ASI 2022 Conference—Speaker Biographies
Paula Clarke Bain
Paula Clarke Bain is an Advanced Professional Member of both the Society of Indexers (SI) and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), and has been a full-time editorial freelancer for 20 years. She particularly relishes the synergic, friendly, and often fun experience of working with authors directly. She has enjoyed getting involved in various SI matters, including being co-creator of National Indexing Day (#indexday), past SI Marketing Director, and writing for The Indexer journal. Her indexing blog, including the ongoing comedy book indexes series, is on her website at baindex.org and she can often be spotted on Twitter at @PC_Bain.
Paula Clarke Bain is an Advanced Professional Member of both the Society of Indexers (SI) and the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading (CIEP), and has been a full-time editorial freelancer for 20 years. She particularly relishes the synergic, friendly, and often fun experience of working with authors directly. She has enjoyed getting involved in various SI matters, including being co-creator of National Indexing Day (#indexday), past SI Marketing Director, and writing for The Indexer journal. Her indexing blog, including the ongoing comedy book indexes series, is on her website at baindex.org and she can often be spotted on Twitter at @PC_Bain.
Connie Binder
Connie Binder has indexed hundreds of children’s books, from picture books to reference books, with subject matter including history, science, biography, poetry, jokes, geography, math, sports, and (her personal favorite) weird facts.
Connie Binder has indexed hundreds of children’s books, from picture books to reference books, with subject matter including history, science, biography, poetry, jokes, geography, math, sports, and (her personal favorite) weird facts.
John Coe
Drawing upon 45 years in business-to-business sales, sales management and marketing, John offers services that focus on driving sales for clients. Today’s B2B selling and marketing environment demands a tight integration between marketing and sales to increases sales revenue. John implements this integration with his philosophy of not chasing the latest trends or technology in search of the silver bullet, but rather ensuring the foundations are well structured and implemented. John is the author of The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing, published by McGraw Hill.
Drawing upon 45 years in business-to-business sales, sales management and marketing, John offers services that focus on driving sales for clients. Today’s B2B selling and marketing environment demands a tight integration between marketing and sales to increases sales revenue. John implements this integration with his philosophy of not chasing the latest trends or technology in search of the silver bullet, but rather ensuring the foundations are well structured and implemented. John is the author of The Fundamentals of Business-to-Business Sales & Marketing, published by McGraw Hill.
Caroline Desrosiers
Caroline Desrosiers is the Founder & CEO of Scribely, a company on a mission to make images and videos more accessible to blind and visually impaired people and more discoverable to search engines. Scribely’s team of expert writers specialize in writing alt text for images and audio description for videos, helping digital media providers create born-accessible visual content for a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world.
Caroline Desrosiers is the Founder & CEO of Scribely, a company on a mission to make images and videos more accessible to blind and visually impaired people and more discoverable to search engines. Scribely’s team of expert writers specialize in writing alt text for images and audio description for videos, helping digital media providers create born-accessible visual content for a more inclusive, equitable, and sustainable world.
Melanie Gee
Melanie Gee is an Advanced Professional Member of the UK Society of Indexers (SI), and has degrees in physics and information management and other qualifications in environmental conservation and music. She completed the SI training course in 2013 but properly started indexing in 2018. She specialises in health and wellbeing, psychology, physics, music, and ecology – although in practice many of the books she has most enjoyed indexing have been in completely different subjects. Before starting her indexing business, she spent several years firstly as a patent examiner and then as an information scientist/researcher in a university research centre. She is an online tutor and assignment marker on the SI training course, and is coordinator for the SI Yorkshire regional group, organising and running professional development activities.
Melanie Gee is an Advanced Professional Member of the UK Society of Indexers (SI), and has degrees in physics and information management and other qualifications in environmental conservation and music. She completed the SI training course in 2013 but properly started indexing in 2018. She specialises in health and wellbeing, psychology, physics, music, and ecology – although in practice many of the books she has most enjoyed indexing have been in completely different subjects. Before starting her indexing business, she spent several years firstly as a patent examiner and then as an information scientist/researcher in a university research centre. She is an online tutor and assignment marker on the SI training course, and is coordinator for the SI Yorkshire regional group, organising and running professional development activities.
