Our Story
Our Why
Pathfinder Book Press was born from a father’s promise to his daughters. When founder Dane Kiambi’s four-year-old daughter came home from preschool asking whether she could scrub her skin to change its color, he understood that the right story, told at the right moment, can shape how a child sees herself and how a child sees others. That moment became the company’s first book.
But the deeper reason Pathfinder exists reaches beyond any single story. Children form their understanding of the world early, often through the books read to them at bedtime and in classrooms. Pathfinder believes those books should tell the truth. Not invented lessons, but real moments from real lives, shared with honesty and care, so that children learn early what took many adults far too long to understand: that our differences are not problems to be solved. They are what make the world beautiful.
That belief is the heart of everything Pathfinder publishes.
Our Mission
Pathfinder Book Press publishes books rooted in true stories, researched with care, and crafted to open meaningful conversations in homes and classrooms. We create books that welcome every family, that handle difficult moments with warmth rather than fear, and that help children grow into thoughtful, confident, and kind people.
Our Vision
Pathfinder Book Press aims to become the name families, teachers, and librarians trust most for true stories, beautifully told. We envision a future where a Pathfinder book is a staple on bedroom shelves and in classroom libraries, where children reach for our stories again and again, and where the conversations those stories spark continue to shape how the next generation sees the world. We are building a catalog meant to last, one true story at a time.
Dane Kiambi with his daughters, Ariana and Alexis, the heart of Pathfinder Book Press
Meet the Founder
Dane Kiambi, Ph.D.
Dane Kiambi, Ph.D., is an award-winning professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s College of Journalism and Mass Communications. He has spent his career studying and teaching how strategic communication and storytelling shape the way people understand themselves and one another.
Before entering academia, Dane worked for eight years in journalism and public relations, telling stories professionally and learning firsthand the power of a well-told narrative. He brings that same passion to children’s books, where he believes the most important stories of all begin.
As a professor, he has earned national and international recognition for his work. He served as faculty adviser to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln team that won the 2022 Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) Bateman Competition, the premier public relations competition for college students in the country. His students have gone on to work for leading communication agencies, corporations, and nonprofits around the world. His research has earned accolades for excellence in the field. He is the author of the academic book, Public Address in Africa: An Analysis of Great Speeches by African Personalities (Peter Lang, 2025).
Above all, Dane is a father. When he is not teaching or writing, he is most likely with his young twin daughters, cooking them all kinds of food, biking, playing sports, working in the garden, wandering the mall, or running errands together and finding joy in ordinary days.
As Dane puts it, his daughters are “the deepest joys of my life, the best thing that has ever happened to me, the greatest blessing and most profound love I have ever known.” Pathfinder Book Press is his way of giving his daughters and children everywhere stories that tell the truth and celebrate who they are.