Lori Benton has been named vice president and publisher of the Scholastic Trade Publishing division.

According to the release, Benton will “oversee direction of the publishing program for all imprints of the division. She will assume her new responsibilities January 3, 2011, and report to Ellie Berger, President of Scholastic Trade Publishing.”

Prior to joining Scholastic, Benton served as the publisher of the fiction division of Capstone Publishers. In the past, she has worked in the children’s divisions at HarperCollins and Macmillan. Benton also devoted thirteen years of her career as a children’s book buyer for the independent bookseller, The Book Shop.