Team
You have the vision, we have the expertise.
Leslie Jonath, Founder
Leslie is the founder and principal of Connected Dots Media. Her thirty-year career spans book publishing, creative services, and media business development, as well as writing and agenting.
Since launching her own company in 2009, Leslie has built a reputation for creating high-quality books and virtual media that deliver on the bottom line. She consults for brands across several categories, from arts organizations and museums to chefs, floral designers, artists, and makers. Some of her most impactful projects began as books and evolved into multiplatform brands. Her acclaimed Feed Your People project, which started as a book via Kickstarter, turned into a video, became a partnership with a nonprofit, and culminated in a series of live events, including community dinners with landmark panel discussions. Other ventures include book-packaging for such publishers as Ten Speed Press, Chronicle Books, Storey Publishing, and Andrews McMeel Universal. Leslie has also produced and published her own lines of books, including the Go to Sleep series for kids and The Little Local Cookbook series.
From 1991 to 2009, Leslie was an integral part of the editorial and development team at Chronicle Books. For part of her tenure, she was the Creative Director for Chronicle’s Custom Publishing division, managing name-brand clients that include babyGap, Starbucks Coffee Company, Anthropologie, and the San Francisco Ballet. Leslie is the author of numerous books, including Feed Your People, Foraged Art, Postmark Paris (winner of the Book Builder’s Gold Award), and Bee & Me, which sold over 150,000 copies and was on Publishers Weekly and the New York Times bestseller lists.
Leslie holds a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College of Vermont. She has lived in France and on both US coasts and now makes her home in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family and a teeny-tiny fire truck.
Debbie Berne, Art Director
Debbie Berne has designed over 250 books, including many award-winning cookbooks, such as Feed Your People, The Berkeley Bowl Cookbook, and most recently, The Official Downton Abbey Cookbook. She has also designed over 50 books on mindfulness, including the bestselling series by Thich Nhat Hanh, How to Sit.
Andrea Burnett, Publicist
Andrea Burnett Public Relations specializes in lifestyle publicity campaigns ranging from food to parenting to fashion to travel. Her team builds robust publicity campaigns from concept to realization and has worked with top-tier brands and publishing companies including Chronicle Books, Williams-Sonoma, Workman Publishing, Sterling Publishing, Hay House Publishing, Weldon Owen, and many more.
Lisa Hazen, Web Designer
Lisa Hazen has been creating beautiful publishing projects the entire span of her career. Her scope of services includes wireframing, web design, site maintenance, launch, social media, and search optimization. In addition to creating websites, Lisa also works with brands to create marketing collateral and more. She has worked with bestselling authors and fabulous brands, including Sara Paretsky, Julia Sweeney, ASH + AMES, and the Monacelli Press.
Chris Hemesath, Production
Chris Hemesath has worked in the publishing industry as a book production specialist for twenty-five years. After working for several well-regarded publishers and packagers on every conceivable format of book, Chris established Steelhead Book Services LTD, a print brokerage and book-production services company that partners with select companies to manage print buying, manufacturing, and fulfillment operations. When not duking it out with printers on schedules and pricing, he can be found hiking, snorkeling, or most likely chasing after his two young daughters.
Laurel Leigh,
Writer/Editor
With in-house book publishing credentials as well as fifteen years as a freelance editor for clients in the United States and Sweden, Laurel Leigh’s skills as a structural editor, script doctor, and writer are highly sought by publishers, producers, and individual authors. She has performed key editorial roles for numerous projects published by BenBella Books, Celemi, Chronicle Books, Connected Dots Media, Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurants, Ipendo AB, Terra Nova Books, and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
Gilbert Nakayama, Podcast Producer/Editorial Assistant
Gilbert Nakayama is a recent graduate with a passion for publishing, copyediting, and audio production. At Melcher Media, Gilbert refined his editorial voice, line-editing and copyediting content for clients from Bloomingdale’s to Post Malone. Previously, he played a pivotal role in producing the award-winning podcast, “15-Minute Matrix,” showcasing a knack for engaging audio storytelling. Now, at Connected Dots Media, Gilbert is eager to contribute his skills and vision to craft engaging narratives across audio and print.
Laura Rothman, Project Manager
Laura Rothman has worked as an editor and project manager for publishing houses and book packagers, along with spending time in the restaurant industry as a pastry cook and consultant. Her diverse skill set has come in handy on projects such as Feed Your People—where she managed contributing chefs, helped with recipe testing, and assisted with line editing. She brings spirit, enthusiasm, and an intrepid work ethic to every project.
Lily Michaels, Marketing Designer
Marketing designer Lily Michaels designed and illustrated books before she could spell, with her favorite “toy” being a laminator she got for her seventh birthday. Since then, she has used her educational background in psychology and UX design, to research and design a variety of accessible and user tested products. She designed retail displays for Patagonia, created marketing lookbooks for several brands, and designed websites and apps for start-ups across the country. When she’s not designing, Lily enjoys skiing, making cards with puns on them, and trying new recipes by Ottolenghi.