People

Brianna Yamashita has joined Workman Publishing as senior publicist. Yamashita was most recently manager of public relations and advertising at Dorchester Publishing.

Tom Knight has been named v-p of independent Christian retail sales at Thomas Nelson. Knight had been director of CBA independent retail sales and marketing at EMI Christian Music Group.

David Bukspan has joined the Hoboken, N.J.-based independent publisher Melville House as publicist.

Mayrsue Rucci has been promoted from v-p and senior editor to v-p and executive editor of Simon & Schuster's adult trade imprint. Rucci, who's been at S&S for 10 years, has worked with a variety of authors, ranging from Jeffrey Deaver to Alicia Erian to Lauren Weisberger, on both fiction and nonfiction titles.

Mike Brennan has joined HarperCollins as senior v-p and director of sales for the Morrow/ Avon group. Brennan will oversee sales efforts for William Morrow, Avon, Harper Paperbacks, HarperAudio, HarperLuxe and Tokyopop. Brennan arrives from Penguin Group, where he was v-p, director of national accounts. Prior to joining Penguin, Brennan worked for Bantam, Doubleday and Dell in various capacities.

The creative team that former GMA producer Lisa Sharkey has been tasked with running at HarperCollins has announced its full-time staff members: executive editor Maureen O'Brien, senior editor Doug Grad and editor Matt Harper will all report to Sharkey while associate editor Stephanie Fraser will report to Grad and O'Brien. The division will be looking to acquire and edit titles that will then be published under the appropriate HC imprint.