The Team

Associate Acquisitions Editor Courtney Allen resides with two geriatric (ages 14 & 16), yet mischievous Siamese cats.  Although her computer engineer boyfriend has been trying to introduce her to higher technology for years, she wasn’t officially inducted into the realm of geekdom until 2005 when she switched from consumer to technology publishing.  A self-proclaimed iPod addict, she also won’t leave home without her trusty digital camera or, of course, her iPod.  When she’s not obsessively checking her RSS feeds for the latest technology news, she can often be found reading, cooking, or firmly attached to a PS2 controller.  She also enjoys traveling, kayaking, knitting, and photography.

Mary Bednarek (aka Computilo) is the Executive Acquisitions Director for Dummies Tech Press. Mary has been involved with computers since 1985, when she took a programming class and wrote a BASIC program to balance her checkbook. More than 20 years later, her checkbook remains unbalanced, despite groundbreaking advancements in personal finance software and online banking techniques. (Unfortunately, putting four children through college before reading Rich Mom, Poor Mom, didn’t help.) Mary has been involved in computer book publishing since 1988: Four years with Macmillan Computer Publishing/Que, and ever since with IDG Books, which became Hungry Minds, which was acquired by John Wiley & Sons. Mary has a B.S. in English Education from
Indiana University and an M.A. in English from the University of Illinois. Before landing her dream job in publishing, Mary taught high school and college English. For fun, Mary likes to listen to books on tape on a variety of portable electronic devices; spout off (er, post) on online book clubs, practice her karaoke skills, and read poetry and biographies of philosophers (they’re all the same, really). A thrift store and garage sale addict, she also likes to swim and do aerobics (the lower the impact, the better). Her current tech passion is talking to her three delightful grandsons via web cam; her current “growth area” is learning to “share” the web cam with her husband, Gene, who prefers to talk to said boys about lawn mowers, power tools, and choo-choo trains rather than wireless home networking and blogs. 

Leah Cameron blames her dad for her fascination with all things geeky. This influence manifested in various activities and interests: constructing Heathkit radios, finding creative ways to use an oscilloscope, and of course, fostering an addiction to all Star Trek series…yes, even Voyager. With a BS in mathematics and an MBA, Leah escaped from an immersion in technology — software design and programming — to a much more glamorous career as Editorial Manager dealing with books about technology. Leah’s hobbies include yoga, gardening, knitting, sewing for granddaughters (with a computerized embroidery machine, of course), designing and making quilts, and turning digitally enhanced photographs into works of art. At home, Leah enjoys the company of three dogs (Boxer, Black Lab, and rescued mutt) and one also-geeky husband (on the rare occasion when he’s not traveling).

Project editor Kim Darosett lives in her hometown of Indianapolis with her two rescued pets, a highly energetic Labrador Retriever and pleasantly plump 15-year-old cat. As an economics major, Kim always thought that her career would revolve around the finance sector. But after five years as a private banker, she was ready to leave the world of mortgage loans and credit lines behind to try her hand at editing technology books at Wiley. In her personal time, Kim routinely scours CNET for reviews of the latest greatest tech gadgets, like the Panasonic HDTV and Oppo upscaling DVD player she most recently purchased. As testament to her true geekiness, she enjoyed every minute of rewiring all her entertainment system components and calibrating her new TV. Of course, to balance her love for all things techy, Kim is a Certified Master Gardener, a die-hard Indiana University basketball fan, and a devotee of Entertainment Weekly magazine.

Technology Acquisitions Editor Katie Feltman just clocked her 6th year at Wiley. She lives in happy chaos with her 2 rescued Great Pyrenees, 2 rescued cats, one very cute foster Great Pyrenees puppy and her uber-geeky boyfriend Dave who makes the self-professed news junkie check her fave websites like Perez Hilton, Boing Boing, Yoga Journal and Salon on a home computer running Linux and VMWare. Not to be outdone on the geek front, she enjoys keeping the hardwood floors in their 1920s arts and crafts home fur-free with her most prized technology possession  -  a Roomba named Mr. Big. Katie also closely monitors her cycling fitness on her PC with the Polar F11 Heart Rate monitor and has recently been treated for an addiction to Guitar Hero 2 for the Xbox 360.    In her not-so-spare spare time, Katie keeps herself sane through Vinyasa yoga, insane spinning classes and road biking, reading, knitting, and far too much espresso.

