About Magna Publications

Bill oversees the awesome Magna Team. Bill founded the company 50 years ago when he noted that higher education touches all areas of society in various and important ways. He never tires of adapting to the changes he’s seen over the years and is particularly proud of Magna’s role in improving the learning experience.

David leads Magna’s products and marketing initiatives and is responsible for growing Magna’s brands including Teaching Professor, 20-Minute Mentor, and Magna Online Courses. David has been with Magna since 2002 and has helped educational publishers grow since 1987.  David is passionate about marketing, innovating new products and reaching educators with products that help educators grow professionally and ultimately improves education of students. In addition, David cherishes his role in helping staff develop their skills and reach their potential.

Mark has almost 30 years of experience providing exceptional quality support and technical assistance to customers. He uses a variety of communication methods to assist customers: phone, fax, email, online chat, text message, and in-person and video conference consultations. Mark has always been passionate about helping people. At Magna, that typically means assisting customers place or update orders, log in to or create accounts, sign up for access to content, or make payments on their account. His goal is to provide extraordinary support and service to customers so they can be highly productive and successful. He takes great pride in being a “difference maker”—doing whatever it takes to make the customer experience the best that it can be. Arguably, his most important contribution to Magna is that he provides free jelly beans to those who visit his 1st floor office (no appointment needed).

Diane provides service and support to customers before, during, and after a purchase of a subscription, course, product, or conference registration. Diane has been with Magna since 1996. Prior to joining Magna, Diane worked at a couple of bookstores on campus providing service to students, faculty, and the public. Diane assists in the processing of new subscriptions, renewal subscriptions, course orders, product orders, conference registrations, and payments received by Magna. Diane works with customers by providing any access information needed for their purchase(s) and follows up with conference registrants with additional information they may need prior to the conference beginning. Diane also assists customers with any technical support they may need after their initial purchase.

Mackenzie works with customers and clients to help them determine which Magna professional development resources best fit their needs. Whether it’s for achieving personal goals, hitting professional milestones, or taking your institution to the next level, count on Mackenzie to be your partner in progress! With a background in education, Mackenzie is all about empowering and enriching educators and helping improve students’ educational experiences. 

Tierney develops and manages Magna’s line of professional development products for higher education professionals, including online seminars, courses, videos, publications, and conferences and workshops. She seeks to create interesting and dynamic products to help teachers teach, leaders lead, and ultimately students learn. Tierney also serves as Faculty Focus editor while managing the Faculty Focus blog and podcast. Tierney has been with Magna since 2019 and has teaching experience with an innate passion for education and journalism. Tierney loves working with instructors worldwide, where she gets the opportunity to share teaching and learning stories through Faculty Focus articles and podcast interviews—sharing stories that would otherwise be untold. 

Bonny works with our advisory board, venues, exhibitors, and presenters to plan all of our conferences. Although she started with Magna in 2024, Bonny has been planning conferences and workshops in higher education for years. She looks forward to bringing everyone together and helping to create events that impact presenters and attendees alike. Bonny loves to connect with the faculty at conferences and strives to make sure everyone gains valuable takeaways to bring back to their campuses.

Jon manages the Teaching Professor and Academic Leader newsletters, reviewing manuscripts, working with authors on edits, and managing the publications’ websites. Jon has been with Magna since 2019 and holds a PhD in film studies from the University of Iowa (UI) and has taught undergraduate film courses at UI and Coe College. Jon works tirelessly to provide the most exceptional content possible for educators through his online newsletters.

Hunter is responsible for developing and producing the various products Magna has to offer. Hunter has been with Magna since 2023 and has previously worked in designing and editing content for TV and film. Hunter is dedicated to producing polished content with the customer in mind, always aiming to deliver the highest quality content possible.

Matt plays a vital role in the production and delivery of the company’s digital products, publications, conferences, and workshops by providing technical and logistical support. He manages website content and the conference app, as well as coordinates the production of the Journal of Faculty Development. He works in close coordination with the editorial team to deliver high-quality content for education professionals.

David provides technical support for internal systems and customer-facing platforms. David takes pride in contributing towards an exceptional experience for Magna’s customers, employing technology to make certain that training materials are delivered in the best quality possible. In addition, he provides continual support for internal systems with an eye to continual improvement of the whole customer experience from ordering to fulfillment. David started at Magna in 2007 and has served as technical director on nearly every Magna Online Seminar produced since then.

Debra designs and produces publications and marketing for Magna.  Debra joined Magna in 2001 from a background of publication design and production management. Deb strives to communicate through the mediums of web and print the wealth of what Magna has to offer in a concise and beneficial way for the higher education audience. 

Tim directs and coordinates all accounting operational functions. Tim has been at Magna since 2019 and has 10 years prior experience in accounts payable/receivable in the technology and software development industries. Tim fosters customer relations by ensuring their payments are processed efficiently to encourage and support their success through Magna’s innovative programs.