Speakers
Dawn Wellington – @dawnmwellington
Dawn Wellington is the founder and president of Wellington Group. With more than 11 years of public relations, marketing and event planning experience, Wellington offers a wide variety of creative, innovative and strategic communications services to help clients drive revenue and achieve business goals. Wellington has diverse experience with local, regional and national clients in a variety of industries including art, entertainment, broadband, telecommunications, nonprofit, mass retail, music and music festivals, weight loss and much more. Wellington is a graduate from the University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism with an emphasis on Public Relations.
Wellington is a competitive runner and has participated and volunteered for more than 40 races, including 11 half-marathons, one marathon and one 30K.
Esther Brady Crawford – @faintstarlite
Esther Crawford is a mom to an eight month old, but will soon have a larger troop since her family is in the process of adopting a sibling group through foster care. In 2004, she began a travel blog to document her experience of living in the Middle East, which over the years has morphed into a life memoir. After video blogging her 70lb weight loss journey with Weight Watchers, she became an online spokeswoman and content creator for the company.
She has also worked with other brands such as Kmart where she co-directed the social media and blogger outreach initiatives for their design related webisodes, which included coordinating primary research, targeted paid placements, in-person events, and helping the company think through new policies and procedures for online interaction.
Today, Esther maintains her personal blog, FaintStarLite.com, and contributes regular videos about her healthier lifestyle on the official Weight Watchers MySpace and Facebook pages. She speaks and holds workshops at blogger conferences across the country such as Blissdom and BlogHer, as well as regional social media events.
Courtney Robinson
Courtney Robinson joined the WJLA/NewsChannel 8 team as a reporter in September, 2008. Before arriving in our nation’s capital, she worked as a reporter and fill-in anchor for WSET-TV, in Lynchburg, Virginia. While in Lynchburg, she covered a number of stories, including the shootings at Virginia Tech and the death of the Reverend Jerry Falwell.
Her reporting from the Virginia Tech campus earned her the second of two consecutive Virginia Associated Press awards for “Outstanding Effort by an Individual Reporter.”
Courtney graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication. She was a dedicated member of the student-produced newscast, Carolina Week. For that she received the John L. Greene award for an exceptional student and honors from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Broadcast Education Association. She’s also worked with ABC’s Primetime Thursday and spent time in newsrooms in Charleston, South Carolina, and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Courtney is a member of the Junior League of Washington. A Fort Bragg, North Carolina, native, she’s also involved in the Special Operations Warrior Foundation. Courtney loves spending time with her friends and family in the D.C. area.
David Grotto, RD, LDN – @DavidGrotto
Dave Grotto is a registered dietitian who worked in the natural foods industry for over 25 years, which he claims gave him a wide-angle view of the field of nutrition.
He graduated with honors from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a degree in medical dietetics and nutrition and was also bestowed the Excellence in Practice award by the American Dietetic Association for his clinical work. He was also appointed to serve as a national media spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association for over six years.
Dave served as the director of nutrition at the Block Center for Integrative Cancer Care for over ten years and now is the founder and president of Nutrition Housecall, a nutrition consulting firm that provides nutrition communications, lecturing and consulting services, and also offers personalized at-home dietary services.
Dave also has vast media experience appearing on numerous radio and television programs such as You the Owners Manual radio program with Dr. Roizen, the Montel Williams Show and iVillage Live. He also co-hosted the national television program, Health & Lifestyles, Weekly with Rock-of-Love2 star, Ambre Lake and also hosted his own radio show for over 10 years called Let’s Talk Health, CHICAGO.
His acclaimed book, 101 Foods That Could Save Your Life
One of Dave’s passions is improving the health of children through good nutrition. He is the advisory board chair for Produce for Kids® and PBS Kids™ health initiative. Dave also lectures extensively on the benefits of humor and laughter therapy and is a Certified Laughter Leader, receiving further training in improvisation from The Second City in Chicago. He lives in the Chicagoland area with his wife Sharon; three daughters Chloe, Katie and Madison; and two-female dogs Abbey and Gracie.
