The One World Team
Chris Jackson, EVP, Publisher, & Editor-in-Chief, He/Him
Over his career Chris has published a wide range of bestselling and award-winning authors. He is the recipient of the Center for Fiction Medal for Editorial Excellence, the Authors Guild Publisher Award for Literature that Inspires Change, and the Asian American Writer’s Workshop Editorial Achievement Award. His own work has appeared in magazines and journals including The Paris Review, O: The Oprah Magazine, Callaloo, and The Atlantic.
Avideh Bashirrad, SVP, Deputy Publisher, She/Her
Avideh oversees creative strategy and publishing operations in tandem with an exceptional team of editors, publicists, and marketers. Previously, Avideh worked in marketing for fifteen years, where she directed campaigns for a range of bestselling authors including Laura Hillenbrand, Isabel Wilkerson, Elizabeth Strout, Curtis Sittenfeld, Charles Duhigg, George Saunders, Piper Kerman, and Jay-Z. She has been at Random House since 2001.
Nicole Counts, Editorial Director, She/Her
Nicole started her career in marketing and publicity at PublicAffairs and Bold Type Books. Books she has worked on have won or been nominated for the National Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, various PEN Literary Awards, and more. She is an active member of various publishing equity groups, as well as a long-time volunteer with Well-Read Black Girl. She was a finalist for the 2020 PW Star Watch, an active speaker on publishing/book-related issues, and has been profiled in Gagosian Quarterly and Publishers Weekly. She has written for Poets & Writers, Brooklyn Magazine, Artnoir and more.
Kierna Mayo, VP & Executive Editor, She/Her
Kierna’s editorial career began with covering hip hop culture in the ‘90s. Kierna is the founding editor-in-chief of Honey magazine and a former editor-in-chief of Ebony magazine. Her writing has appeared in Essence, The New York Times, Vibe, The Smithsonian and in collections including And It Don’t Stop: The Best Hip Hop Journalism of the Last 25 Years. More recently, she penned the forward to Ride or Die: A Feminist Manifesto for the Well-Being of Black Women by Shanita Hubbard. Kierna is a Folio 100 and Root 100 honoree, and her work in media has earned distinguished honors from GLAAD and the NAACP. Kierna is a founding member of The Kennedy Center Hip Hop Culture Council. A CNN guest commentator, she’s also appeared in documentaries including Showtime’s We Need to Talk About Cosby and HBO’s On the Record. Kierna imagines herself both cultural critic and culture creator. Receipts? Her vintage, award-winning podcast series Culturati and her new column at Hammer & Hope, The Kierna Diaspora.
Elizabeth Méndez Berry, VP & Executive Editor, She/Her
Elizabeth’s career has always been about the pursuit of a good story, from life-saving investigative reporting to the subtle delight of a character that resonates. Before joining One World, she invested in the arts and journalism as a funder at the Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. She co-founded Critical Minded, a philanthropic initiative that supports cultural critics of color. Elizabeth started her career as an editor at Vibe Magazine; in his book Decoded, Jay-Z cited one of her essays as an inspiration for his song “Public Service Announcement.” And a Spanish-language oped she wrote helped spark the country’s first ever city council hearing on street harassment, in New York City. She is on the boards of A Long Walk Home, BlackStar’s Seen Journal, the Library of Congress’s Connecting Communities Digital Initiative and Critical Minded. In 2022 she was selected for the Kennedy Center’s Next50, which celebrates 50 visionary cultural leaders on the center’s 50th anniversary.
Andrea Pura, Publicist, She/Her
Andrea Pura is a Publicist at One World. She has worked on campaigns with essayists, novelists, and nonfiction authors across genres including Cathy Park Hong, Victor LaValle, Kali Fajardo-Anstine, Donovan X. Ramsey, Fatimah Asghar, and Quiara Alegría Hudes. She is a member of the PRH Mentorship Program and a former co-chair of POC@PRH, an employee resource group that fosters a culture of inclusivity and self-expression at Penguin Random House. Prior to working in publicity, she was a speaking agent at the Penguin Random House Speakers Bureau, a Marketing Associate at Crown, and a literary events producer at Symphony Space. She is a vocal proponent of liquid eyeliner, therapy, and books where nothing really happens.
Sun Robinson-Smith, Associate Editor, She/Her
Sun began her publishing career at Workman, where she worked on bestselling calendars and nonfiction titles about animals, traveling, parenting, and self-improvement. A graduate of Colgate University and the Columbia Publishing Course at Oxford, Sun is an avid traveler and reigning trivia champion, so she believes there is no such thing as too much information. She loves data, deep dives, and distinctive voices—especially when they’re subcultural, sexy, or strange. Her aim in life is to be scary and kind like her grandmother. Sun mentally lives at the intersection of high art and pop culture but physically lives in PLG, Brooklyn.
Oma Beharry, Assistant Editor, They/Them or She/Her
After interning with One World, Oma joined the team in 2021, where they collaborate with Nicole Counts and Elizabeth Méndez Berry. They are a graduate of The Bard Microcollege at Brooklyn Public Library. A lifelong Bronx loyalist of Guyanese heritage and an autodidact at heart, they grew up avidly reading on the 2. They are publishing their first two books, m. mick powell’s Dead Girl Cameo, a debut poetry collection, and Davin Malasarn’s The Outer Country, a debut novel. Outside of their editorial work and when they’re not chronically lurking online, you can find them learning astrology, checking out local arts events, and trying restaurants across the five boroughs.
Raaga Rajagopala, Publishing Manager, any pronouns
Raaga began their publishing career as an intern with Hachette Book Group’s Sales Analytics department, following which they were a part of Atria Books’s Marketing and Publicity departments. There, they had the pleasure of working on books by Michael Arceneaux, Marc Lamont Hill, Colton Haynes, Dr. Devon Price, and Akwaeke Emezi. Currently, Raaga is a board member of Baldwin For the Arts. When they’re not reading, Raaga can be found walking their dog or catching the sunset on the beach.
Hiab Debessai, Editorial Assistant
Hiab is a first-generation Eritrean-American who hails from Michigan (but is currently Brooklyn-based). After completing her two-year commitment at Teach for America, Hiab spent eleven years in the classroom serving as an ELA teacher, while taking on curriculum work as a means to curate representative classroom texts. She grew up as a PBS kid and attributes much of her childhood love for reading to Reading Rainbow and Wishbone. These days, Hiab enjoys books that play with form and reconsider how we tell great stories. In her free time, Hiab reads steamy romances written through the Black female gaze, visits independent bookstores in the city, arranges flowers, and posts silly content on her bookish beldames bookstagram.
Jocelynn Pedro, Assistant Director of Publicity
Jocelynn’s mission is simple: help books find their audience. After earning a degree in English from Hampton University, she went on to receive an MA in Publishing from University College London. Since then, she has focused on crafting diverse and engaging publicity campaigns that allow readers to discover and enjoy amazing works of fiction and non-fiction—books that authors have worked so very hard to create and chosen to share. In her spare time, Jocelynn can be found rewatching her favorite 80s and 90s sitcoms, researching new places to travel, and—of course—reading in her favorite chair.
Katryce Campbell, Associate Director of Publicity, She/They
Katryce Campbell is a firm believer in the liberatory power of books. Prior to joining One World, Katryce spent over a decade in academic publishing, with publicity and marketing roles at University of California Press and University of Chicago Press. They currently serve as board president for Publishing Professionals Network (PPN), a volunteer-run nonprofit that offers professional development and community to workers across the industry. Outside of work, Katryce can usually be found crocheting a doily, tending to seedlings, or researching another new hobby.