Barbara
Kline
Pope
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[Barbara Kline Pope name image]
Barbara Kline Pope
bkline AT nas.edu

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
The National Academies, Washington, D.C., 1983 - present (www.nas.edu)
  • Executive Director for Communications and the National Academies Press, November 2003 - present
  • Executive Director, the National Academies Press and Deputy Chief Communications Officer, the National Academies, April 2002 - November 2003
  • Director, the National Academies Press, December 1997 - April 2002
  • Acting Director, the National Academies Press, September 1997- December 1997
  • Marketing Director, the National Academies Press, January 1985 - September 1997
  • Assistant Marketing Director, September 1983 - January 1985
Executive Director for Communications and the National Academies Press
Responsibilities include:
  • Leadership and Management: Manage strategic direction and day-to-day operations of a major publishing and publishing services division of the National Academies. Responsible for the leadership, training, motivation, and direction of 55 people including six senior managers in the areas of finance, operations, editorial, marketing, communications, and Internet technologies.
  • Business Development: Identify and build new business models for all areas of the National Academies Press. Monitor market trends and decide upon implementation strategies particularly in the e-commerce and derivative products area. Work with senior managers to refine strategies, develop appropriate technologies, conduct financial analyses, and put into action new plans. Manage internal grant program to build innovation into communications activities including audience research, product development, and message and product distribution/dissemination.
  • Operations: Create innovative processes for efficient operations in the areas of editorial, composition, graphics, design, production, printing, and on-line production.
  • Strategic Communications: Coordinate with the larger organization to maximize communications and dissemination of the works of the National Academies; set strategic and operational goals, fundraise, and implement plans for cross-organizational communications program; develop popular, trade books and other derivative products for general audiences from scholarly content in the areas of science, engineering, and medicine; develop effective distribution channels depending on the audience, content, and other factors. Oversee reputation/brand management including arranging for audience research, message development, and branding campaigns.
  • Partnership Creation: Assemble partnerships that add value to the publishing and communications activities to fulfill dual (and sometimes competing) missions -- to disseminate the works of the National Academies as far and wide as possible and to breakeven financially.
Accomplishments include:
  • Met or exceeded bottom line targets every year.
  • Dramatically expanded the reach of the reports of the National Academies through providing more than 750,000 pages of free open online content while remaining self-sustaining.
  • Transformed the traditional print business model of the press to one that takes advantage of both print and electronic content. Based electronic pricing and packaging decisions on a comprehensive study of customer behavior that won the 2007 INFORMS Society for Marketing Science Practice Prize. The research was jointly authored with P.K. Kannan, Professor of Marketing, R.H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. The full report is available online.
  • Turned the NAP Web site into the best research engine on the Web with the most open and free content of any scholarly book publisher.
  • Was a key leader in changing the culture of the National Academies to embrace communications -- focus on non-traditional audiences; craft products to fit those audience needs; utilize innovative distribution channels; and evaluate efforts.
  • Developed The Science &Entertainment Exchange, a program designed to bring more science to the public through entertainment channels. The program connects entertainment industry professionals with scientists.
  • Developing the Science Ambassadors Program to connect scientists with the citizens in their own communities starting with the topic of energy.
  • Constructing a Top Ten program to discern those topics that citizen want to learn more about and then create content products (e.g., websites, booklets) from National Academies' reports and appropriate distribution strategies.
  • Helped to convinced the authoring committee for Science, Evolution, and Creationism to conduct audience research prior to writing the booklet. Led the audience research project with Jay Labov (the content expert at the National Academies) and a coalition of 30 professional societies. The result is a booklet and derivative brochure that are true to the science and resonate with their audiences.
  • Successfully managed a broad, institution-wide branding program.
  • Developed the editorial content for Starting Out Right: A Guide to Promoting Children's Reading Success -- a derivative trade book aimed at teachers, parents, pediatricians, and child care providers that sold 175,000 copies.
  • Built Joseph Henry Press-the commercial, trade side of the NAP publishing program.
  • Conducted a training needs assessment, an evaluation of self-directed work teams, and a thorough review of the marketing department and printing operation; reorganized to create more efficient operations.
EDUCATION
  • M.S., 1990, Textile Marketing (combination of courses from the textile science program and the marketing program in the business school), University of Maryland. Academic Honors: National Honor Societies/Omicron Nu and Phi Kappa Phi.
  • B.S., 1981, summa cum laude, Consumer Services, Business and Economics minor, Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Academic Honors: Alumni Award for Outstanding Scholarship, National Honor Society/Kappa Omicron Phi.
PUBLICATIONS AWARDS

TEACHING AND SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
  • University of Maryland/R.H. Smith School of Business/MBA Program/E-Service: January 2009, guest lecturer, "Publishing for Impact: Running a Business within a Mission-Driven Organization."
