About Us
BK Authors is a 501 c3 non-profit community of authors published by Berrett Koehler. Our mission is to help authors get their message out to the world, connect with each other to revitalize our spirits, collaborate on mutual passions, and to provide a supporting community to aid in creating a world that works for all.
OUR VALUES
As a collective, we work to:
- Be in service to the whole
- Elevate the world to a higher standard of integrity
- Engage and be engaged through open curiosity about the world and those who live in it
- Be passionate about creating inclusive, collaborative, and just communities
- Nurture relationships grounded in love, support, and encouragement for each others’ work
- Create a better world through our intentions, actions, joy and imaginations
- Supporting the mission of BK Publishers: Connecting people and ideas to create a world that works for all.
HISTORY & MISSION
The BK Authors Council was founded in 1998 to create a more connected community. It became the BK Authors Co-operative in 2006. In 2016, the organization was incorporated as a California Public Benefit Corporation. As a consequence, we had to change our name. We are now known as BK Authors, Inc. No longer a “co-op”, we remain a community.
All authors become members of the BK Author community upon signing a book contract with Berrett-Koehler Publishers, which pays a life-time membership fee for each new author.
Other members include associates members who are sponsored by a member of the co-op community. These members pay a one-time membership fee of $200.
We are a community committed to helping shape—through our unique and collaborative voices—a world that works for all, and to live in ways that authentically embody our messages.
BK Authors, Inc. is owned and operated by members and is stewarded by an elected board of directors governed by a set of bylaws.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Karen Phelan
President
Karen Phelan is a business author, speaker, entrepreneur, and management consultant, specializing in transforming organizations through small changes that have huge operational impacts. Her latest project is called Act like an Icon (actlikeanicon.com), which uses role-playing to improve communication, innovation, and team building. Her BK book, I’m Sorry I Broke Your Company, is a humorous dissection of why common management practices often go awry, and was named one of the top ten business books of 2013 by the Toronto Globe and Mail (Hilariously sardonic!). Translated into eleven languages, it’s been an international bestseller, especially in Japan.
Sandra Rowe
Vice President
Sandra F. Rowe, PhD, MBA, MSCIS, PMP, has more than 30 years of project management experience. Her responsibilities have included leading information technology and process improvement projects, developing project management processes, tools, and techniques; and designing, developing, and delivering project management programs. She has also taught MBA courses and project management professional (PMP) certification classes.
Dr. Rowe speaks regularly at project management conferences on a variety of topics related to project management processes, project management for small projects, the project office, and knowledge sharing. She also leads virtual discussion groups on project management and leadership topics.
Dr. Rowe has a PMP (Project Management Professional) certification, SAFe Agilist and SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager certification. Her hobbies include scrapbooking and golf.
Kami Anderson
BOARD mEMBER
Kami J. Anderson, PhD is an interculturalist, scholar, and language advocate. Dr. Anderson has spent the past two decades immersed in languages and cultures. Dr. Anderson has been teaching in higher education since 2005. Her primary focus is family empowerment through language with an emphasis on application and confidence. She has published extensively in both English and Spanish, and is the author of Language, Identity and Choice: Raising Bilingual Children in a Global Society. She was awarded the Ruth Landes Memorial Research Grant and is currently on the Fulbright Specialist Roster for intercultural communication. Dr. Anderson holds a Bachelor’s degree in Spanish from Spelman College, a Master’s degree in International Affairs/Interdisciplinary Studies in International Communication and Anthropology from American University and a PhD in Communication and Culture from Howard University.
In her 20+ years consulting in intercultural training, Dr. Anderson has worked with organizations and companies such as: Youth for Understanding, Gwinnett County Chamber of Commerce, Clark Atlanta University, Sankofa Educational Leadership,
The Exchange and City of Atlanta Office of Cultural Affairs – P.A.Y.S. She also worked for over a decade as an associate professor of communication at Kennesaw State University.
