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Nick has been working in the hair industry for more than twenty-five years, and his pioneering approach to styling is recognized worldwide. His cutting-edge work has been featured in print and television on countless occasions. A top New York City hairdresser, he was featured on TLC’s hit show, What Not to Wear.
Steven Banbury grew up surrounded by farmland before eventually moving to a part of California with notably fewer cows. Somewhere along the way he married his legend of a wife, adopted their annoyingly cute dog, and developed a penchant for writing he hasn’t seemed to shake. His debut novel, The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night, was an Indie Bestseller, an Indie Next List pick, and an ABA Indies Introduce Kids title.
Allison Britz graduated with a BA in Spanish and a MA in Management from Wake Forest University in 2012. After wandering around the country following whims and careers, Allison has settled in Texas with her husband, son, and dog. Obsessed was awarded the 2018 ILA Children’s and Young Adults’ Book Award for Non-Fiction.
Since her Southern California childhood, Carmindy has dreamed of traveling the world doing makeup and meeting inspiring people. Having established herself as a top makeup artist, she has been featured on TLC’s hit show, What Not to Wear and has appeared on The Today Show, CBS Sunday Morning, Christian Broadcasting Network, as well as in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, Elle, O, Glamour, Self, Lucky, GQ, Essence, Details, Marie Claire, and InStyle. She lives in New York City.
An editor and ghostwriter by day, Laura Boggs has had essays published in The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Victoria magazine, and The Huffington Post. She lives in Georgia with her writer-husband and her adult daughter with special needs. When she’s not writing, she’s reading to her daughter, and yes, she does all the voices.
John is a clinical social worker and psychotherapist in private practice in Boston. He has counseled men on fathering and parenthood for more than twenty years. In his practice, John works with individual dads, runs father support groups, and conducts dad-only workshops.
A sought-after speaker, advisor, and media contributor, Jill serves as an expert reviewer for Parents.com, has been featured as a guest expert in CNN, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Forbes, Newsweek, Time, and many other outlets, and has consulted with schools and organizations including Oatly, Brainiac, Once Upon a Farm, and Melissa & Doug. Jill is the founder and CEO of The Nourished Child®, a nutrition education website and podcast for parents. The mother of four adult-ish children, she lives in Massachusetts with her husband.
Kim is a high school English teacher who enjoys working closely with her target audience. With a BA in Journalism and a MA in Education, she is determined to prove her students wrong when they complain that reading and writing are no fun. Though she currently lives in Texas with her husband and twin daughters, Kim is originally from Alabama—that’s where the Southern twang comes from! She considers herself a huge nerd and nothing makes her happier than fangirling over all her obsessions. She is a proud Gryffindor, Whovian, and GoT fan to name a few! She loves polka dots, red lipstick, and smiling—smiling is her favorite! When she’s not writing, Kim is busy spending time with her family, wrangling her two crazy dogs, binge watching shows on Netflix, and making death-by-cheese casseroles.
Megan Eccles writes dark, speculative fiction. She holds a BA in Music from the University of San Diego and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California Riverside–Palm Desert. When she’s not writing or rehoming rattlesnakes, she pairs lipstick to her favorite books on instagram and plays Dungeons & Dragons with her six children. She has been accused of owning too many books, but it simply isn’t true.
Jenny completed her Bachelors degree in English Literature from Boston University and earned her MFA in creative writing from the New School University in New York City. Her work has appeared in nonfiction anthologies, as well as many online and print publications. She writes the popular blog, Karma (continued…), and was named one of BlogHer’s Voices of the Year in 2012. Jenny lives in Los Angeles where she balances writing, motherhood, and giant cups of coffee…mostly all at once.
Jaime is a third-grade teacher from northern Florida. Her days are spent hanging out with kids and reading, and the nights are for musicals, hockey, and writing. She lives in a little house by the woods with her husband, their four beautiful children, two cats that don’t love her enough, two dogs that love her a little too much, and a whole lotta nature.
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Emily Freeborn is studying Entertainment Law at Chapman University in Southern California. When she’s not busy plotting fictional crimes and racking up a search history that would probably get her put on an FBI watchlist, she enjoys hanging out with her chaotic husky and spending way too much time reading books. You can find her on social media at @authoremilywrites.
Joani has literally spent half of her life working to become the parenting expert she is today. She got her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Lesley University and her Masters of Social Work from Washington University. For thirty years she worked with troubled teens and their families both in schools and in private practice. In addition, she teaches undergraduate courses in the Psychology Department at Curry College. Joani is also a sought-after speaker, giving more than 40 seminars a year to schools, community groups, and churches.