Sahar Elhodiri Aker – @FatFighterTV
Sahar is a veteran TV News Health Reporter who has had her stories featured on CNN and local TV stations across the country. She has been a trusted health journalist since 1994 and has interviewed hundreds of doctors and patients in multiple cities over the years.
Sahar now runs FatFighterTV.com – a fun and informative website featuring the latest news and videos on diet, fitness, and the obesity epidemic. Her work can also be found in a weekly feature on Yahoo Shine, as well as on television news sites, including WBNS-TV and KAKE-TV. Her videos are seen by thousands in the waiting rooms of doctors’ offices on Health Info TV. Sahar still makes TV appearances to talk about topics related to diet and fitness.
Heather Ashare – @AshareHeather
Heather Ashare is a writer specializing in nutrition, wellness and health. She received a Masters degree in public health from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Michigan. Heather has written for a number of health publications and magazines around the country including The Detroit News, NY Spirit and Yahoo Shine. She is currently the Health and Wellness Editor for DietsInReview.com, a website dedicated to helping individuals lead healthier and happier lives.
Heather has also been a dedicated practitioner and instructor of Ashtanga yoga for the past seven years. She has also been studying Ayurveda medicine, the ancient form of Indian health and healing for the past three years and edited the book “The Power to Heal,” which is an introduction to Ayurveda.
She lives with her husband and their daughter in Michigan.
Charlie Hills – @CharlieHills
Charlie Hills is the author of Why Your Last Diet Failed You and How This Book Won’t Help You on Your Next One, the gripping true story of how one man lost seventeen-thousand pounds in just one hundred and ninety-two short months and then gained it all back last Thanksgiving. No inspiring success stories here, folks: just the reality most of us face as lifelong dieters served with a side of humor. After all, next to Tylenol, laughter is the best medicine.
Aside from dieting, Charlie has spent most of his adult life as a software developer. That is, until 2009 when he decided to trade it all for a position in management . . . which isn’t too bad as he can still smell all the software development going on around him.
He also fancies himself an aspiring musician, an amateur artist, and a semi-professional pumpkin carver. Additionally, he is a card-carrying member of the macaroni military.
If you’d like to keep up with his day to day doings, you’ll most likely find him heading Back to the Fridge. By night he’s working on his first real novel, the title of which he’d like to tell you but he’s afraid that will jinx the whole project.
Carmen Staicer – @mttsm
Carmen Staicer is a mom to six kids who realized, one day, that she was fat. Despite trying many different fad diets, she was unable to lose weight. On January 1, 2006 she made a New Year’s Resolution to try to figure out, once and for all, the secret to long term weight loss. She settled on a revolutionary concept that she titled “The Elff Diet: Eat Less Fatty Foods.” By eating less and moving more, this woman who couldn’t walk around the block without resting lost eighty pounds, completed a half marathon, and is currently well on her way to a Black Belt in Muay Thai Boxing. She’s been seen on Fox News, in Real Simple magazine, and in several local and national magazines and news programs discussing diet and exercise.
Carmen can be found online at Mom to the Screaming Masses, where she chronicles her life as a mom of a large family full of smart alecs, laundry avoiders and sports nuts. She blogs at The Elff Diet, where she discusses diet, exercise and all things health related. She is the Chief Mom for Diets In Review, a website that provides the tools and information needed to educate yourself to start living a healthier life for today and tomorrow. She is also the corporate blogger for Zwaggle, a website devoted to share, trade and swap kid’s gear. In her spare time, she loves to take boxing class, trains Muay Thai, reads, blogs, wastes time on Twitter (@mttsm) and Facebook, and cooks like nobody’s business. She never sleeps.
Marsha Hudnall – @MarshaHUdnall
Marsha Hudnall, RD, MS, is director and owner at Green Mountain at Fox Run, a women’s retreat in Vermont that was founded almost 40 years ago to help women stop dieting, achieve a healthy weight and feel good about themselves regardless of their size. Marsha’s mission at Green Mountain has been to help women learn to enjoy food and eating while successfully managing their weight and health. This is an area she is personally as well as professionally versed in. Marsha successfully overcame an eating disorder she struggled with for most of her 20s; she became a nutritionist in part to help herself.
