Shelly Romero

Senior Editor

Shelly Romero (she/her) is Chooseco’s Senior Editor. She is Honduran-American, born and raised in Miami, Florida, and currently resides in New York City. She has previously worked at children’s publisher Scholastic and book packager Cake Creative. She graduated with her BA in English from Stephens College, where she joined Kappa Delta Sorority, and holds a graduate certificate from the NYU Summer Publishing Institute. In 2020, she was selected as a Publishers Weekly Star Watch Honoree.

Her steadfast goals for her career in the publishing industry are to champion BIPOC and traditionally marginalized creators as well as lower the ladder for those that come after her. She has volunteered for organizations such as Latinx in Pub, POC in Pub, and Representation Matters Mentorship Program. Previously, she served on planning committees for conferences and festivals such as DVcon and the Bronx Book Festival.

As a longtime fan of interactive storytelling, she is excited to bring her publishing experience along with her love of genre stories and all-things pop-culture to Chooseco’s backlist and frontlist.

In her downtime, she loves watching movies (old and new) and immediately logging them on her Letterboxd, playing board games (usually with a horror spin), and attending concerts whenever she can. Find her online at  www.shellymromero.com

Beth O'Grady

Sales Director

Beth O’Grady, Chooseco’s Sales Manager, began her career in the non-profit industry, working for 15 years with a focus on fundraising and volunteer management. She joined Chooseco in 2017, eager to try something new and work in a completely different industry.

Beth works with Chooseco’s customers and sales reps, introducing Choose Your Own Adventure to a whole new generation of readers. As a child of the 80s, and a lifelong voracious reader, Beth is so excited to work for such an iconic brand, one that she remembers fondly from her childhood (with a librarian for a mother, she spent a lot of time at the library).

Beth grew up in Virginia and attended James Madison University. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her husband, son, two dogs, and cat. She has a passion for reading, gardening, cooking, and cheesy puns.

Dottie Greene

Creative Director

Dottie Greene has over 20 years of marketing and PR experience working for businesses and non-profits in the arts, publishing, and healthcare sectors. She began her journey with Choose Your Own Adventure in 2007, designing one of Chooseco’s first websites, and helped to develop the CYOA “Secret Online Endings.”

Dottie later went on to rebrand the current Classic covers and contributed to several other CYOA book cover and title designs as a freelancer. Throughout the course of her career, she has been a champion of CYOA and was delighted to return as Marketing Manager of Chooseco in 2021.

Dottie holds a BFA in Communications from Moore College of Art and Design. Her passion for film led her to take classes at Santa Fe Community College and she continues to develop a screenplay in her spare time.  

Tam Smith

Adventurer's Newsletter

Tamara Ellis Smith has spent her whole career at the intersection of writing, kids, and education—and working with Choose Your Own Adventure as their Content Producer for Special Projects feels like home.

Her debut picture book Here and There (Barefoot Books, 2019) is “needed everywhere,” according to Kirkus, and her debut middle grade novel, Another Kind of Hurricane (Schwartz & Wade/Random House, 2015) was a 2015 Indies Introduces Top Ten Pick, one of Bank Street’s Best Books of the Year, and a Vermont Book Award finalist. Her second picture book Grief is an Elephant (Chronicle Books, 2023) is coming out soon.

Tamara helped found an arts-in-education organization in New York City that brought writers and artists into public schools in the East Village and the Bronx to teach creative writing and visual and dramatic arts. As a teaching artist and public speaker, she is passionate about inspiring kids to find their own voices and stories.

She lives in Vermont with her four kids and husband and loves to run on the river trails with her dog. You can also find her at www.tamaraellissmith.com

Rick Frauton

Office Operations Manager

Rick Frauton has more than two decades of experience supporting small business operations. His broad skill set includes marketing, finance, human resources, IT, logistics, and administration for remote teams. Always pursuing improvements to efficiency and workflow design, Rick has a passion for helping businesses to grow and thrive.

Rick joined Chooseco as Office Operations Manager in 2021 and enjoys collaborating with his colleagues to further the legacy of the Choose Your Own Adventure series for generations to come.

Rick holds a bachelor’s degree in Advertising from the College of Communications at Boston University.

He lives among the Green Mountains of Vermont with his wife and two daughters. In his spare time, Rick enjoys playing guitar and drums, hiking, gardening, and spending time with family.

Peggy McGrath

Office Assistant

Peggy McGrath has worked in the publishing industry for over 25 years. She started her career with a publisher of outdoor recreation and leisure books, and following that, worked a variety of jobs as a freelance proofreader and, most recently, as the community editor for a weekly newspaper.

She currently assists Chooseco staff across all departments, from Editorial and Production to Marketing and Operations.

She has a B.A. in English/Writing from Central Connecticut State University.