Parenting expert Elaine Rose Glickman is the author of Sacred Parenting, a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. She has been featured on the syndicated television talk show Daytime and as a keynote speaker on parenting issues. The mother of three (fabulous) children, she writes a parenting advice column for a bimonthly magazine and blogs about parenting for the Jewish Journal. She has written and edited four other books, and her essays and poetry are widely published.
Arden is a family and marriage psychotherapist who maintains a private practice in New City, New York, and New York City. Her areas of specialization include parenting, performing arts, eating disorders, sport psychology, LGBTQ+ youth, women, men, teen, and young adult issues. She has her Masters in Social Work from Hunter College School of Social Work, City University of N.Y., and two Certificates in Psychotherapy and Psychoanalysis from the National Institute for the Psychotherapies in New York. She is a sought-after speaker and talk and radio show expert, appearing on The View, John Walsh, Sally Jesse, Maury Povich, Gordon Elliot, Ricki Lake, The People’s Court, and MSNBC, among others.
Born in Sweden, Lina is passionate about combining her expert beauty knowledge and skill with her concern for the environment. As a makeup artist to the stars, she has worked with Mandy Moore, Jewel, Zac Efron, and Adrian Grenier, among others. She has created red-carpet looks for the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Grammys, and Emmy Awards. Her skilled artistry has appeared in Vogue, W, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle, Interview, and Elle. She lives in Los Angeles.
Tom is an exercise physiologist with a master’s degree in exercise science and sport psychology. He has been certified by the ACSM, NSCA-CSCS, NASM, ACE, and AFAA, and Women’s Health magazine named him one of the Top 10 Fitness Professionals in the country. He stars in numerous fitness videos, including Supreme 90 Day, and The Abs Diet Workout.
Dr. Katie Hurley, DSW, LCSW, is a child and adolescent psychotherapist, parenting educator, public speaker, and writer. She is the founder of “Girls Can!” empowerment groups for girls between ages 5-11. Dr. Hurley is the Senior Clinical Advisor of The Jed Foundation (JED), a nonprofit dedicated to youth and young adult mental health and suicide prevention. She covers mental health, child and adolescent development, and parenting for The Washington Post, PBS Parents, CNN, and NBC, among other places. Dr. Hurley practices psychotherapy in the South Bay area of Los Angeles and earned her BA in psychology and women’s studies from Boston College, her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania, and her Doctor of Social work from Simmons University. She splits her time between Los Angeles, California, and coastal Connecticut with her husband and two children.
Maryann Jacobsen is a registered dietitian, family nutrition expert and freelance writer. She is the founding editor of Raise Healthy Eaters, a popular blog about feeding children. You can find more of her work at WebMD’s Real Life Nutrition, the New York Times Motherlode, Huffington Post, and She Knows. As a family nutrition expert, she has been quoted in various publications including Parents, Scholastic Parent & Child and American Profile and has been featured on Good Morning America.
Tish is a longtime fashion journalist who has worked for the New York Daily News, The Detroit Free Press, Women’s Wear Daily, W, the Chicago Tribune, and the International Herald Tribune in Paris, where she eventually became the last editor of American Elle. The author of the blog A Femme d’Un Certain Age, Tish lives in France.
Janet Sumner Johnson lives in Utah with her husband and three kids. She bakes a mean cinnamon twist and eats way more cookies than are good for her, which explains her running habit. Though her full-time occupation as evil tyrant/benevolent dictator (aka mom) takes most of her time, she sneaks in writing at night when her inner funny bone is fully unleashed. Her first picture book, Help Wanted: Must Love Books (2020), was the winner of the 2021 CLEL BELL Read Award and was nominated for Washington’s and Colorado’s Children’s Choice Book Awards. Visit her on Instagram @janetsumnerjohnson to learn more.
Clinton is currently the co-host of Amazon’s Wear Whatever the F You Want and was the co-host of The Chew on ABC Daytime and TLC’s What Not to Wear. He received a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and worked as an editor at several noted fashion publications, including Marie Claire, Mademoiselle, and DNR. Originally from Long Island, he now lives in New York City.
Tara is a pharmacist and mother of two girls. Her children’s healthcare column, “Medicine Mom,” appears online and in select periodicals. She lives in Virginia with her family.
Matthew Landis teaches 8th Grade American History outside Philadelphia, where he lives with his wife and children. While getting a Masters in History at Villanova, he decided to write history-laced YA fiction to further a life mission: convince middle schoolers that Social Studies is not the worst subject ever. Matthew hopes to achieve whatever level of literary success allows a writer to summer in Cape Town with his family and go on lots of safaris.
