Elizabeth Wagley

Chief Executive Officer
Elizabeth Wagley brings more than a decade of experience in leadership, management, and business development to the PBC. With a strong background in fundraising and communications, she has applied her entrepreneurial and creative skills to a broad variety of humanitarian, media, and political organizations, notably MoveOn.org, Doctors of the World, and Human Rights Watch. More recently, she has served as a senior consultant at Fenton Communications, the nation's leading progressive media firm. Elizabeth's life-long commitment to liberal politics and quality literature began with her upbringing as the daughter of a major Democratic fundraiser and a book publisher and editor. Reflecting that heritage, her latest entrepreneurial initiative is the PBC-an overdue response to the aggressive marketing of right-wing ideology in the publishing world. Elizabeth earned a BA in Political Science from Wesleyan University in 1992.

David Rosen

Editor-in-Chief
David Rosen has more than two decades of experience working in book clubs, editorial, publishing, book-reviewing, journalism, and new business development. Most recently he was Vice President and Publisher at Abrams Image, where he oversaw the imprint's acquisitions as well as edited key titles. Prior to that, David spent 16 years rising through the editorial and club-management ranks at Bookspan-first as a longtime editor of the Quality Paperback Book Club (QPB), and continuing through the launches of successful new niche clubs. David's work at QPB has been honored with a GLAAD Media Award, and also with the Lambda Literary Pioneer Award for his innovative work with the InsightOut Book Club and the Triangle Classics series. David holds an MA in English Literature from T emple University, and he earned his BA from Elmira College, where he graduated summa cum laude and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.

Diane Kinerk

Operations Director
Dede Kinerk has been a leader in the book club industry for over 14 years. Most recently, she worked at Bookspan, the country's leading book club company, as Director of General Interest Clubs. In that role, she was responsible for current member revenues and retention; price structuring; supervising catalogue development and segmentation; managing customer satisfaction; and club strategy for Book-of-the-Month-Club, Quality Paperback Book Club, History Book Club and Black Expressions, among others. Dede has also served as Assistant Director of Book-of-the-Month Club and Senior Marketing Manager of Children's Book-of-the-Month Club. Before joining Bookspan, Dede worked at Time, Inc. Books. Dede holds a BA from the University of Washington and an MFA from Temple University.

Julian Brookes

Editorial Director, ProgressiveBookClub.com
Julian Brookes comes to PBC from Mother Jones, where he was web editor. Under his direction, MotherJones.com, which attracts up to 500,000 visitors per month, twice won the People's Voice Webby Award for politics, in 2005 and 2006. Before joining Mother Jones he worked for three years as the Director of Research for a start-up software company, where he managed a team conducting research in psychology, statistics, and web design. Julian is a graduate of the University of Edinburgh, received a Master's in European Literature from Cambridge University, and more recently attended Columbia University's journalism school, where he graduated first in his class, winning the top student prize, the Pulitzer Fellowship.

Dina Jordan Owobu

Director of Marketing
Dina Jordan Owobu has worked in publicity and marketing for more than 10 years. Dina started her publishing career at the prestigious literary agency Sterling Lord Literistic in New York City, where she worked with such legendary literary agents as Sterling Lord and Charlotte Sheedy. Next, at Penguin Books, Dina handled publicity campaigns for such authors as Garrison Keillor, and Sue Monk Kidd. Later, at M. Evans Publishing, she directed marketing and publicity for Soupy Sales, Henry Hill, and the Atkins diet books, among others. Outside of publishing, Dina has assisted in the branding of several start-up companies and nonprofit organizations, such as Legal Momentum (formerly NOW Legal and Defense Fund). Before joining the Progressive Book Club she worked with a leading interactive media firms developing online Marketing Campaigns for clients such as NBC Universal, Barnes & Noble, Spike TV, Random House and many others.

