“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.”
— Helen Keller

At Carpedea, we are collaborators at heart. Our job is to be your thinking partners, to help you find clarity around your ideas and guide you on how to express yourself singularly in the marketplace through whichever outlets you choose.

Erika Heilman

Erika Heilman is the Managing Director of Carpedea. For more than 25 years, Erika has had the privilege of working with authors and thought leaders, bringing their ideas to life. She started her publishing career in New York, helping to launch John Wiley & Sons’ trade and professional business and management publishing program. Erika was chosen to manage flagship projects both at Wiley and Peterson’s College Guides before running her own publishing consultancy, Working Titles, for seven years. 

Erika is a seasoned editor and ghostwriter, having written for such luminaries as H. H. the Dalai Lama. She served as editorial director for Nicholas Brealey Publishing, which acquired and integrated Davies-Black Books in 2009. Her most recent venture was co-founding Bibliomotion, Inc. in 2011, where Erika was publisher and built a list of trade business and parenting titles from the ground up. After Bibliomotion was acquired in 2016, she returned to consulting work. Idea generation being her forte, particularly aligning it with strategic business goals, Erika founded Carpedea in late 2016. In this role, she works with consultants, solo entrepreneurs, founders and directors of small firms and large companies on brand awareness and thought leadership through publishing, speaking, and other product lines.

A graduate of Bucknell University with a BS in Biology, Erika has served on the board of GemmaMedia and has spoken as an industry expert at publishing events such as the Soundview/Nour Group Author Summit, Harvard Medical School’s CME Publishing Course, and the Association of Management Consulting Firm’s “Publishing in the Right Places.” She lives in the Seacoast region of New Hampshire with her husband and three school-aged children where she enjoys being a community volunteer, organizing several book clubs, and hosting as many gatherings as friends and families will tolerate.

Alicia Simons, principal of A. Simons Consulting LLC and Strategic Partner with Carpedea, is a leading author-driven marketing, personal brand, and platform development specialist. A strategic marketer with 20 years of experience, Alicia works with authors and thought leaders— primarily in the business sector—to accelerate their growth and achieve market objectives by identifying their strongest market positioning, developing each element of their platform, and guiding her clients on how and when to push core messaging through key channels to drive results.  

Alicia has worked with authors as senior consultant at Monaco Associates and as Senior Director of Marketing at Bibliomotion Inc., a boutique Boston-based trade book publisher. This experience combined with more than a decade working in consumer product marketing and a strong focus on client service makes her an uncommon advisor and partner to her clients. She has garnered a strong professional reputation for her industry knowledge, strategic approach to what needs to be done when and why, and her responsiveness and personal touch.  

Alicia’s Brand Development and Brand Management experience began with 12 years at Fortune 300 Campbell Soup Company. As Brand Manager with full P&L responsibility, she managed both established brands and new product development, in both Campbell's domestic and European headquarters. Alicia began consulting in 2005, focusing on developing and executing plans to launch or re-launch clients’ products or services into the market. Her client list covered a mix of well-known consumer brands, new business ventures, and not-for-profit organizations. Alicia continues to apply a consumer-marketing framework to her work with authors and thought leaders. 

Alicia holds a BA in Political Science and French Literature, and a Masters degree in International Business.

— Whitney Johnson, best-selling author and Thinkers50 Management Thinker of 2015