ABA Welcomes Two New Staff Members

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This month, the American Booksellers Association welcomed new staff members Gen de Botton and Teresa Pereira Neufeld, who are looking forward to sharing their skills to advance the interests of member bookstores.

As ABA’s program and development coordinator, Gen de Botton will be working with Development Officer Mark Nichols and Senior Program Officer Joy Dallanegra-Sanger as a liaison between publishers and member booksellers.


Gen de Botton

Her job — a newly created position that replaces and builds upon the role of the industry relations assistant — is to support all ABA publisher-related programs and initiatives. de Botton will work with Nichols on ABA’s Publisher-Partner Program, IndieBound Affiliate Program, and the Indie Next List.

With Dallanegra-Sanger, she will work on the Indies First and Indies Introduce Debut Authors promotions and other initiatives. For Indies Introduce, de Botton’s current responsibilities include tracking sales of spring program titles and compiling BTW’s author Q&As for upcoming fall titles.

de Botton will also assist with the production of the Indie Bestseller List and will work with ABC Group Manager Matthew Zoni to review and edit the ABC Best Books for Young Readers Catalog. In the coming months, she will work alongside other ABA staff on preparations for Winter Institute 11 and next spring’s ABC Children’s Institute.

After graduating from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in fine arts, de Botton’s first job in bookselling was with Borders. She worked at the chain from 2005 to 2011 at locations in Flint, Michigan, and Mount Kisco, New York, where she ran the Children’s Department.

After the closure of Borders in 2011, de Botton was recruited by a local businesswoman to help open the children’s bookstore Little Joe’s in Katonah, New York. Over the next two years, de Botton served as the store’s manager, buyer, social media coordinator, and program administrator. She organized all children’s programming, from story times and book clubs to an internship for local middle school students, and was a big proponent of adding adult books to Little Joe’s inventory for its first holiday season.

Of her time at Little Joe’s, de Botton said, “It was a phenomenal experience, but it also gave me a lot of insight, going from this big box, sort of cookie cutter, manufactured system to being at this grassroots level of creating a bookstore, and it was inspiring. It was one of the best experiences of my life.”

Now, de Botton is excited to put all of that experience to work for other independent booksellers. “I can’t believe I work at ABA!” she said. “To be a part of the organization that devotes itself to supporting independent bookstores and booksellers — it really means something.”

de Botton can be reached at (800) 637-0037, ext. 7545, or [email protected].

Teresa Pereira Neufeld recently joined ABA’s staff as a part-time graphic designer.


Teresa Pereira Neufeld

“I will be doing a lot of creative design and working with [Membership and Marketing Officer] Meg Smith on brochures, pamphlets, posters, signage, and other print material,” Pereira Neufeld said. “I’ll also be working with [ABA Director of Technology] Greg Galloway on page design and creative visuals for ABA’s websites.”

Pereira Neufeld’s past experience includes graphic design positions in the marketing departments of Gannett’s Journal News; Elsevier Science, a publisher of medical and scientific journals and books; McMahon Publishing, which publishes medical newsmagazines and pocket guides for doctors and researchers; and most recently, Zachys Fine Wines in Scarsdale, New York.

Pereira Neufeld, who majored in fine arts at Fordham University, College at Lincoln Center, with a focus on visual arts and painting, also currently runs her own freelance graphic design business. Her main client is the Rye Free Reading Room, a local library for which she creates all programming support materials, including for its children’s and teen departments. In the past, Pereira Neufeld, who said she still paints for fun when she has the time, also ran a mural painting business.

Coming to ABA, and finding a job involving books just as her contract with Zachys was ending, seemed fortuitous, Pereira Neufield said.“I love books, I love to read, and I love publishing, so it seemed to be good fit….  I’m really excited about joining the team and contributing my skills.”

Pereira Neufeld can be reached at (800) 637-0037 ext. 7532, or [email protected]

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