Meet the Staff
Jane Musser
VP, Production
As Vice President of Production at Avalon Travel, I am responsible for the look and feel of our Moon and Rick Steves titles – design, production, printing. I joined Avalon in 2001, transitioning from newspaper production to books, both print and digital.
My love for travel began on family road trips when I was a kid. Our routes took us from our home in Southern California across the country to New York or Florida, sometimes into Canada or Mexico. From the back seat of our Ford station wagon, I soaked up breathtaking scenery, fascinating history, and a certain amount of tedium. My parents planned our trips using big paper maps and AAA Tourbooks, thick books printed on newsprint, small type, black and white, no photos. But they guided us to the campgrounds that had showers and the motels that had pools.
The goal of Avalon Travel’s books is really the same as those old AAA Tourbooks, though with significant aesthetic and editorial improvements: to help people have great trips, whether that’s a trip of a lifetime to a faraway destination, a road trip around their state, or a weekend hike in a nearby park. It is a joy to produce beautiful books that give people what they need to dream, plan and go.
Lindsay Fradkoff
Marketing Director
Lindsay Fradkoff joined Avalon Travel in 2024. Prior to that, she was Marketing Director at PublicAffairs and Bold Type Books, where she created marketing campaigns for bestselling books such as Ibram X. Kendi’s Stamped from the Beginning and Mike Duncan’s Hero of Two Worlds.
Pivoting into travel guidebook publishing was a natural progression: she has a love of travel, instilled by her mother, a travel agent. Her favorite destination is Buenos Aires, and her bucket-list destination is Vietnam.
Kat Bennett
Cartography Director
I grew up using maps on family vacations. My mother would toss them into the back seat where my brother and I would possibly be bickering as she drove us north for a camping trip. I’m sure it was totally for educational reasons.
I started a love affair of reading with employment at B. Dalton then Barnes and Noble. I graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Geography, where cartography scratched the artistic itch I have in creating maps. My wanderlust has taken me across continents. I have had some amazing experiences with locals and a few missed connections that have me fully appreciating a useful, strategic guidebook. I believe the best maps, like baking recipes, require precision, patience, and just the right amount of creative interpretation. Both pursuits have taught me having an adventure occasionally is just part of finding your way. And travel really matters!