An accomplished writer, Marsha has produced a body of work that reflects her desire to help people move away from restrictive notions of food and health, and thereby more easily achieve a healthful intake. She has written over 100 articles for popular magazines and newsletters and has worked extensively on a national basis to produce curricula, pamphlets and other materials to educate the public about nutrition. She is the author of Carbohydrates: What You Need to Know
Marsha is frequently interviewed by media for her insight on eating, weight, health and healthy lifestyles. Over the years, she has also served in many leadership roles in national and state nutrition and health organizations. Most recently, she has been asked to serve on the board of the Binge Eating Disorder Association.
Scott Stawarz – @scottstawarz
Scott Stawarz is the principal technologist of Octavity.com, a technology studio in Chicago. At Octavity, Scott helps businesses solve problems with e-commerce, blogging, search engine optimization, social media marketing, networking architecture, and software development. In addition to consulting, he provides training to technology training centers and businesses. Scott is an adjunct faculty member at Harper College, in Palatine, IL where he teaches internet technologies, SQL Server databases, and social media optimization. Scott is a 10 year Microsoft Certified Trainer holding numerous technology certifications.
In 2004, Scott co-founded Simpleweight.com with his brother as a way to manage their fitness and challenge others to do the same. It gave Scott an opportunity to meld his passions for helping people, technology, and fitness. Scott has used simpleweight as a way to experiment with new technologies such as ruby on rails development, internet marketing, and experimental search engine optimization techniques.
On the internet, you can find Scott blogging at simpleweight.com, octavity.com, and scott.stawarz.com. When he is not on the internet, Scott can be found building lego houses with his two young children, cooking for his runner wife, or researching and reading (typically on the internet).
Emi Hofmeister – @EmiHof
Emi Hofmeister is Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Real Girls Media, where she leads content acquisition, syndication, and partnership acquisition for DivineCaroline.com, a top 20 online community for women. Within her first year, Emi helped to grow the Real Girls Media Ad Network from fifteen publishers to over fifty, and effectively integrated bloggers and advertisers to create dynamic campaigns that optimized returns. She is integral to DivineCaroline’s marketing and social media efforts as the official “Tweeter,” content syndicator, and manager of the site’s SEO strategy. Prior to Real Girls Media, Emi worked on the account team at Venebles Bell & Partners in San Francisco, where she developed and supervised interactive and alternative media programs for Barclays U.S.
A native of the mid-West, Emi now lives in San Francisco where she enjoys hiking, skiing, and running. She completed her first marathon this past October, in Chicago.
Linda Konner
Linda Konner founded the Linda Konner Literary Agency (LKLA) in 1996, and today it represents approximately 80 authors of adult nonfiction books. LKLA also handles a number of corporate clients, including Harvard Health Publications (the trade-book publishing division of Harvard Medical School) and the award-winning Tsunami restaurant in Memphis, as well as such notables as comedienne Phyllis Diller; Henry Heimlich, MD, creator of the Heimlich maneuver; Charles Strouse, composer of “Annie” and “Bye Bye Birdie”; Maurice Ashley, the first African-American international chess grandmaster; internationally renowned genealogist Megan Smolenyak; Congresswomen Loretta Sanchez and Linda Sanchez; Kathy Bloomgarden, PhD, CEO of Ruder Finn Public Relations Worldwide; and Yrma Rico, one of the founders of Univision. LKLA works with every major U.S. publishing house, as well as with sub-agents in Hollywood and throughout the world.
Linda Konner has been in publishing business for over 30 years, as an agent, author, editor, columnist and lecturer. She has written eight books, including Just the Weigh You Are: How to be fit and healthy whatever your size (Houghton Mifflin) and The Last Ten Pounds (Avon), both of which were reissued in 2000 by Barnes & Noble Publishing; How to Be Successfully Published in Magazines (St. Martin’s Press), Why Can’t a Man Be More Like a Cat? (Dell), and Your Perfect Weight (Rodale), which has sold over 450,000 copies.
