Graduate Assistant
Wairimũ Mũrĩithi is a first year MS in Publishing student from Nairobi, Kenya. She is a freelance writer, editor, curator, educator and researcher, with work appearing in The New Inquiry, Down River Road, Making a Feminist Internet (Africa), Ja. Magazine and others. She is an avid zine reader, and she is one half of the zine-making collective, no sweetness here, and is currently working on “A Manifesto Against Resilience.” She has a BA in English and Economics, and a Masters in English, with a particular interest in postcolonial crime fiction, queer African literature and speculative futures. She loves to make kombucha and pickles, bike around the city and claim that she’s working on a novel. She is currently trying to figure out how to keep her plants alive.
Rachel Smithline
Graduate Student Aide
Born in Connecticut, Rachel Smithline remembers writing at an early age in a sparkly Barbie notebook full of stickers. She received her BA in Anthropology from the University of New Hampshire. While there, she was one of the founding members of the Anthropology Club and a participant in the Undergraduate Research Conference (’18). Since then, she has been a bookseller, a literary assistant, and now a graduate student studying Publishing and Writing. She looks forward to joining the team and hopes to one day use the experience to build a publishing imprint for diverse voices.
Delaney Anderson
Graduate Assistant
Delaney Anderson is a first-year graduate student in the M.S. in Publishing program working towards a career in production and design within the publishing industry. She stayed in her hometown of Pensacola, FL to attend the University of West Florida where she received bachelors’ degrees in communications and English. While at UWF, Anderson was a staff writer for the student-led newspaper, The Voyager. She also worked in content creation, presentation development, and social marketing while she was a Peer Educator with Wellness Services on campus. She left Florida quickly following graduation to attend the Denver Publishing Institute in Colorado during the summer of 2019 and made her move to NYC soon after. Delaney is grateful for the opportunity to work at Pace University Press and looks forward to her future in publishing.
Kelly Gomez
Graduate Assistant
Kelly Gomez is in the M.S. Publishing program, in the pursuit of becoming an Editor within the publishing industry. Raised in South Florida, she traveled all the way up to Tallahassee to earn her bachelors’ degree in Editing, Writing, and Media at Florida State University. While at FSU, Gomez was an editor for the journal of literature and arts, The Kudzu Review. Currently in her hometown of Brooklyn, New York, she is looking forward to the exciting opportunities the publishing industry has to offer. Kelly is very thrilled to be a part of the Pace University Press.
Alicia Hughes
Graduate Assistant
Alicia Hughes has known publishing was her path since she was 12-years-old and asked her Dad “what’s a job where I can be around books all day?” Originally from a small town in Western New York, Alicia traveled north up Lake Ontario to Oswego where she received a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and a minor in English from SUNY Oswego. While at Oswego, Alicia was an active part of the university’s literary magazine, The Great Lake Review, the student-run newspaper, The Oswegonian, and interned at Buffalo’s number one morning radio show at 106.5FM WYRK. She is interested in library and school research. Alicia is beyond ecstatic to be apart of the Pace University Press and to be pursuing her masters in publishing at Pace University!
Jessie Estrella
Graduate Assistant
Jessie Estrella is a new graduate student in the MS in Publishing program. Born in the Bronx and currently residing in Mount Hope, New York, Jessie has always been close to the Big Apple. She got her bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in communications at The University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania. While at Scranton, Jessie was a staff writer for the student newspaper, The Aquinas, and became an editor her junior year. As an editor, Jessie assisted in creating the school’s first student magazine. She was also a writing consultant at Scranton’s writing center for two years, and worked at the university’s Human Resources office for three. Jessie hopes to become an editor in the publishing industry, but is excited to learn about the various paths and opportunities the industry offers. She is grateful for the opportunity to be a Graduate Assistant at Pace University Press.
Ely Mellet
Graduate Assistant
Ely Mellet followed the journalism industry from her hometown of Houston to Chicago where she received her bachelor’s degree from Loyola University. During her time there she wrote for various school publications, hosted the school’s radio station and interned at the Better Government Association holding government officials accountable. Ely changed course to follow the publishing industry to New York and is currently pursuing her masters in Publishing at Pace University where she is excited to find out where she belongs in the industry
Bryan Potts
Graduate Assistant
Bryan Potts is an incoming graduate student in the MS in Publishing program. Hailing from West Orange, New Jersey, Bryan was a Literature major, concentration in Creative Writing, and International Business minor at Ramapo College of New Jersey. While at Ramapo, he was part of the editorial team for Trillium, the college’s student run creative writing magazine, and proudly served as the student representative on a committee to reconfigure the structure of Ramapo’s general education courses. He was also a consultant at Ramapo’s Center for Reading and Writing. He is interested in multimedia and trade publishing. Bryan is thankful that the PATH runs as frequently as it does in the morning and is proud to have the opportunity to be a graduate assistant at Pace University Press.
Rachel Diebel
Graduate Assistant
Rachel Diebel graduated from Pacific Lutheran University with a BA in English Literature in May of 2016, where she enjoyed analyzing Edith Wharton, accidentally founding a student filmmaking program, and hiking in the Olympics. She hails from a tiny town of 500 people in Eastern Oregon and is now pursuing her masters degree in the (much) bigger city of New York, where she is living with two other Oregonians to ensure that she doesn’t forget her Pacific Northwest roots. Rachel hopes to work as an editor at a young adult publishing imprint because she believes that the books we read when we are young are the ones that change us the most.
Taylor Lear
Graduate Assistant
Taylor Lear is a recent graduate from the University of Georgia, where she received bachelor degrees in English and Advertising. She spent her undergraduate career working at an independent bookstore, studying abroad in Oxford, and watching arguably too much Jeopardy. She is currently working on her masters degree in Publishing at Pace University, and is optimistic that she will fall in love with New York City as much as she fell in love with Athens, Georgia. Taylor is currently interested in pursuing publicity and marketing for her post-graduate career, but she is excited to learn about all other areas of publishing during her time at Pace.