Changes are afoot at the American Booksellers Association. The organization announced yesterday that it is reorganizing and expanding its education department, following the departures of director of education Lee Hooyboer and senior manager of children’s bookselling education and programs Gen de Botton. Hooyboer departed in March after three years in the position, and de Botton departed in early July after 10 years at the ABA.
Emily Nason, who has served as the ABA’s education specialist for the past year, has been named director of education. She will be assisted by an education manager and administrative assistant, who have yet to be hired. Nason will oversee the organization’s educational strategy and programming, which includes planning and executing Winter Institute and Children’s Institute. The ABA has not disclosed whether it will be hiring somebody to focus specifically on children’s education and programming.
In the announcement in its BTW newsletter, the ABA said, “Nason has been a valuable contributor to the ABA team and to ABA’s education this past year. She was responsible for many of the great changes to ABA’s education programming at Wi2025 and her positive, collaborative, solutions-oriented approach has earned her the appreciation and respect of her colleagues.”
The ABA also noted in the announcement that “Nason’s education background has been especially valuable as it’s helped us think in new ways about how we present education.”
After obtaining her MFA in poetry from the University of Virginia, Nason worked for Sarabande Books for six years, first as an editorial intern and then as a poetry prize manuscript reader. She then worked for St. Christopher’s School in Richmond, Va. for three years, followed by brief stints as a literature study guide writer and as an ELA curriculum writer.