Deni Frand

Alliance Director
Deni Frand served as the director of People For the American Way in the New York region before joining PBC. In that capacity, she instituted a vital intern program, developed a center for progressive/activist organizations, raised funds, and brought in hundreds of volunteers for phone banking, rallies, and media events around the issues of the filibuster, Supreme Court, electoral reform, and the Republican Convention. Deni created the symbolic "unemployment line" during the Republican National Convention, bringing 8,000 pink-slip-waving participants to draw attention to the failings of the Bush Administration's economic policies. Before joining PFAW, Deni was a vice president of the AOLTW Foundation, funding civic engagement and youth media. As Senior Vice President at Robinson Lerer & Montgomery (a strategic communications firm), Deni consulted to America Online, Cablevision, and Oxygen Media to develop advocacy and philanthropic campaigns.

Peggy Sharpe

Chief Financial Officer
Peggy Sharpe has worked in finance, operations, and inventory management in the publishing industry for her entire career. From 1996 to 2005, she was the VP of Finance and Operations for all of Scholastic's book clubs, responsible for the financial, operational, and inventory management functions of the division. From 1992 to 1996, Peggy was the Director of Finance and Operations at Scholastic Book Clubs. During her career at Scholastic, Peggy also served as Controller, as Business Manager and in various inventory management positions. In addition to her work with PBC, Peggy works part-time for Sterling Publishing in the Adult Trade division, where she advises on financial and systems issues. Peggy has an undergraduate degree in math from the State University of New York at Albany, where she graduated cum laude, and an MBA in Corporate Finance from Adelphi University.

Tracey Kitzman

General Counsel
Tracey Kitzman has been advising new and established businesses for the past ten years. As a principal of Friedman Law Group LLP, Tracey works with a diverse group of start-ups, including SOQS (a children's toy designer), Yeadon-Decker (an architectural and industrial design firm), Fantasy Hip Hop (an on-line music game provider), Neoimages (an online art seller) and The Home Spa (a holistic spa), among others. In addition, she is part of the leadership group of two nationwide classes of merchants challenging the fees charged to merchants by the major payment system networks. Prior to forming Friedman Law Group, Tracey was litigation counsel at Morvillo, Abramowitz and Sidley Austin. Tracey started her legal career clerking for the Honorable Diane P. Wood on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. She earned her law degree at Georgetown Law Center, and a B.A. in Political Science and Philosophy from Marquette University. She has also studied at the London School of Economics and served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Cameroon, West Africa.

Michael Connery

New Media Director
Michael Connery comes to the Progressive Book Club from the world of new media and young voter organizing. Most recently, he was a National New Media Fellow with the Center for Independent Media, and the founder and editor of FutureMajority.com, a progressive blog covering young voter organizing. His writing has been featured on the front pages of many progressive blogs, including Daily Kos, MyDD, Tech President, and the blogs of AlterNet and The Nation. He is a board member of the Young Voter PAC, and sits on the advisory board of Head Count, a non profit that registers young voters at live music events. In 2003 -04, he was the co-founder and communications director of a similar organization - Music for America - that was formed within the grassroots of the Howard Dean campaign.

In addition to working at the Progressive Book Club, Michael is also one of our authors. His first book, Youth to Power: How Today's Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow's Progressive Majority, published in 2008, was a PBC selection. Michael holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Boston College, and an M.A. in Literature from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Julia Cohen

Alliance Partnership Manager
Julia Cohen develops and executes grassroots and grasstops outreach campaigns for a wide range of clients in the entertainment and non-profit industries. She has over 20 years experience in United Nations, government, nonprofit and public health management; civic engagement, advocacy, marketing, fundraising and technology development. Cohen's diverse experience includes serving as Deputy Director for Campus Progress at the Center for American Progress and directing major initiatives for the National Democratic Institute, YouthNOISE, Youth Vote, Rock the Vote, Planned Parenthood and the State Department among others. At Voxiva, she led efforts to develop global health, political and civic engagement technology applications and directed projects for AIDS relief and Tsunami recovery. Cohen is a Board member of WITNESS, founded by musician Peter Gabriel, which uses the power of video to expose human rights abuses.