Executive Director – Michael Gately

Michael Gately is the executive director of BIO, since January 2020. His duties include working with the Board and its committees to organize the annual conference and other events, and to coordinate BIO’s awards and programs. For five years at the Leon Levy Center for Biography, Gately was program director and deputy to the executive director, Gary Giddins. He is now writing a book about Woodrow Wilson and cycling in the 1890s, and he also works full-time as an administrator at Columbia University, where he is the assistant director of the Center for American Studies. You can email him at execdirector@biographersinternational.org

Editor, The Biographer’s Craft and The Insider – Jared Stearns

In January 2025, Jared Stearns became the fourth editor of BIO’s publications. Stearns’s first biography, Pure: The Sexual Revolutions of Marilyn Chambers, was published in 2024 by Headpress. He’s been a BIO member since 2019 and also serves on the Conference Program and Development committees. He’s currently working on his second biography. You can email Jared at editortbc@biographersinternational.org.

Associate Editor, The Biographer’s Craft – Melanie R. Meadors

Melanie R. Meadors is the Associate Editor for The Biographer’s Craft newsletter. She writes picture book biographies and other nonfiction for children, usually featuring scientists and their work throughout history. Mel is also the public outreach coordinator for the Aldrich Astronomical Society and a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador. You can email her at editortbc@biographersinternational.org.

Administrator & Membership Coordinator – Lori Izykowski

Lori Izykowski is BIO’s first paid administrator and membership coordinator. She began supporting BIO in February 2012, when she was with the University of Mary Washington (home to the Great Lives Series). In addition to her part-time work with BIO, Lori works full time as a Project Control Specialist in Stafford, Virginia, for a government contractor, and has another part-time job (Saturdays) in a custom-framing shop. Izykowski works closely with BIO’s president, committees, and BIO’s publications editor Jared Stearns on membership management, support leading up to and at the annual conference, and other program support as needed.

To find new members, Lori relies partly on BIO’s Facebook page, where book reviews and news about biographers appear regularly. But she also depends on leads sent to her by BIO members who know of a candidate who might like to join. So, if you know of a biographer – published or unpublished – please send their contact information to lori@biographersinternational.org

Copy Editor, The Biographer’s Craft and The Insider – Margaret Moore Booker

Margaret Moore Booker, who lives in Oracle, Arizona (just outside Tucson), is a freelance writer who authors books on art and architecture (now primarily relating to the American Southwest). For the past fifteen years, her “bread and butter” employment has involved copy editing, proofreading, ghost writing, and writing indexes.