Jump Start Press

Mary has spent her entire professional life as an educator. She started her career as a preschool and primary grade teacher at St. Ann's, a private school for the gifted in New York City. In 1986 Mary entered educational publishing. She worked in-house at Scholastic. She was also editorial director at Children's Television Workshop and at the Galef Institute in Los Angeles, where she directed the editorial development of a model preK–6 social studies program based on Howard Gardener's work on multiple intelligences.

Mary founded Jump Start Press in 1995. But, when the opportunity arose to more thoroughly learn the packaging business, Mary put Jump Start Press on hold to accept a position as Executive Vice President at Mega–Books, a children's packager/development house. There she was responsible for all areas of client relations and sales, product development, project supervision, budgets, and operations.

In early 1998 Mary devoted herself solely to growing Jump Start Press. Since then, she has established an impressive roster of educational publishing clients by focusing on what she and her staff do best: materials in reading/language arts, science, math, and social studies for grades preK–8.

Gari joined Jump Start after spending 28 years honing her writing and editorial skills for the basal, supplementary, and trade markets. During her career, she has developed, managed, written, and edited materials in all major content areas and across all grade levels, preschool through middle school. A hands-on editor, Gari consulted with preschool teachers to conceptualize and develop an early childhood/emergent literacy program for a supplementary publisher and collaborated with teams of teachers to develop a series of interdisciplinary units for the middle-school market. She also wrote and edited a set of parent handbooks for early reading success for a trade publisher and edited, as well as authored, titles in a series of animal books for the trade and library markets.

Gari began her career in educational publishing in 1980, after receiving her BA in English and Economics from Bucknell University.

Tiffany brings her passion for literacy, superior organizational skills, and keen eye for details to every project. Since joining Jump Start in 2009, she has written and edited instructional and assessment materials for numerous basal and supplementary programs across all content areas. Recently, she managed the development of 30 fiction and nonfiction readers aligned to the CCSS and wrote and edited test prep passages and items modeled after the PARCC and Smarter-Balanced assessments. A strong proponent of technology use in the classroom, Tiffany has also enjoyed developing materials for interactive whiteboards and other digital platforms.

Tiffany holds a BA in psychology and worked for a youth mentoring agency prior to obtaining her teacher certification. She is dually certified as a Teacher of English and a Teacher of Students with Disabilities.

Christina has worked in the publishing industry for more than 30 years since graduating from Wesleyan University with a BA in English. She began her career as a copyeditor and assistant managing editor before joining Children's Television Workshop to work as a writer and editor for children's magazines and educational products. After moving to Washington State in 1989, Christina worked in-house at The Wright Group developing and editing whole-language readers and accompanying teacher guides. As a freelance writer and editor, Christina has focused on the production of books about science, environmental education, and natural history. She has written articles and teacher guides for the Audubon Society as well as a series of science readers for grades K–3 and many trade books. Her interest in science and nature led her to become a docent for several years at Woodland Park Zoo, where she worked with young children to help them learn about animals and their habitats.

Kym joins the Jump Start team from Triumph Learning, where she put her editorial, organizational, and project management skills to use as Supervising Editor for K-12 Literacy and Humanities. Since beginning her career in 2006, she has conceived and executed dozens of ELA and social studies series across multiple imprints. Kym has a deep knowledge of standards and assessments, and her experience includes both print and digital product development.

Kym earned her M.Ed. in Secondary English Education from Lehigh University, specializing in technology-based instruction. She enjoys creating ELA, social studies, and science content for all grade levels. In her free time, Kym is a volunteer ESL teacher for adult students.

CAB Graphics, Inc., offers composition services from page layout to final prepress, including design, composition, proofing, prepress, and production management services. Based outside Chicago, with more than 20 years of experience, CAB Graphics has produced textbooks, trade books, and catalogs for clients ranging from well-known publishers to development houses. For large projects, CAB hires freelancers as needed. This keeps costs low and maintains flexibility. Our goal is to make the client feel as if we are working in-house—right beside them—which makes us easy to contact and easy to fold into the corporate team to produce a quality product on time and on budget.

Please visit the CAB website: http://www.cabgraphicsinc.com/