Konner has served as editor-in-chief of Weight Watchers Magazine and Richard Simmons’s monthly newsletter, Richard Simmons & Friends, and was a features editor at Redbook, Seventeen and Woman’s World. She was a columnist for Glamour and Fitness magazines, and her articles have appeared in dozens of publications, including The New York Times, Publishers Weekly, The Saturday Evening Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Playboy, The N.Y. Daily News, Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Day. Her controversial piece for New Woman magazine, “Living Apart and Loving It,” became the basis for Donahue and Sally Jessy Raphael shows. One of her most popular articles was “Growing Up with a Fat Mother,” which appeared in Glamour and was based on her relationship with her 300-pound mom.
Konner has lectured on book and magazine publishing at more than five dozen writers’ conferences and colleges, including New York University, the Pacific Northwest Writers’ Conference, the annual Harvard nonfiction writing workshop in Boston, the Cape Cod Writers’ Conference, Brooklyn College, the BlissDom blogger conference, and the Univ. of Wisconsin (River Falls).
Konner is a member of the Association of Authors’ Representatives, the Authors Guild, and the American Society of Journalists and Authors.
Caitlin Boyle – @caitlinHTP
Caitlin Boyle, the blogger behind Healthy Tipping Point and Operation Beautiful, began blogging in 2008. Caitlin had worked as a freelance writer and technical writer for seven years, but in September 2009, she resigned from her corporate job to write a book based on Operation Beautiful. The book will be published in August 2010 by Gotham Books.
Caitlin writes a daily food and fitness blog, Healthy Tipping Point, which chronicles how Caitlin balances her busy lifestyle with healthy eating and exercise. Readers relate to her “Everywomen” experiences and enjoy her 5K, 10K, and Half Marathon race recaps. Healthy Tipping Point receives more than 430,000 page views a month, including more than 15,500 unique visitors a day. Caitlin utilizes her personal blog as a way to encourage other women to stay healthy and active and seeks to remind readers that there the “healthy ideal” looks different for every woman.
Operation Beautiful originally began on Healthy Tipping Point. In June 2009, Caitlin was inspired to post a note that simply read “You Are Beautiful!” in a public restroom. She took a picture of her note and posted it on Healthy Tipping Point. The response from her readers was instantaneous, and Caitlin’s e-mail was flooded with photographs of notes posted all over the country. Within two days, Caitlin knew she had a phenomenon on her hands and launched Operation Beautiful. The site was noticed by a literary agent in July, and the rest is history.
Caitlin is 25 years old and lives in Orlando, Florida with her husband and her two dogs. She is currently raising money for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as she trains for her first marathon. In August 2009, Caitlin served as a chairperson for a two-day Healthy Living Summit, which hosted more than 125 food and fitness bloggers. In addition to blogging, her other writing experience includes a five-year stint as a contributing columnist for The Wall Street Journal Classroom Edition. Caitlin attended the University of Pittsburgh and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Non-Fiction Creative Writing.
Heather Blessington – @mamaVISION
mamaVISION, aka Heather Blessington, is the Founder of WeAreTheRealDeal, launched at BlogHer July 2009.
As a blogger since 2006, she made a name for herself as “mamaVISION,” serving as a voice of reason for girls with eating disorders. There her focus has been the pro-anorexia community, exposing their sick minded practices, and working to deprogram the young minds that are being sucked into this “lifestyle.”
As a former Paris model at 16, Heather had to be deprogrammed herself, spending years in therapy to recover from her eating disorder and exercise obsession, spurred by the impossible demands of the fashion industry.
Now, Midwestern mother of two, her in-your-face attitude often provokes controversy, incites online riots from time to time, and something she takes great pride in having the guts to do it.
“A blog is nothing if not a place for debate. I have absolutely no interest in nicey-nice conversations, positioned to make the community feel good. I am here to make people think, and that means no sugar coating – no b.s.”