Ellen Gerstein has spent the better part of the last two decades working with computers, technology and Internet.  For just about over half that time, she has been employed with John Wiley & Sons, where she is currently Marketing Director in the technology publishing group.  Before Wiley, she did time at other publishing houses, most notably working as an Information Specialist in the Electronic Products group at American Institute of Physics (she swears it was more fun than it sounds).   She graduated from The University at Albany (NY) with a major in History and minors in business and psychology, which equipped her with the abilities to write government-level propaganda or great ad copy, which often are the same thing.  Her hobbies include fitness in all forms, especially yoga, coaching her daughter’s soccer team, and teaching her infant son to respect the television remote .  Her ultimate goal is to spend more of her all-too-precious free time reading books that have nothing to do with technology, preferably on a bright and sunny palm tree-lined beach (husband and pina colada optional).

Acquisitions editor Willem Knibbe might be an IT Guy, but he’s very comfortable with his feminine side and loves neo-feminist culture and thought–he reads more of Bust and Bitch than his wife! He began his career as a copy editor and then reporter at InfoWorld before satiating his love of PC and computer games in a variety of roles: strategy guide editor, PC Games editor-in-chief, and product manager at two different online game companies. He now acquires books on a diverse and fascinating (to him, anyway!) array of topics, from CAD to internet marketing to virtual worlds. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his fabulous wife and cutiepie daughters and enjoys spending time with family and friends, live music, sports, and road biking.

Acquisitions Editor Melody Layne knits and spins from October to April and gardens like an addict from May through September. She finds most of her knitting patterns online, learned how to Navajo ply yarn from The Joy of Hand Spinning, and gets her gardening advice from Organic Garden Tips. She is interested in sustainable living and would love to keep mini-Southdown sheep, but her backyard is too small (she checked the zoning). Melody is interested in the ways technology can be used to simplify life and to make connections with others. Her current technology crushes are Microsoft OneNote, for keeping track of notes and ideas and for roughing out schedules and outlines, and Floola, a freeware iPod manager she found via Lifehacker that has released her from the clunk and bloat of iTunes. She lives with her partner Vanessa, 2 wild retriever mixes, and 2 grumpy orange cats in an urban neighborhood in Indianapolis.

In one crazy week twenty-six years ago, 52 U.S. hostages were released from captivity in Iran, Ronald Reagan was sworn into office as the 40th President of the U.S., and Commodore released the VIC-20 personal computer.  Those first two events mattered a great deal to the world, but almost not at all to David Mayhew, who now works as a Senior Marketing Manager for John Wiley & Sons.  But that VIC-20 arrived on the scene at nearly the same time as his 13-year old complexion took a drastic shift, and those two factors worked together to make sure David had years of free time available to spend honing his tech skills.  Now a quarter of a century later David spends his days marketing technology books alongside IT Girls Ellen, Kelly and Jen, and his nights and weekends with his wife and two very cool young sons.  As may be expected, both boys are world-class video game players, but they also rival their Dad’s prowess on the basketball court and share his absolute love of bad sci-fi movies (they own the Planet of the Apes boxed set, 2 copies of Starship Troopers, and of course Spaceballs),  cookie dough, anything fried, and any food product covered in frosting.

Acquisitions Editor Katie Mohr was intrigued by technology at the age of four when her father intoduced her to his love of building and programming personal computers. Soon Katie was using leftover memory chips, an unplugged soldering iron, and pieces of styrofoam to create her own ‘faux’ motherboards. This eventually turned into an obsession with playing games on the Atari, and then later she was introduced to the Apple IIe, Nintendo, and the Commodore 64. Katie was the only college freshman armed with an email account (in case of an emergency), and a clunky 25 pound IBM Compaq “portable” computer, which eventually evolved into the laptop we all know and appreciate today. After graduating from Hanover College with a BS in English, Katie started an eight year career as an editor with a technology book publisher who shall remain nameless. She joined Wiley/Wrox  in 2003 and is charged with acquiring books on Microsoft programming and related technologies. As a fulltime working mother and wife, Katie likes using technology to simplify her life. She tracks her daily calorie intake and her spinning, step aerobics, and Zumba workouts at Sparkpeople, and she uses her personal blog to update family and friends on the latest antics of her wonderfully curious toddler. She often reads Mommy Blogs, including Dooce, as a reminder that she is not alone, and she is an avid fan of online shopping and bill paying. In her limited spare time, Katie enjoys reading, cooking, watching the Food Network and trashy reality TV, and she will proudly admit that she often escapes to the privacy of her basement for some intense rounds of Dance Dance Revolution.

Associate Project Editor Jean Rogers has spent the past six years at Wiley editing technology books. When she’s not elbow-deep in text, she unwinds with yoga and Taekwondo classes. Now that she’s earned her 1st-degree black belt, she’s finding all new challenges in learning how to teach students ranging in age from five to over fifty their belt-specific curriculum. She met her multi-talented and wonderful boyfriend at the dojang. (He has black belts in both Karate and Taekwondo, makes his living from tennis, and can sing better than anyone on American Idol.) Her other extra-curricular activities include herding her two cats, playing World of Warcraft with her boyfriend on the home network she set up, and learning to play golf. She also loves digital photography and plans to eventually get better at image editing with Photoshop Elements.