  • University of Maryland/R.H. Smith School of Business/MBA Program/Marketing Management: January 2009, guest lecturer, "Marketing Research at the National Academies Press."
  • European Marketing Academy Conference (EMAC), Special Session: Award-Winning Papers in Marketing, May 2008, presenter, "Pricing Digital Content Product Lines: A Model and Application for the National Academies Press."
  • INFORMS Society for Marketing Science Practice Prize Conference: The Practice and Impact of Marketing Science, October 2007, co-presenter with P.K. Kannan, "Pricing Digital Content Product Lines: A Model and Application for the National Academies Press."
  • The George Washington University College of Professional Studies Summer Publishing Institute for Professionals--Agile publishing strategies: Transforming Traditional Publishing, June 2007, speaker, "The Experience of the National Academies Press."
  • The World Bank: June 2007, plenary session speaker, "Publishing for Impact: Breaking Boundaries: POD and Internet Distribution-The Experience of the National Academies Press."
  • Book Expo America Education Program: June 2006, session speaker, "Capitalism Meets the Gift Economy of the Web: Profile of the National Academies Press."
  • Young Presidents Organization: September 2004, featured speaker, "Understanding the Choice Between Digital and Physical Books: Using Experiments to Research an Electronic Market."
  • University of Maryland/NetCentricity Conference: April 2004, featured speaker, "Understanding the Choice Between Digital and Physical Books: Using Experiments to Research an Electronic Market."
  • Association of American University Presses: June 2003, session speaker, "Hot Demand for Cool Digital Content: Results from NAP's Online Digital Pricing Experiment."
  • University of Maryland/R.H. Smith School of Business/Executive MBA Program: March 2003, guest lecturer, "Delivering Digital Books in Niche Markets: Using Marketing Research to Inform New Product Design and Pricing."
  • University of Maryland/R.H. Smith School of Business/MBA Program: April 2003, guest lecturer, "Delivering Digital Books in Niche Markets: Using Marketing Research to Inform New Product Design and Pricing."
  • Seybold Seminars: Design, Build Communicate, Spring 2002, featured speaker, "Will They Pay: Measuring Customer Demand and Price Preferences for Electronic Delivery of Books."
  • Washington Book Publishers: Starting New Ventures, Spring 2002, featured speaker, "Joseph Henry Press: A Case Study."
  • University of Viriginia/Library of Congress, Spring 2002, Publishing in the 21st Century: Blue Sky to Black Ink: The Successful Alliance of Electronic and Print Publishing, featured speaker, "Will They Pay: Measuring Customer Demand and Price Preferences for Electronic Delivery of Books."
  • Book Expo America Education Program: e-Pub University, Spring 2002, featured speaker, "Will They Pay: Measuring Customer Demand and Price Preferences for Electronic Delivery of Books."
  • NIST E-Book Conference, Fall 2001, featured speaker "Will They Pay: The Relationship Between Consumer Attitudes, Usage Situations, and Willingness to Pay for E-Books"
  • University of Virginia Electronic Publishing Certificate Program, Spring Semester 2000, adjunct faculty teaching "21st Century Marketing Strategies."
  • University of Virginia Summer Publishing Institute, Summer 1999 and 2000, adjunct faculty teaching "Web Marketing 101."
  • University of Viriginia/Library of Congress, Spring 2000, Publishing in the 21st Century: Redefining the Industry conference, featured speaker, "Customer-Driven Business Models: Identifying the Next Phase in E-publishing."
  • American Association for the Advancement of Science, Winter 2000, How Can Scientists Thrive with Paperless Publishing? panel, featured speaker, "Publishing E-Books Experiences at the National Academy Press."
  • University of Viriginia/Library of Congress, Spring 1999, Exploring the New Media; Publishing in the 21st Century: Redefining the Industry conference, featured speaker, Online Markets: The National Academy Press Experience."
  • Book Expo America Education Program, Spring 1999, created and hosted a session Science Literacy: At What Costs?; gave keynote speech.
  • American Society of Association Executives, Spring 1998, "Giving It All Away. . .or Maybe Not: The impact of posting full-text publications on the sales of two scholarly publishers."
COMMITTEE AND BOARD ACTIVITY
  • Committee Member, Encyclopedia of Life Education and Outreach Advisory Committee, 2008-present
  • Board Member, Management Board, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 2007-present
  • Board Member, Corporate Advisory Board, Marketing Department, R.H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 2006- present
  • Board Member, Advisory Board, George Washington University College of Professional Studies, Master of Professional Studies in Publishing, 2006 - present
  • Board Member, Hands On Science Outreach, Rockville, MD, 1999 - present
  • Review Panel Member, Carnegie Mellon Department of Social and Decision Sciences and of Engineering and Public Policy. Undergraduate project on the environmental consequences of e-commerce, focusing on books, 2000