Heather’s is a supporter of the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), committee member of Women’s Fund, Girl Scout Leader, and volunteer tech geek for Normal In Schools (NIS), a charity organization.
She has been featured in The Onion, Milwaukee Magazine Parents Canada, REAL Magazine, BBC World Speaks and USA Today online, and was selected to be a part of Oprah’s Blogger Network.
Heather is the proud parent of two amazing children, the grateful wife of a wonderful husband, and the daughter of incredible, generous parents.
Melissa “Lissa” Henriquez – @Lissa10279
Tying together her passions for writing and social media, in June 2008, Melissa Henriquez (Lissa) began her blog, Tales of a (Recovering) Disordered Eater, to help her overcome disordered eating issues and raise awareness about something many women grapple with, but few actually talk about.
Between traditional therapy and blogotherapy, she’s been an advocate for women struggling with body image issues. She’s been featured as a guest blogger at various wellness blogs and has reviewed several books since her blog’s inception. Knowing she is helping others as she, herself, heals has been the greatest asset she’s discovered through blogging.
A writer by trade, Melissa’s professional career in public relations and communications has spanned the non-profit, government, and private sectors. Today, she is the public relations manager at a large digital advertising agency in Michigan. Responsible for agency promotion, Melissa uses various public relations tactics to help the agency score new business opportunities.
Before moving to Michigan from Washington, D.C. in 2006, Melissa was a press relations specialist at Peace Corps headquarters, where she was responsible for promoting the amazing work volunteers do all over the world. Prior to her employment with Peace Corps, she served as communications coordinator at the Natural Gas Supply Association (a lobbying group) and taught English in El Salvador after completing graduate school.
Melissa received a bachelor’s degree in international studies with a focus on Latin America and international communications from American University in Washington, D.C. in 2001. A year later, she earned a master’s degree in public communication, also from American University.
Melissa loves to travel, blog, write, read, cook and exercise. She is happily married, and hopes to hear the pitter-patter of little feet in the near future … all the more reason she strives for self-love and body peace.
Benjamin Teal – @benjamteal
Benjamin Teal is the author of Build-Muscle-and-Burn-Fat.com and creator of Middle Management™ for fitness.
A two sport athlete in college (though not at the same time, there was a battle lost with a door and… well, it’s a long story), he struggled with his eating and exercise habits once life as an athlete transitioned to life as a “shirt and tie middle manager.”
Ben briefly forgot everything he had learned about staying lean and building muscle and gained over 100 pounds in a failed experiment with the “Deliver Me Delivery” Diet.
After a series of events conspired to wake him up (including a broken office chair in a meeting to decide on places within the company to “trim the fat”) he created the Middle Management Method, a system of fitness based on business principles, and successfully lost the weight he had gained.
Today, he is one of the most widely followed fitness “tweeters” with over 50,000 followers, and runs several websites including the FatLossAcademy.com, a 52-week, take-you-by-the-hand, course on how to use Middle Management to make a lifestyle change.
In his spare time, he spends as much quality time as possible with his two sons (2 and almost 1) and his wife Wendy. When they go to sleep, he masquerades online as a frog from the Caribbean…
Carla Birnberg – @mizfitonline
Carla Birnberg is an award winning author and fitness expert. A onetime personal trainer, she owned a boutique training studio, Head2Heel, in Chapel Hill, N.C. Carla also competes in both bodybuilding and fitness including a third place finish in the 2001 NPC House of Pain bodybuilding show.
Her writing can be seen on Yahoo!Shine, in the Atkins Nutritional monthly newsletter, Experience Life Magazine, Austin Monthly Magazine and as a monthly health column in Good Life Magazine.
Carla is also the author of the book, The Whole Megillah: Miztvahs, Matzo Balls & Everything in Between (Bluegrass Publishing, May 2007). Carla writes for the Austin American Statesman. Her work there includes feature stories and two advice columns targeted toward elementary school aged and tweens.
She’s also the author/creator of the Twisted Tales serial for which she won an award for creativity from Cox Newspapers.