Elise wrote for the Indie Etiquette column and the Indie Mother blog. Her writing and interviews can also be seen in Real Simple, the New York Daily News, BusinessWeek, Martha Steward Weddings, and more. She lives in New York with her husband and two sons.
Audrey Mackaman is a copyeditor and graphic designer with a BA in English literature and creative writing from Beloit College. She has helped numerous aspiring and veteran authors publish their works, either through literary agents or self-publishing avenues.
Ben is a contributing editor at Institutional Investor and Financial Adviser magazines, and an NPR commentator. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Self, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, WashingtonPost.com, and many other financial and general-interest publications and Web sites. Mattlin has appeared on ABC’s Prime Time Live, CNN, and E! Entertainment Network; been interviewed on NPR’s “Morning Edition”; KKFI and KPFK, Los Angeles; KSLC, Salt Lake City; and CKNW, Vancouver; and been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Penthouse, and USA Today. Born in New York City in 1962, Mattlin graduated cum laude from Harvard University in 1984. He lives with his wife, two daughters, a cat, and a turtle in Los Angeles.
Wendy McLeod MacKnight grew up in a magical small town with a library card as her prized possession. Over the course of her professional life, she’s been responsible for early childhood and child welfare programming and ended her public service career as head of the Government of New Brunswick’s Department of Education. Then one day she woke up and decided it was time to pursue her life-long dream of writing books for children. Wendy lives in New Brunswick, Canada with her family, her garden, and a ne’er-do-well groundhog. Follow Wendy on twitter @wendymacknight or visit her on Facebook at WendyMcLeodMacknightWrites! to learn more.
Nicole writes picture books, middle grade, and young adult. When she’s not writing, she can be found working as a school social worker, laughing with her husband, two children, and two cats while drinking room-temperature coffee and enjoying spontaneous pajama dance parties just outside of Chicago.
Eileen Moskowitz-Palma, a former elementary school teacher, has a dual B.A. in English and Elementary Education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is also an alumna of Sarah Lawrence College’s The Writing Institute, where she teaches Novel Writing for Beginners and Intermediate Novel Writing. Eileen lives a vegan-ish lifestyle, unless you count an occasional bacon cheeseburger, and she is a half-marathoner who hopes to be brave enough to one day run the full. She lives in Westchester, NY, with her Wire Fox Terrier Oscar, who is one snaggle-tooth away from being a doggy model, and her daughter Molly.
Laurel is a regular contributor to National Geographic and NYT Magazine for Kids. In 2013, she was awarded University of Michigan’s Humanitarian Service Award for fighting against wildlife crime and also served as a juror for the Indianapolis Prize animal conservation award. She is the author of ANIMAL INVESTIGATORS: How the World’s First Wildlife Forensics Lab is Solving Crimes and Saving Endangered Species (Scribner, 2009), a “CSI for wildlife” that has been featured on ABC News Nightline and NPR’s Science Friday, as well as THE ELEPHANT’S NEW SHOE (Orchard, 2020). She was recently nominated for a Pulitzer Prize for her National Geographic reporting on oil exploration in the Okavango watershed in southern Africa.
Spring Paul is a nerd through and through, from her BS in Zoology and minor in Chemistry to her fascination with Sci-Fi/Fantasy. She believes in learning new things, and as a result is an amateur scuba diver, ballroom dancer, and seamstress. She is a PTA mom, and she runs most mornings because of her tendency to eat too many cookies. She loves her husband and her children fiercely, and she stubbornly refuses to narrow down her list of favorite books, even for the sake of this biography.
Andrea has been editing and writing children’s books for over 15 years—everything from coloring and novelty books to picture books and textbooks. As a freelancer, Andrea has written numerous books in the educational market, and she is the author of The Carousel Ghost, a middle grade mystery. She has an MFA in creative writing and lives in Ohio with a gray cat named Ella. Follow Andrea on Twitter at @AndreaPelleschi.
Amy grew up in the suburbs of Chicago in a tiny house overflowing with animals and kids. When she needed some time to herself, she’d often escape to her room and dream up stories. Now that she’s an adult—numerically, at least—she writes her stories down, usually in the wee hours of the morning before heading off to her job as a middle school language arts teacher. Amy writes middle grade and young adult fiction.
After earning an MSW from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Erin Brubaker Price began her career in the nonprofit world. She wrote direct mail fundraising letters and grant applications before deciding that fiction would be way more fun. Nowadays, her writing contains far fewer charts, graphs, and statistics. Erin lives with her family in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, where she is a reluctant hiker, an adequate kayaker, and an expert marshmallow roaster.
