Our Mission:
In the pursuit of a deeper understanding of our world and those who reside in it, we do more than write books; we seek to transmit information, whether academic, historical, or informational, with clarity and precision: producing understandable, informative, and insightful works.
Sharing a passion for the written word, husband and wife team Dr. Steven L. Danver and his wife Lauren, have formed the foundation of Mesa Verde Publishing since 2008.
Although we make our home in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with its mountain air and pungent smell of Evergreens ever-present, our business name is actually a nod to Mesa Verde, Colorado and the majestic Mesa Verde National Park in the southwest corner of the state. It’s known for its well-preserved Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings, notably the huge Cliff Palace. Moreover, the area is rich in ancient Native American culture and history. Steve’s area of study while earning his doctorate in American history was specifically focused on the history of the American Indian peoples and the American West, so our business name reflects both a love of land, of peoples, and of history.
Our company had humble beginnings.
As a first-time expectant mother in 2004, Lauren started Mesa Verde Ventures as a sole proprietorship and was primarily involved in website building and marketing. Many years later, that endeavor became Mesa Verde Publishing.
Our focus for many years was strictly academic publishing, but we have now begun publishing commercial fiction and non-fiction, as well as another lesser-known area of publishing referred to as “low content” books. Examples of low content books would be books such as journals, diaries, planners, gift books, guest registries, which have a minimum of text inside, but instead are written in by the purchaser in interactive ways.
Here’s a little bit more about us professionally:
Steven Danver has worked in the publishing industry since 2000. He has been managing editor of Journal of the West since 2004 and has worked as an editor and a writer on over eighty historical reference books, including Water Politics and Policy in the United States (with John R. Burch Jr., CQ Press/SAGE, 2011), which was named to the 2012 Outstanding Academic Title list by the American Library Association’s Choice magazine. Dr. Danver currently serves as Executive Director of the Center for Competency-Based Education at Walden University. A lifelong resident of the American West, he was born and raised in Southern California and has, at various times, lived in Central California, Northern California, Utah, and Colorado. He currently resides in southern Washington State.
After completing a bachelor’s degree in religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a master’s degree in historical studies from Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California, he earned his doctorate in American history from the University of Utah, concentrating on the history of American Indian peoples and the American West. His dissertation, Liquid Assets: A History of Tribal Water Rights Strategies in the American Southwest, to be published by the University of Oklahoma Press, examines the long history of one of the most important issues of modern relevance to American Indians in the West.
Professionally, he has specialized in the history and politics of the American West, as well as in American Indian and American environmental history and policy. His research has largely centered on natural resource policy as it has applied to American Indian nations. He has taught at nearly every type of institution of higher education, including large research universities, small liberal arts colleges, community colleges, and online universities.
Lauren Danver has played an instrumental role in helping grow two different start-up companies in the Santa Barbara, California area over the span of her corporate career. Her eleven and a half years with a software development firm, holding various positions of responsibility, cemented her vast and broad business background. Seven years with a start-up insurance agency brought additional skills in the areas of sales and marketing to add to her broad business knowledge base. In 2004, she left corporate life to form Mesa Verde Ventures, which would eventually become Mesa Verde Publishing.
Her skills sets range from technical and administrative to sales and marketing. She writes both fiction and commercial non-fiction, as well as authoring various print-on-demand publications. Lauren forms the backbone of the company’s daily operations, as well as running the online publishing platform of MVP, and specializes in content development in the areas of publishing, entrepreneurship, business development, and health and wellness.
Since that time, Lauren has worked full-time as an online marketer, content publisher and business consultant. With extensive experience in copywriting and marketing, she has worked with high-profile entrepreneurs and many small businesses interested in establishing or revamping their online brand.
