Meet the New Spring 2022 Faculty!

Elizabeth Angell (Editing Creative Content) is the Editor-in-Chief of Romper, a digital parenting magazine, where she oversees all content on site and social platforms. Previously the Executive Digital Editor of Town & Country and Digital Director of Elle Decor, she has also worked at Allure, Lucky, Brill's Content, and Newsweek. She studied American History and Literature at Harvard and has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia, and she lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Elizabeth has lived in New York City her whole life – born and raised in Manhattan, she grew up in the same house where her father grew up.

Rachel Behr (Workshop in Professional Writing) is Senior Manager Copy and Metadata at Simon & Schuster. She manages a team of expert copywriters responsible for feed copy for all of Simon & Schuster’s adult and children’s imprints. Rachel has been a member of the copy team at Simon & Schuster in various roles since attending NYU’s Summer Publishing Institute in 2013. Prior to managing the team, Rachel was the copywriter for the Children’s division for nearly 5 years. Rachel earned her bachelor’s degree in English literature at the University of Central Florida.

Rachel took her first steps at Disney World’s EPCOT (in pursuit of Mickey Mouse) and has been back to visit more times than she can count!

Mark Birkey (Editorial Fundamentals) is an Associate Director at Random House Production Editorial. He handles copy-chief duties for the Crown imprint and leads a team of seven production editors. Twenty-plus years ago, he began freelance copyediting because of the flexibility it offered while pursuing a music career. Since then, he’s worked as a copy editor, proofreader, or production editor on books by Trevor Noah, Matthew McConaughey, Rachel Maddow, Patti Smith, Erik Larson, Timothy Snyder, Susan Cain, Anthony Marra, and many others. He’s a big fan of the series comma.

Mark was the assistant recording engineer on Norah Jones’s hit song “Don’t Know Why.”

Beth Dreher (Introduction to Magazine Media) is Executive Editor at Good Housekeeping at Hearst Magazines. She works closely with the Editor-in-Chief to make editorial and business decisions for the brand, as well as top editing longform pieces for both online and print publications. She worked as a freelance writer for magazines such as Men’s Health, Runner’s World, and Southern Living before becoming Features Editor at Reader’s Digest. She pitched, assigned, and edited original feature/cover stories which were so successful they were picked up by the national media. Beth moved to Hearst Magazines as Features Director at Woman’s Day, which involved managing a team on top of pitching, assigning, and editing 20+ feature stories a year. She rose to the position of Executive Editor at Woman’s Day before moving to the equivalent position at Good Housekeeping. Beth received her B.A. in English from Mississippi State University and her M.A. in English from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

After college, Beth played semi-professional soccer and twice played against Abby Wambach.

Erin Hobday (Magazine Managing Editorial and Production) is the Executive Managing Editor at Elle and Town & Country, where she oversees operations, budgets, and personnel for the print editorial teams. Prior to joining Elle and Town & Country, she was the Managing Editor at Glamour and SELF. She began her career as a health and nutrition editor, with roles at Men’s Health, SELF, and Redbook. Throughout her career, Erin has worked on book projects, licensed products, digital campaigns, events, and SIPs. She has also appeared on radio and TV outlets, such as Today, The Doctors, and CBS News. Erin graduated from Syracuse University in 2003, with a dual major in Magazine Journalism and English Textual Studies.

Erin used to regularly appear on the Home Shopping Network; she even appeared on a Pilates machine with Susan Lucci, all in the service of selling magazine subscriptions – what won't she do for her job?

Jonathan Masino (The Role of Video in Publishing; Workshop in Video Editing) is a Video Producer at Penguin Random House. He joined Penguin in 2019 where he predominantly develops and executes video strategy for corporate marketing campaigns and book launches. He also shoots and edits videos for social media channels, in-store displays, live events, and advertisements. With over 10 years of experience in commercial, documentary, and narrative media, he has worked for some of the biggest names in publishing including Condé Nast, Time Inc., and Meredith Corporation. He received his MA in Media Studies and Film at the New School University in 2010. Jonathan has also partnered with musicians, fashion designers and filmmakers to produce a wide variety of independent content. He specializes in short documentary production, video editing, and motion graphics.

Jonathan was a contestant on the gameshow Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? when he was in the 6th grade.

Daniel Novack (Publishing and Internet Law) is Senior Counsel at Penguin Random House, where he is responsible for vetting manuscripts for legal concerns and offering advice on a range of First Amendment and media law topics, such as: defamation, copyright, privacy, right of publicity, and newsgathering. Prior to joining Penguin Random House, he worked in magazines and online media. He is the current Chair of the New York State Bar Association Committee on Media Law and frequently writes about media law topics for The Hollywood Reporter.

Dan’s claim to fame is being quoted in the viral New York Times Magazine feature “Who Is The Bad Art Friend?”

Matthew Schweitzer (Management and Leadership in Transitional Times) launched BRANDSTORY Studio to partner with publishing, media, and tech companies on innovation and storytelling, consulting on new product development, management, and brand marketing solutions. He is the former Senior Vice President, HMH Books & Media where he led the marketing department for General Interest, Lifestyle, and Books for Young Readers. He joined the company in 2018 to develop brand marketing campaigns for The Lord of the Rings, Curious George, Little Blue Truck, Whole30, and bestselling fiction and non-fiction titles. Before joining HMH Books & Media, Matt was Senior Director, Marketing at HarperCollins Children’s Books, where he oversaw marketing campaigns for many bestselling and beloved books for children 0-8 including Pete the Cat, Pinkalicious, Fancy Nancy, and Shel Silverstein. He also has experience as Senior Brand Manager at American Greetings Properties, a division of American Greetings, where he oversaw global brand marketing for relaunches of Care Bears and Strawberry Shortcake entertainment and licensing. Matt started his career in marketing with the Teletubbies at Ragdoll Productions. He earned his M.B.A. from Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business and a B.S. in Marketing and a B.A. in Literature from the State University at Buffalo.

Matt’s great grandfather, grandfather, father, and uncle all graduated from NYU!

David Walter (Research Methods in Media) is originally from the town of Guildford in the South-East of England. After graduating from the University of East Anglia with a BA in English Literature, he held varied roles in online content development, the civil service and as a peripatetic music instructor. Joining Nielsen Book in 2009, David embarked on his career at the intersection of data and publishing, encompassing roles in metadata management, supply chain services and research and analysis. Notable projects during his time at Nielsen include producing the first industry white paper analyzing the link between metadata and sales, and initiating a new BookScan service in Brazil. David moved to New York in 2015, and became part of the NPD business following the acquisition of BookScan in 2017.  There, David leads the NPD Books client development team, supporting publishers and other businesses in effectively using data to develop insights and inform strategy. Outside of work, David’s interests include travel and music.

A drummer and musician for most of his life, the biggest show David ever played was taking part in the opening ceremony of the London Olympics in 2012, directed by Oscar-winner Danny Boyle and viewed by a worldwide audience of 900 million.