Meet the Book Buddy Media leadership team!
Brett Hodus is the Founder and CEO of Book Buddy, with responsibilities that include business development, sales, and operations. Most importantly, Brett works with clients to make strategic connections, develop new channel partnerships, and build workflow systems that shrink production costs while growing revenue. Brett has been helping publishers grow for more than 20 years.
Jenny Skogen is a professional juggler of deadlines—a.k.a., the Managing Director of BBM. When not taking a bird's-eye view of projects and staffing, Jenny works as a writer, editor, and audio producer. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of San Francisco, and is the author of the young adult series The Haunting of Grey Hills.
Steph Reierson is an educational publishing professional with experience in PK-12 book distribution, OER curriculum, ed-tech, children’s book publishing, and leadership training. Named after the one and only Stevie Nicks, Steph is passionate about creating resources that ignite curiosity, support research-aligned instruction, and totally rock.
Sara Radka has been a graphic designer since 2006. She has industry experience with advertising, visual communication, and design. As Book Buddy Media’s Art Director, Sara enjoys all aspects of producing books—from curating the perfect typography to geeking out over style sheets—and helping your content look amazing.
Sam Rhodes is an audio production specialist. He has produced, directed, and edited audio ranging from podcasts, to a GPS-enabled audio tour guide app, to full-cast audio dramas. Originally from Richmond, VA, Sam got his BFA in Acting at Point Park University and now lives in Studio City, CA.
Heather Charley has 20+ years of experience leading creative teams. She thanks her 7th grade English teacher for buying her first comic and allowing book reports to be delivered as performative videos. She shares his belief that art is a powerful conduit for teaching educational content. She is a published illustrator and arts educator with an MFA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Kelly Kress has been a project manager since 2002. She has experience in library book acquisition, book distribution, and collection development. She has a Master of Library and Information Science from Dominican University. As a project manager, she is passionate about process, timelines, efficiencies, and customer satisfaction.
Becky Daum counts herself lucky to have a career that combines two of her favorite things—books and art. She enjoys every aspect of publishing design, from concept to print. As Design Director at BBM, Becky works with many talented designers to create exceptional products and bring stories to life. On her days off you can most likely find her outside, or snuggled up reading with her kids.
Rachel Lin is an animator and designer from just outside of Chicago. Rachel has experience with a variety of 2D/3D/VR mediums, and is eager to pick up more. Rachel loves to settle in with a good scifi-fantasy novel.
Cat Hupp is an east coast illustrator with over ten years of experience in leading creative teams. She thoroughly enjoys the journey of assisting in the creation of children’s content from start to finish, with an emphasis on delivering a visually engaging experience every time. Cat was Time Magazine's Person of the Year in 2006.
Felix Anzola has been recording, producing music, and falling in love with sound since 1998. Audiophile, geek, and mostly self-taught, Felix's experience as a Geologic Engineer, Music Producer, and Spanish Interpreter gets to work at BBM's audio department, like a clock that ticks one beautiful-sounding audiobook at a time.
Carla Valadez is an editor and project manager with nearly twenty years of experience in book publishing. She has broad experience in editorial-production functions and has helped produce over two hundred books (and counting). When Carla is not working on books, she is often reading them—especially fiction (no genre is off limits) and children's literature (with her daughters).
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Tay Sauer is the BBM jack-of-all-trades. Now based in Cleveland, Tay works with many departments at Book Buddy, including video, editorial, marketing, and tech support. Tay is a graduate of Bowling Green State University with a BA in Film Production and a BA in Advertising.