Bill Kasdorf
Bill Kasdorf is Principal of Kasdorf & Associates, LLC, a consultancy focusing on editorial and production workflows, XML/HTML/EPUB modeling, standards and best practices, and accessibility. He is a founding partner of Publishing Technology Partners. Bill is active in the W3C Publishing@W3C activity and serves as the W3C Global Publishing Evangelist; in addition, he co-chairs two NISO’s working groups and is a member of SSP, BISG, IPTC, and the DAISY Consortium. Consulting clients have included science publishers like NEJM, NAP, ACP, and the Cochrane Library; higher education publishers like Pearson, Cengage, and Norton; university presses like Cambridge, Harvard, and Columbia; and organizations such as OCLC, ORCID, and the EU Publishing Office.
Bill Kasdorf is Principal of Kasdorf & Associates, LLC, a consultancy focusing on editorial and production workflows, XML/HTML/EPUB modeling, standards and best practices, and accessibility. He is a founding partner of Publishing Technology Partners. Bill is active in the W3C Publishing@W3C activity and serves as the W3C Global Publishing Evangelist; in addition, he co-chairs two NISO’s working groups and is a member of SSP, BISG, IPTC, and the DAISY Consortium. Consulting clients have included science publishers like NEJM, NAP, ACP, and the Cochrane Library; higher education publishers like Pearson, Cengage, and Norton; university presses like Cambridge, Harvard, and Columbia; and organizations such as OCLC, ORCID, and the EU Publishing Office.
Fred Leise
Fred Leise started his indexing career with the University of Chicago Publishing Program's introduction to indexing course in 1993. Since 1995, he has been indexing a broad variety of texts, specializing in scholarly works in international relations, cultural and political history, and contemporary social issues. His index to Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf was shortlisted for the 1997 Excellence in Indexing Award, the only time that a shortlist has been announced for that honor.
Fred Leise started his indexing career with the University of Chicago Publishing Program's introduction to indexing course in 1993. Since 1995, he has been indexing a broad variety of texts, specializing in scholarly works in international relations, cultural and political history, and contemporary social issues. His index to Art and Affection: A Life of Virginia Woolf was shortlisted for the 1997 Excellence in Indexing Award, the only time that a shortlist has been announced for that honor.
Fred also works as a freelance taxonomy consultant, having completed projects for such clients as Dow Corning, HP, American Mathematical Society, Disney Studios, and Abbott, as well as a number of clients in the hospitality and travel industry.
He is a founding member of the Institute of Certified Indexers, was an instructor for the University of California, Berkeley Extension Division online indexing course for ten years, and also taught indexing for Columbia College Chicago and Dominican University’s School of Information Studies. He has served several terms on ASI’s board of directors, including two terms as president. He was a recipient of ASI’s Hines Award in 2019.
Fred regularly presents at both national and chapter events and has written a number of articles on various aspects of indexing for both Key Words and The Indexer. This workshop marks the twentieth anniversary of his first ASI conference presentation.
Maria Sullivan
Maria Sullivan: Maria has been creating and updating indexes since 1988, when she started in the Indexing Department of Lawyer’s Cooperative Publishing (now part of Thomson Reuters) in Rochester, New York. Recently, Maria and her husband moved from Western New York State to Northwestern Massachusetts to be closer to their adult children and their families. Maria hates to see anyone duplicate effort and thoroughly enjoys a good creative challenge.
Maria Sullivan: Maria has been creating and updating indexes since 1988, when she started in the Indexing Department of Lawyer’s Cooperative Publishing (now part of Thomson Reuters) in Rochester, New York. Recently, Maria and her husband moved from Western New York State to Northwestern Massachusetts to be closer to their adult children and their families. Maria hates to see anyone duplicate effort and thoroughly enjoys a good creative challenge.
Joshua Tallent
Joshua Tallent is the Director of Sales and Education at Firebrand Technologies, where his focus is on helping publishers of all sizes learn about, and find solutions to, their workflow and metadata problems. Joshua’s background is deeply rooted in ebook development, metadata, and other publishing technologies, and he is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing. He serves on the BISG Board of Directors and is the host of the popular BookSmarts Podcast, which features practical discussions and interviews about publishing data and technologies. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys playing complex board games and fiddling with his home automation system.
Joshua Tallent is the Director of Sales and Education at Firebrand Technologies, where his focus is on helping publishers of all sizes learn about, and find solutions to, their workflow and metadata problems. Joshua’s background is deeply rooted in ebook development, metadata, and other publishing technologies, and he is an acclaimed teacher and guide on the role of data in publishing. He serves on the BISG Board of Directors and is the host of the popular BookSmarts Podcast, which features practical discussions and interviews about publishing data and technologies. In his spare time, Joshua enjoys playing complex board games and fiddling with his home automation system.