Meet Our Booksellers

Learn about our booksellers here, then check out our Staff Picks to see what we're reading.


Sally McPherson: After a career spent in publishing, including as a magazine editor and as sales manager for a textbook publisher, Sally was thrilled when Roberta graciously invited her to become a partner in her wonderful store, where she'd been shopping for more than a decade. The staff and the customers are delightful and knowledgeable, and the commute is the best: a five-block walk. Sally had always been a voracious acquirer of books and, as time allows, a reader of them as well.  Her favorite category is probably travel narrative, and she reads a lot of nonfiction, but lately she's been taking a very strong fiction turn. Go figure. In a twist on that tired but forever true cliche -- as true for Sally's home as it is for the store -- so many books, so little shelf space! Her favorite parts of this gig? Helping people find just the right book -- for themselves or for gifts -- and helping people remember the titles of books they're looking for (e.g., "I think it might be blue and has the word flower in the title,"or "I heard an interview on the radio with an author -- I think his name might be John or Jack.") Sally lives with her wife Melinda and a handsome cat named Howie.

Kim Bissell: Bio pending!


Chris Miller: Chris Miller joined us for the holiday rush in 2010 and was so terrific we asked him to stick around. He enjoys reading, recording music, traveling, and working in a bookstore. It is Chris's greatest honor  -- so he says -- to be a Broadway Bro. Chris loves the staff and the customers who become friends and is always happy to pass on a good recommendation or share what he's been reading.

Megan Sachse: Bio pending!

Mary Harju: Mary grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs and spent long nights reading books by flashlight in bed. As soon as she was old enough for working papers, she got an after-school job at her hometown public library, pushing the cart around the stacks, shelving, learning the Dewey Decimal System, and reading as much as she could. Books were her gateway to the wider world, and in her early twenties she started her first job as a bookseller at Barnes and Noble in center city Philadelphia, earning enough to put herself through art school at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She stayed at Barnes and Noble 10 years, long enough to receive a BFA from UPenn and establish a studio and show her work in the City of Brotherly Love. After this she moved to New York City to earn an MFA in Painting at the New York Academy, worked in Chelsea as a studio assistant, and TA’ed a class at the New School. Upon returning to Philadelphia in 2012 she was hired to work at the legendary Joseph Fox Bookshop, a general interest bookshop specializing in fine art and architecture monographs, imported art books from international publishers, fine maps, and new books from both large and small publishers. She worked as a bookseller at Joseph for seven years, and along the way she became experienced in handling special orders and finding rare books and maps for her clients. She was also responsible for ordering books for author events around town, including the prestigious author series at the Philadelphia Free Library. After each event it was her job to mail signed first editions to collectors all over the country. During this period she dreamed of moving to Portland, a city she imagined as a book lover’s paradise. This dream became a reality in 2018, when she and her partner relocated to Portland, OR, and she was hired at Broadway Books! These days she teaches yoga full-time, continues to paint and draw, works part-time in the bookshop, and still reads widely and indiscriminately.

Carrie Floyd: Bio pending!

Elisa Saphier: Elisa has been a bookseller at Broadway Books since May 2021, after her bookstore went online and she craved more bookish in-person interaction. Her first job was at a library and she has worked in a number of bookstores since. She likes reading character-heavy literary works but reads across all genres and loves talking books.

April Levy: Bio pending!

Leah Cushman: Leah is a lifelong lover of books, cats, rain, knitting, tea, and other cozy things. She has worked on and off in books her entire career and has been with Broadway Books since October 2021. She is the current buyer for our children's sections, and also reads a lot of adult fiction, mystery, and horror. She is also a huge sucker for nonfiction books with lots of illustrations, and is notoriously terrible at narrowing down lists of favorites (just check out her list of 2023 holiday picks).

Ariel Kusby: Ariel is a "book witch," writer, and Broadway bookseller since August 2022. As a reader, she is guided by curiosity and an active inner child. Though she reads across the literary spectrum, Ariel has a particular fondness for books related to magic and esotericism. She is the author of the children's book, The Little Witch's Book of Spells (Chronicle Books, 2020) and The Little Witch's Oracle Deck (forthcoming from Chronicle Books, 2024). She lives in NE with a velvet-soft bunny named Poppy.

Karin Anna: Bio pending!


Former Staff:

Roberta Dyer: Roberta fell into the book business fresh out of college and more than forty years later, it still seems like a good fit. Roberta has worked for publishers, book wholesalers, and other bookstores but will to tell you that nothing has been as much fun or as much work as owning her own store for twenty years. Her favorite things: helping people find the books that change their lives, and the blurry line between customer and friend.

Kate Bennison was been an enthusiastic supporter of Broadway Books for many years and brought this perspective to her work with our customers. Kate was a retired business professional, mom, wife, yogi, friend, aspiring artist, fund raiser, gardener, hiker, NE neighborhood lover and adventurous reader.  She sadly passed away in 2017.

Judy McKeever: Judy's love of books grew out of childhood experiences: a father reading aloud nightly each Oz book, chapter by chapter, a local library where she could check out large stacks of Nancy Drew mysteries and Oregon pioneer stories, to carry home every Saturday, and family vacations where the girls always set up bookshelves inside the tent for nightly reading by flashlight. As a high school English teacher since 1965, and Broadway Book’s employee since 1993, she has continued to love Oregon stories such as Bowerman and Craig Lesley’s Burning Fence.  She also loves mysteries set in other cultures such as Alexander’s McCall Smith’s books and historical mysteries such as Jacqueline Winspear’s Maisie Dobbs. She likes to suggest books for kids that her children and grandchildren have enjoyed, and books for teenagers which her students love.