Our Pieces of the Week honor the 2026 nominees for the Gem Award for Jewelry Design, Silvia Furmanovich, Cece Fein-Hughes, and Catherine Sarr.
Edge Retail Academy Adds 4 Industry Veterans to Its Team
Three will help jewelers boost sales, profits and inventory health while the fourth will help retailers maximize their use of Edge Pulse.

Omaha, Neb.—The Edge Retail Academy has added four members to its team.
Charleen Pfaff, Ben Stahl and Mona Lisa Shaffer are business advisors who will work with jewelers on boosting sales, profits and inventory health.
Pfaff comes from a family of watchmakers. Her father, husband and both of her sons are watchmakers, while her daughter is a senior manager for a leading Swiss watch company. She has 36 years of experience with jewelry store management.
Stahl is a 19-year retail jewelry veteran, joining ERA from a Mid-Atlantic luxury jeweler where he doubled the sales volume of its free-standing store. He also has experience in training and organizational development, as well as retail operations management.
Shaffer has 30 years of retail jewelry experience, GIA and AGS professional accreditation and is driven, intuitive and creative, ERA said.
Shelly Burton Schulz, meanwhile, has been hired to help retailers maximize their use of Edge Pulse, the company’s real-time dashboard of sales and inventory data that aggregates data from 900 stores representing more than $1.5 billion in annual sales.
She has 17 years of sales and marketing experience, most of which were dedicated to helping jewelry retailers increase their bottom line by developing strategies to maximize revenue and preserve margins.
“This is the largest addition to our team in the company’s history,” said Edge Retail Academy President David Brown. “We are seeing increasing demand for our services, and we are delighted to bring in this seasoned group of business professionals to meet our growth.”
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