Copy Editor Virginia Sanders spends her time doing a lot of reading, a bit of writing, and as little arithmetic as possible. So far, she has managed to prevent her two cats from taking over the world. She has a black belt in Taekwondo and attends Korea Taekwondo Academy as both a student and an instructor. When she isn’t working on her side kicks, she surfs the Internet to find anime, read Web comics such as Two Lumps and Digger, contract cuteness poisoning from Cute Overload, and discover even geekier activities.Virginia came to Wiley straight out of college as an intern, and much like a stray puppy who follows someone home, she simply never left. She’s now participating in the Wiley Volunteer Instructor Program, which sends Wiley employees to an elementary school for a window of time each Friday to assist teachers. From this program, she has developed deeper, more profound respect for mothers and teachers than ever before. In fact, she can often be heard muttering, “How do they do it?”

Ami Frank Sullivan first befriended technology in college when she realized that VAX email allowed her to communicate with her best friend for free and has been using technology to make communication easier ever since. After working for another technology publisher and a local dot.com, she landed at Wiley Publishing as an Editorial Manager. About the time her daughter was 18 months old, she convinced Wiley to let her have her cake and eat it too: she works in the office as a senior editor and trainer for three days a week and gets to spend more time with her family. When she isn’t toting her 6-year-old daughter to dance lessons, her 3-year-old son to tumbling or Kindermusik or hard at work on the latest Wrox title for Wiley Publishing, she is reading, scrapbooking, making a new playlist on iTunes, or daydreaming about some exotic locale she and her husband plan on escaping to as soon as possible.

Assistant Marketing Manager Kelly Trent became a technology convert after joining the Wiley Publishing tech marketing team back in the summer of 2004.  Prior to coming to Wiley, she was a slave to her pager and cell phone as a government spokesperson, most recently, for the City of Indianapolis’ Department of Public Works (where she learned to love the finer points of the wastewater treatment process and to wage a wicked battle against ground-level ozone pollution), and earlier, at the Indiana State Bureau of Motor Vehicles (where she still couldn’t get get a decent head shot for her driver license).  Since embracing her inner geek and learning to love all things tech, she spends her off hours chasing after her kooky rescue puppies “The Disaster Twins”; antagonizing her husband with ridiculous stories and requests to go see “chick flicks”; rocking her workouts to her latest iTunes downloads; and tooling around with all the cool graphic design software recently added to their new MacPro.

Copy Editor Heidi Unger is an admirer of technology, the cool things it helps us do, and the smart people that bring it to us. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English and spent several years working in the customer service field. As the dot com bubble expanded, she found herself helping Wiley customers with basic technology issues — downloading e-books, navigating e-commerce sites, and running various applications. She was happy to discover that, with some patience and guidance, even the least technically inclined people can use various gadgets, software, and the Internet to their advantage. Heidi spends much of her spare time enjoying live music (especially jambands) and craft beer, snapping photos with her newest obsession (a Canon digital camera), chatting with music-loving friends on online message boards, and throwing open her big trunk of craft supplies to see what kind of creative energy she can burn off. She enjoys decoupaging furniture and boxes, macrameing hemp jewelry, doing a bit of haphazard sewing, and attaching beads to anything that needs a little extra sparkle.

Marketing Manager Jennifer Webb has never quite been able to break free from the alluring pull of computers and technology. As a young child, she played Atari and Coleco (that is right, we had to have both!) day and night against her brother and father. During this time, she also loved creating cards and banners and printing them out on her painfully slow but seemingly cool Commodore computer and ribbon printer.  The world seemed a better place in college with a Mac SE/30 and the laserjet printers at the campus computer center. She also became a master at hacking with her ID scanner to try and get extra snacks during those late-night breaks and additional money for library xeroxes.  Upon graduation, Jen took a job at John Wiley & Sons, Inc. in 1994, around the same time Al Gore created the Internet. Within 2 years, she joined the Technology publishing group and has not looked back.  You can often find her and David practicing lightsaber battles in the halls or demonstrating their skills with the Force to the rest of the IT Girl Team. Jennifer spends most of her non-work time at home with her very active two year old son and husband. Now that she has two Roombas to clean the floors of the house, there is plenty of time to enjoy watching all of the Star Wars movies, discuss the ongoing debate of the proper viewing order of Episodes 1-6, watch the Lord of the Rings movies – including the animated version of The Hobbit, playing Xbox 360 or MAME, and still finding time to keep updated on all of the latest and greatest gadgets in the world.