Dr. Kami Anderson is the founder and CEO of Bilingual Brown Babies and creator of a revolutionary online program that meets Black families where they are in their journey to bilingualism. She’s a passionate life-long teacher and the go-to girl when it comes to language, Blackness and identity. She built her business with her four bilingual children in her heart and on her mind. Kami helps Black families become confident in language taking away the struggle of doing it alone. She helps Black families gain powerful resources which allow them to grow in language more efficiently, effectively, and enjoyably. She is the author of five books, including: Raising Bilingual Brown Babies: Everyday strategies to become a confident bilingual family. Dr. Anderson also co-authored From Sabotage to Support: A New Vision for Feminist Solidarity in the Workplace with Dr. Joy Wiggins.
Sarah Modlin
Berrett-Koehler Publishers Representative
Sarah Modlin is a senior editor at Berrett-Koehler, and is beginning her fifth year as a member of the BK staff.
Peggy Holman
BK Foundation Representative
Peggy Holman supports diverse groups to face complex issues turning presentation into conversation and passivity into participation. In The Change Handbook, Holman and her co-authors profile 61 practices that engage people in creating their desired future. Her award-winning Engaging Emergence: Turning Upheaval into Opportunity provides a roadmap for tackling complex challenges through stories, principles, and practices. Holman is a co-founder of Journalism That Matters, a nonprofit that supports and equips the adventurers who transform relationships between communities and journalism for a strong, inclusive democracy.
John Kador
Treasurer
John Kador is a business writer focusing on leadership and finance. He is the author of over 15 books plus, as a ghostwriter, dozens more. His BK book is Effective Apology: Mending Fences, Building Bridges, and Restoring Trust. A former president of BK Authors, he lives in Lewisburg, PA.
Bob Miglani
New Authors
Bob Miglani is a bestselling author and founder of Embrace the Chaos, a change & reinvention company. Author of three books. Worked in corporate America (Pfizer) for 23 years. Keynote Speaker (until COVID). Founder and CEO of Hoot Myopia Care, a digital health startup.
Pete Neuwirth
NEW AUTHORS
Peter Neuwirth has been an actuary for over 40 years and after decades of having been asked too many times, “What is an actuary exactly?” he has decided to go beyond answering that question to answer another: “How does an actuary think and why does it matter?”
Peter’s work is well known in actuarial circles. He is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and has been quoted in both the mainstream and industry press on actuarial matters. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries.
Peter has consulted with dozens of the largest corporations in the world around the retirement plans they sponsor and pay for. This experience has provided him with a deep practical understanding of three of the fundamental concepts (time, risk, money) that shape our world. Many of those insights are shared in Peter’s books and essays.
Peter’s first book, What’s Your Future Worth?, provides an accessible, step-by-step guide to using the powerful concept of present value—which allows readers to determine the value today of something that might happen in the future—to evaluate all of the outcomes that might arise from choosing one path as opposed to another.
In his most recent book, Money Mountaineering, released in September of 2021, Peter explores the world of money and provides his views on its nature and the challenges we all face as we try to survive, even thrive, in this complex, uncertain, noisy, and sometimes irrational wilderness. This is a book designed to help readers understand what kind of advice they truly need—to gain a better understanding of the financial world they must live in and what they must do to make their way through it.
With a reputation among his peers as being a creative, knowledgeable, and experienced actuary with a penchant for both problem solving and thinking “outside of the box,” Peter is also a storyteller who believes that the story of the actuarial perspective is one that needs to be told.
Pete lives in Santa Rosa, California
Julie Winkle Giulioni
Board Member
Julie Winkle Giulioni is a champion for workplace growth and development and helps executives and leaders optimize talent and potential within their organizations. One of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 speakers, she’s the author of Promotions Are So Yesterday: Redefine Career Development. Help Employees Thrive and the co-author of the international bestseller, Help Them Grow or Watch Them Go: Career Conversations Organizations Need and Employees Want, translated into seven languages.
Julie is a regular columnist for Training Industry Magazine and SmartBrief and contributes articles on leadership, career development, and workplace trends to numerous publications including The Economist.