Meet Our Editorial Team
Jessica Echeverria (she/her/ella)
Jessica is the editorial director at Lee & Low Books. She spent the first five years of her career working on licensed properties and brands, and developing new paperback series at Simon & Schuster Simon Spotlight and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. She also oversaw and edited the Spanish-language imprint Libros para niños, where she thoughtfully curated a list of popular backlist titles to be translated into Spanish each season. In 2012, she jumped at the chance to work at Lee & Low Books, where she would fulfill her passion to bring more diverse voices and stories to children’s publishing. A few of the critically acclaimed and award-winning books she has edited include the APALA Picture Book–winner Juna’s Jar; NAACP Image Award–winner Tiny Stitches: The Life of Medical Pioneer Vivien Thomas; the delectable tale Zombies Don’t Eat Veggies, simultaneously published in Spanish and English editions; the Pura Belpré Illustrator Honor award–winner Still Dreaming/ Seguimos Soñando; and Martí’s Song for Freedom/Martí y sus versos por la libertad, which received five starred reviews.
Jessica has a soft spot for picture books that feature strong or quirky characters, stories that are filled with a lot of heart, cultural traditions, some dark humor, and touches of magical realism, and on her ultimate wish list is to work on a wordless picture book. Authors who come from the communities they write about are strongly preferred.
Stacy Whitman (she/her)
Stacy is the founder and publisher of Tu Books, the imprint of Lee & Low Books that publishes diverse middle grade and young adult novels and graphic novels. She holds a master’s degree in children’s literature from Simmons University. In 2013, Stacy founded the New Visions Award, which honors a new unpublished writer of color. Books she has edited include the acclaimed Summer of the Mariposas by Pura Belpré Award-winning author Guadalupe García McCall, Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens I Am Alfonso Jones by Tony Medina and illustrated by Stacey Robinson and John Jennings, and the American Indian Youth Literature Award-winning novel Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis with Traci Sorell.
Stacy is most interested right now in middle-grade contemporary realism, literary science fiction and fantasy, graphic novels of any genre (fiction or nonfiction, particularly author-illustrator projects), and historical fiction, especially about hidden history. Young adult novels targeting the young end of the YA range are also of interest, particularly YA of strong appeal to junior high age. She seeks books that have a strong curricular connection for use in the classroom (STEAM connections, social studies, etc.) combined with a strong commercial hook that will appeal to young readers. Examples of books that do this well include Summer of the Mariposas, I Am Alfonso Jones, Indian No More, and most other books on the Tu Books list. She encourages those submitting to become familiar with the Tu Books list to get a good sense of what appeals to her. Books that have the potential to be published in simultaneous English and Spanish editions are encouraged.
Elise McMullen-Ciotti (she/her)
Elise is the senior editor of Tu Books, the middle grade and young adult imprint of Lee & Low Books. Some of her notable books as an editor include Indian No More (AIYLA winner), Julieta and the Diamond Enigma (New Visions Award winner), and Black Was the Ink (Grateful American Book Prize). Elise is also an author and food scholar at NYU Steinhardt. Her academic research at NYU focuses on the role food plays in the healing of a people, the regenerative and the restorative efforts of Indigenous foodways, and Indigenizing curriculae. As a children’s book author, some of her books and stories include Kanuchi Day and Hedge Over Heels (Scholastic) as well as “Cannibal at the Door” in Calling the Moon (Candlewick Press) with more books on the way with Abrams and Scholastic. Elise is a proud member of the Cherokee Nation and grew up in Texas. Today, she lives in New York City with her husband, a large personal library, and an open kitchen.
Elise has a special heart for BIPOC middle grade novels. For Indigenous stories, she prefers those set in modern day—or at least post 1950—and why not something set in the future? Or in deep space? (Must be written by Indigenous author.) For Black and African American stories, she prefers those that feature innovative and aspirational tales, works that celebrate Black joy and spark the imagination, where young Black kids can see themselves doing great things. For other diverse narratives, she’s looking for work that does not lean on stereotypes, and is written with an authentic voice. She’s open to novels in verse, but she’s picky about voice. Finally, she loves stories that are fun and make her all warm and happy when she finishes reading them—even if some parts were sad or hard. Elise perks up if humor is used well. She loves themes of hope, familial or community love and kindness—and imagination galore. Furthermore, Elise is a geek. When stories geek out over food or science, she geeks out right along with them.
Kandace Coston (she/her)
Kandace is a picture book editor at Lee & Low Books. She grew up in the Bronx, New York, where she spent her weekends at the library reading stories and writing her own. After graduating from Barnard College, Columbia University, she won an internship grant from We Need Diverse Books and joined the Lee & Low team. Kandace enjoys collaborating with new authors and illustrators and helping their projects grow into published picture books. Professionally and personally, Kandace is drawn to strong, female protagonists as well as any story that can make her laugh!
Kandace had the great pleasure of working on the L&L titles The Electric Slide and Kai, Magic Like That, and Bottle Tops: The Art of El Anatsui (which received two starred reviews!) When it comes to nonfiction, she is interested in compelling, well-researched biographies about groundbreaking women of color—especially women in STEM. For fiction, Kandace is most interested in funny and sweet slice of life stories that feature BIPOC characters, celebrate the diversity within diverse communities, and explore the magic in everyday childhood experiences.
Stephanie Frescas Macías (she/her)
Stephanie is an assistant editor at Lee & Low Books. She was born in Ciudad Juárez, México and raised just across the border in El Paso, TX, surrounded by beautiful mountains and delicious Mexican food. She earned a B.A. in English from Barnard College. Stephanie was also an editorial, production, and marketing associate at Cinco Puntos Press prior to its acquisition by Lee & Low.
Stephanie has assisted on titles for every age group, including the Pura Belpré Illustrator Award-winning picture book Where Wonder Grows and the YA verse novel Thirty Talks Weird Love, which was a 2023 Global Read Aloud selection. She also edited the translated novel When You Get to the Other Side and the touching picture book Empty and Me, which garnered two starred reviews. She’s interested in manuscripts for all age ranges and loves stories that mostly follow a naturalistic narrative with imaginative or playful twists, including splashes of magic, sci-fi, mystery, or adventure. Though she’s open to serious topics, she’s interested in manuscripts that have a joyful or optimistic core. She’s especially interested in working with debut BIPOC authors and illustrators from LGBTQ+, neurodivergent, disability, immigrant, or refugee communities.
Ely Mellet (she/her)
Ely is the in-house designer at Lee & Low Books. She holds a master’s in publishing from Pace University and was able to start her career in publishing with the help of the We Need Diverse Books’ internship grant program, which allowed her to intern at Simon & Schuster. She went on to work as a design assistant at Hachette and a designer for licensed properties at Scholastic before finding her home at Lee & Low. Ely works on a range of picture books and novels, including Kari Krakow’s The Harvey Milk Story, Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s Last Night I Sang to the Monster, and the tenth-anniversary edition of The Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe García McCall.
Ely loves showcasing new talent and is particularly keen on adding artists from diverse backgrounds with an eye for texture, color, and light to her repertoire of artist suggestions. She is also always on the lookout for freelance art directors, designers, and hand-letterers.
