1999. Her musical pursuits include playing harpsichord and Balinese gamelan gong kebyar. She spends most of her free time reading, pondering her Netflix queue, and attending concerts.
Areas of acquisition: music, cinema, media studies Stanley Holwitz joined UC Press in 1978 as head of the Los Angeles office. He began his publishing career at Macmillan, first as a sales rep and subsequently as an editor acquiring books in economics and finance. He later moved to Boston to become editor-in-chief at D.C. Heath, a textbook publisher, and then returned to New York to launch the social science program at Academic Press. He joined the staff in Berkeley in 2002, when UC Press closed its LA office
Areas of acquisition: anthropology, Jewish studies Niels Hooper (History Editor) was an undergraduate in modern history at Oxford University and a graduate student in history at the University of Michigan. Prior to joining UC Press he worked at Verso Books in New York, at first running North American publicity, sales, and marketing and later joining Verso's editorial board and becoming the US General Manager. He has had previous stints as a teacher in a homeland in South Africa, an archeologist's assistant in Turkey, a Capitol Hill intern, and a bartender.
Areas of acquisition: history, American studies Deborah Kirshman (Art History Editor) has bachelor's and master's degrees in art history from the University of Michigan. She taught art history and was founding director of the museum studies program at John F. Kennedy University before coming to UC Press in 1985. In addition to acquiring art books, she worked as director of development and public relations until July 2009. She spends her leisure time hiking, swimming, and traveling.
Areas of acquisition: museum copublications Sheila Levine (Associate Director and Publisher) received a B.A. in history from Northwestern University and has worked at UC Press for more than thirty years. She began her publishing career as an assistant to three editors before developing her own lists in American and European history and Asian studies. In 1993 she was named editorial director, in 1998 she became assistant director, and in 2001 she moved into her current position. Combining her passions for publishing and food, she played a major role in launching UC Press's program in food studies. Sheila has also had a life as a bookseller. In 1974 she co-founded University Press Books/Berkeley, a bookstore devoted to scholarly books, and in her spare time she managed the operation for ten years.
Areas of acquisition: food studies, copublications Reed Malcolm (Senior Acquisitions Editor) holds a M.A. in the history of religion from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in political science from UC Berkeley. Prior to joining UC Press in 1995, Reed worked in the acquisitions department at the University of Chicago Press and at Parallax Press. Previously he worked as a reporter for the Hills Newspapers Group, covering education and politics for the Berkeley Voice and the El Cerrito Journal. He is a frequent book reviewer, having written for such trade periodicals as Shambhala Sun and Bhuddhadharma magazine. He has had the good fortune of working with and publishing a number of best-selling authors including Huston Smith, Peter Mathiessen, Andrew Greeley, Shunryu Suzuki, Jeffrey Hopkins, Kevin Bales, and others.
Areas of acquisition: anthropology, Asian studies, religion, politics, current events Kim Robinson (Regional Editor) received a BA in English from UC Santa Barbara. Before joining UC Press in early 2009, she spent eight years at Oxford University Press in New York both as music editor and editorial director of the scholarly reference group. Her focus at UC Press is on publications about California and the West, including regional reference, partnerships with regional institutions, and a new journal focused on California. Before her move into publishing, she spent a decade working for various nonprofit organizations and foundations focused primarily on the environment and equal access to information and technology.
Area of acquisition: California and the West Naomi Schneider (Executive Editor) was an undergraduate history major at Smith College and the University of Pennsylvania and a graduate student in history at Brown University. She worked at HarperCollins, Random House, and Oxford University Press before coming to UC Press. In a previous life, she worked in a roofing factory, as a waitress, and on the railroad. She is now an executive editor and has edited award-winning authors such as Paul Farmer, Nancy Scheper-Hughes, Cynthia Enloe, and Alejandro Portes. A significant portion of her list is focused on issues of social justice and human rights. In 2010, the new Naomi Schneider Imprint will highlight the lives and experiences of the disenfranchised; these select titles reassess mainstream history and spur unconventional thinking about contemporary social and political matters.
Areas of acquisition: sociology, anthropology, politics, contemporary social issues, Latin American studies, women's studies, health Jenny Wapner (Environmental Studies Editor) has a B.A. in Russian literature from Reed College in Portland, Oregon. Before coming to UC Press, she worked at Cambridge University Press in their West Coast-based science group. Jenny's list is focused on both the natural and human landscapes and is most interested in where the two intersect. Some of her recent books include Michael Welland's Sand, Karl Ammann and Dale Peterson's Elephant Reflections, Judith Lowry's The Landscaping Ideas of Jays, and Nalini Nadkarni's Between Earth and Sky. Jenny also has the pleasure of overseeing the long-standing California Natural History Guide series.
Areas of acquisition: ecology, natural history, environmental studies, gardening & horticulture