2024 Store & Operations Management Instructors

Dean Anna Thorn

Anna Thorn is an Independent bookstore consultant and Director of the Independent Publishers Caucus and Books Across Borders. She has worked for more than a dozen years in many different kinds of stores: from Politics and Prose to Upshur Street Books to Busboys and Poets to The Potter’s House. She is also the Executive Director of The Independent Publishers Caucus and the Program Director of Books Across Borders.”

POS Systems: Anthology & IBID/i.e., Lightspeed, Square

Dean Carol Price

Carol Price is the co-owner of BookPeople in Moscow, ID. She has worked in the book business for most of her adult life, and the rest of her jobs have been in retail, customer service, freelance writing and journalism, food scholarship, and marketing/communications/outreach fields. Since taking over the ownership of BookPeople of Moscow (founded in 1973), she has served on the PNBA awards committee and as president of the PNBA board of directors, as well as on the Moscow Chamber of Commerce board of directors.

POS Systems: Anthology, with Square for credit card processing and offsite events

Instructor Lisa Swayze

  Lisa Swayze has been the General Manager and Buyer, Buffalo Street Books in Ithaca, NY, since late 2017. BSB is Ithaca’s cooperatively owned independent bookstore, with more than 900 owners invested in helping keep an indie bookstore alive in our community. She also worked at the iconic Wordsworth Bookstore in Harvard Square, Cambridge, MA for 10 years. She is a member of the board of the American Booksellers Association. Lisa’s focus is to create greater sustainability for Buffalo Street Books, and she and her board chair Amy Reading are actively involved in the movement to reimagine independent bookstores.

POS Systems: Anthology

Instructor Candice Huber

Candice Huber is the owner of Tubby & Coo's, New Orlean's premier geeky, queer, and progressive bookstore. They are a sixth generation New Orleanian, and Tubby & Coo’s is named after their grandparents. Candice also serves on the Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion Committee and on the Science Fiction & Fantasy Task Force for the American Booksellers Association and is a writing, editing, publishing, and virtual event consultant. In the before-times, they hosted The Writers’ Forum on WRBH Reading Radio, focusing on interviewing science fiction and fantasy authors. Candice established TALES Publishing in 2018, which has thus far published three books.

POS Systems: 

Instructor Julia Davis 

 Julia Davis is the owner of The Book Worm in Powder Springs, GA. She was was born and raised in New York. Beginning her working career in the legal industry, Ms. Davis spent over 15 years in the legal profession, with over 8 of those years managing law firms. But for someone who began reading at the age of 2, it was just a matter of time before her love of books took over.  Taking ownership of The Book Worm in November 2020, Julia’s passion for self-love and literacy is the foundation that The Book Worm stands on. Ms. Davis currently sits on the SIBA Board and ABA Booksellers Advisory Council in addition to presenting on educational panels for both organizations. 

POS Systems: Basil, Square