Sarah is a practicing attorney in the Atlanta, Georgia, area where she provides legal services to veterans pursuing work with the federal government. She and her husband Scott have two children and are collecting cats. The count right now is four,and may be more by the time you reach the end of this sentence.
Alex sets all her young adult novels in her picturesque hometown of Santa Fe, New Mexico, despite having moved to New York after high school. She currently writes and resides in Brooklyn with her husband, two kids, and two demanding cats. She harbors a not-so-secret love of rom-coms and all things cheesy, from pizza to The Prom Pact. Alex can be found on TikTok at @alexgirlnyc and on Instagram at @authoralexrichards
Caitlen holds a BA in English Literature and an MA in Publishing from Rosemont College. In addition to Ordinary Magic, she is the author of Lady Vernon and Daughter, which she co-wrote with her mother. She currently lives and works in New Jersey.
Stefanie is a Culinary Nutritionist who works hands-on with individuals and groups in transition to a healthier way of eating. She has her Masters of Science in nutrition from Columbia University, is a Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Dietitian Nutritionist and is a graduate of The Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. In 1999, she launched her private practice working one on one to help prevent illness and restore health through personalized nutrition therapy and culinary guidance. Stefanie has contributed to three books including The Thriving Child by Erica Reid, Crazy Sexy Diet by Kris Carr and Power Up by Dr. Woodson Merrell and Kathy Merrell. She contributes to such print and online media ventures as Harper’s Bazaar, O Magazine and Teen Vogue, as well as The Huffington Post and Healthy Eats by The Food Network. Stefanie lives on the East End of Long Island.
Ron was a staff writer and editor for People, Time, Life, Sports Illustrated, and Money. His work has appeared in USA Today, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Boston Globe, Salt Lake Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Michelle is a University of Michigan behavioral sustainability and motivation scientist, the Associate Director of the Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center for Women and Girls, and a Health Policy Fellow at the Center for Healthcare Research and Transformation. Widely quoted in the media, and consulted as an expert by major publications like The New York Times and government agencies like the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, she is Chair of the National Physical Activity Plan’s Communication Committee. She has a PhD in Psychology (focused on goals and motivational processes) and Master’s Degrees in Health Behavior/Health Education (MPH) and in Kinesiology (MS) from the University of Michigan.
Lauren received her undergraduate degree from Tulane University, where she graduated cum laude with honors in Sociology. She completed her Masters degree in Clinical Nutrition at New York University. Lauren then worked at St Luke’s-Roosevelt obesity research unit and developed a nutrition program for the Equinox fitness clubs. In the fall of 2001 Lauren opened Foodtrainers, where she counsels clients on everything from weight loss to proper sports nutrition. She has written for and been quoted in articles for many websites, magazines and television programs, including: Allure, In Style, Cooking Light, Harper’s Bazaar, Self, Whole Living, WebMD, The New York Post, John Stewart’s Daily Show, ABC’s Eyewitness News, The Early Show, Fox News, Good Morning America and The Today Show. Lauren is an avid runner and skier and she lives in New York City with her husband, sons, and beloved Vitamix.
Mike is the author of the award-winning middle grade series THE EPIC ADVENTURES OF THE TECHNO WIZARD. He is also a proud father, lucky husband, degreed engineer, viral blogger, budding podcaster, decent impressionist, dynamic narrator, lifelong gamer, inept hunter, erstwhile jock, and nerd.
He has cast a ring on the slopes of Mt. Doom, eaten a feast at the Green Dragon Inn, cemented Excalibur in a sandstone block, tasted butter beer at Diagon Alley, and built a secret door to his storage room.
Stefanie writes middle grade fiction from her home in historic Hudson, Ohio. She is a Pitch Wars 2017 alum, a three-time Pitch Wars mentor, and a 2018 Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award winner. Stefanie’s personal essays have appeared in the LA Times, Christian Science Monitor, Seattle Times, Cleveland Magazine, Akron Beacon Journal, This I Believe, Cup of Comfort, and 16 Chicken Soup for the Soul anthologies
Mike Winchell is a teacher, author, editor, and all-around good guy. Known as “Winch” to his students, Mike teaches creative writing, film study, journalism, and Enriched English, and enjoys every minute with his students. Mike is the creator & editor of Been There, Done That, a thematic anthology series that shows young readers how accomplished authors use their lives to inspire fiction, as well as the non-fiction middle grade, The Electric War: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Light the World. Mike lives with his wife and two kids in upstate New York.
Paul Yeager is a meteorologist, working at one time for Accuweather.com, as well as a freelance writer. As a child, he was annoyed when reading, writing, and arithmetic were referred to as the “Three Rs” and he hasn’t changed a bit over the years.
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