Judith Coffey, Chief Executive Officer
As co-founder and principal of Rainbow Educational Concepts; Rainbow Creative Concepts; and Robert-Leslie Publishing, The Early Childhood Company®, Judi Coffey has led top creative and development teams for curriculum and educational products for over 30 years. Judi has extensive background in special education and differentiated instruction and began her educational publishing career in 1978 as a consultant and by writing differentiated instruction articles and activities for textbooks in all content areas and grade levels. Today, Judi sets the vision, strategy, values, and direction for her companies and hires the teams to steer them accordingly.

Gigi Hayes, President
Gigi Hayes joined Rainbow in 1985 after teaching early childhood through middle school classes and working as a freelance writer for over a decade. She has overseen the development of nearly one hundred educational and consumer products for Robert-Leslie Publishing, McGraw-Hill, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Pearson, National Geographic School Publishing, Newbridge Educational Publishers, Modern Curriculum Press, World Book Publishing, Silver Burdett & Ginn, Dorling Kindersley, Computer Curriculum Corporation, Hearst Magazines, and Capezio Ballet Makers, to name just a few. Gigi provides leadership, direction, and administration to all aspects of Rainbow. She serves as the liaison between Rainbow and client to ensure that all staff maintain the client vision for each and every product. Gigi holds a master’s degree in education from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Brian Smith, Chief Operating Officer
A proven leader in developing educational materials for the past 16 years, Brian Smith oversees all operations and administrative functions for Rainbow. He acts as the key liaison between Rainbow's editorial, design, technology, and manufacturing personnel on the implementation of creative workflow solutions for print, digital, and hybrid products. Brian works closely with Rainbow's client-partners, managing all bids, contracts, budgets, and schedules. He also coordinates strategic planning with sales and marketing. Brian joined Rainbow in 1995 after earning a master’s degree in mass communication.

Christina Rodriguez, Editorial Director
Christina Rodriguez has extensive training and experience in the areas of early literacy and ESL. She is actively involved with Rainbow's client-partners on market research, prototype development, focus groups, standards analysis and correlations, and content development. Christina also leads and develops Rainbow's internal and freelance staff to help shape and execute engaging, quality content based on sound pedagogy. For over 10 years, she has contributed to the development of highly engaging and industry leading learning products. Prior to joining Rainbow in 2008, Christina taught first grade, Reading Recovery, and worked as a freelance writer. Christina holds a Reading Recovery Certification and a master's degree in education from the University of Connecticut.

Diane Becker, Production Coordinator
Diane Becker has 24 years experience in the publishing industry. She coordinates and monitors the production process of all Rainbow projects, from design to printing, including photography and image management. Diane holds a bachelor of arts in communication from the University of Arkansas. She joined Rainbow in 2002.

Matt Lemmons, Design Manager 
Matt Lemmons has been working in the educational publishing industry for over 21 years as a graphic designer and illustrator. He has developed the design of educational programs in a variety of subject areas across all grade levels. Matt manages in-house illustration, page design and layout, photo research, and image tracking. He has a bachelor of science in graphic design from Arkansas State University, and has pursued continuing education in page design, proofreading, and image editing. Matt became a part of the Rainbow team in 1987.

Susan Light, Senior Editor 
Susan Light's areas of expertise include reading/language arts, strategic intervention, and ESL instruction. She has extensive experience in project management, prototype creation, content development, production editing, correlations, and fact-checking. During her time at Rainbow, Susan has supervised the development of educational products for McGraw-Hill, National Geographic School Publishing/Hampton-Brown, Pearson, Robert-Leslie Publishing, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Harcourt School Publishers, and Zaner-Bloser. She holds a bachelor of arts in journalism with a minor in English. Prior to joining Rainbow in 1999, Susan worked as an education reporter for a regional newspaper.

Pam Petrek, Electronic Publishing Manager 
Pam Petrek has been part of the Rainbow team for over 20 years. In addition to being a highly qualified proofreader and copyeditor, she is proficient in creating and styling Word templates as well as formatting and tagging files for production. A master at scheduling and tracking all the moving parts of extremely complex projects, Pam understands the entire scope of the publishing process, from the creation of manuscript to the release of final files to the printer. 

Christy Rothgery, Office Manager 
Christy Rothgery has been with Rainbow for over 25 years. Initially her role included clerical work, data entry, copyediting, and page layout. As Rainbow grew, office management duties became the focus of her work. Christy is now largely involved with company record keeping, payroll, taxes, purchasing decisions, and various other responsibilities associated with the daily demands of a busy and productive office. Christy has a master's of rehabilitation counseling. 

“I am enjoying the writing assignment and working with the Rainbow staff… Brian sets such a positive tone and is a very effective manager. Thanks for contacting me for this project.” 

Diane Altman
freelance writer