Carla’s blog, MizFitOnline, has been selected to serve as part of Oprah’s Virtual Digital Blogging Network and is ranked by Austin Monthly Magazine as one of the top 3 health blogs in the city. Connect with carla on twitter @mizfitonline
Jim Doran – @jimdoran
Jim Doran is a software engineer with Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, where he blogs, designs and builds Web sites. He also teaches people how to make Web sites in the evenings at the Community College of Baltimore County. He can be found on twitter @jimdoran. Jim loves all things WordPress, and specializes in WordPress theme design and development.
When Jim isn’t being a professional geek, he practices and teaches Chinese Kung Fu. Currently, he’s using a blog to help train for his next black belt test.
Jim is convinced that our lives can be positively affected from blogging. Since starting his personal blog two years ago, he has curated a national sketchbook swap, participated in several national art exhibits and been published in Artful Blogging magazine. Jim speaks on Web design, web accessibility and Social Media – all with the intention of helping other people find positive outcomes in their own lives.
Jennette Fulda – @pastaqueen
Jennette Fulda was born weighing 8 pounds 5 ounces, but eventually tipped the scales at 372 pounds before losing almost 200 pounds through diet and exercise. After she lost half her weight, she ran a half marathon and wrote a book called “Half-Assed: A Weight-Loss Memoir.” Then she got a headache that still hasn’t gone away, regained 35 pounds, and is writing about the ordeal in her next book due in fall 2010 titled, “Chocolate & Vicodin: And other failed cures for the headache that wouldn’t go away.” She chronicles her life after the “after” photo in her blog, PastaQueen, and does freelance web design at Make My Blog Pretty. She also believes no one actually reads these bios, so if you see her, say “I’m in the macaroni military” to prove her wrong.
Leah Segedie – @bookieboo
Leah Segedie is a communications professional, creator of niche web communities, social media junkie and Chief Mom of Operations of Bookieboo LLC, a publishing company and social media consulting firm. She specializes in connecting companies with digital moms and coordinating web design projects. Bookieboo LLC currently operates Bookieboo, Mamavation, Moms Rock the Economy, Bookieboo Rave Reviews & Giveaways and Serenity Now.
Leah Segedie, known as @bookieboo on Twitter, has been recognized for several feats in her professional and personal life. She recently placed 1st on Top #50 Tweeples on PRSarahEvans.com for 2009. She has also lost over 150 lbs. and has been featured in several magazines, websites, and periodicals for her accomplishments, such as Ladies Home Journal, Fitness RX, Hybrid Mom, The Acorn, Mom It Forward, The Well Mom, etc.
Leah has a Masters in Communication Management from the University of Southern California. She was also Commencement Speaker during her 2001 Graduation Ceremony at the University of Southern California when she received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Communication. And finally she graduated Valedictorian from College of the Canyons when she transferred and accepted the Presidential Scholarship to the University of Southern California. Go Trojans!
Veronica “Roni” Noone – @RonisWeigh
Veronica “Roni” Noone started blogging in 2005 as a way to help stay accountable on her personal weight-loss journey. Almost five years later, her mission is simple: inspire and share her ideas to live a lighter, healthier life. She does this through her blogs Roni’s Weigh, GreenLiteBites and SkinnyMinnyMedia. Recognizing the power of blogging, she also started a supportive online community called BlogToLose where, today, more than 2,200 individuals are blogging their way to a healthier lifestyle.
Roni’s daily blog posts, tweets, and video posts have created a fiercely loyal following of readers. On average, more than 3,500 people visit Roni’s Weigh, GreenLiteBites and BlogToLose each day. Roni has also gained notoriety by being quoted and published in many publications including: Women’s World, Wired and The Baltimore Sun. She’s also been a speaker at various events, including BlogHer DC – Reach Out Tour and BlogHer 2009.
Currently, Veronica is training for the 2009 Baltimore Marathon. In March 2010, she will host the first ever FitBloggin’ conference in Baltimore, Maryland – a place for new and seasoned health, wellness, weight loss and fitness bloggers to come together for knowledge, personal growth and networking..
