Lauren Adams, Activity Guide writer

Lauren wanted to be a teacher for as long as she could remember. She fulfilled her dream and spent 15 wonderful years teaching first and second graders in Prince William County, Virginia. Now she has downsized her class to one student -- her beautiful daughter Rylie.

Nina Barnett, Graphics Design, If My Mom Were a Platypus

Nina is designed, If My Mom Were a Platypus. Now a resident of Tabori & Chang, she has worked extensively in the book industry. She has designed a book for Simon & Schuster and Random House. She has received a BFA in visual communications/graphic design from the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore, MD.

Andrew Barthelmes, Illustrator, If My Mom Were a Platypus

Andrew Barthelmes, illustrator of If My Mom Were a Platypus, and designer of I Was Born to Be a Brother, Sleeping with your Baby, and 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Science, is a New York based illustrator and graphic designer. A graduate of The School of Visual Arts, his illustrations have appeared in publications such as The New Yorker, Ladies' Home Journal, Street & amp; Smith's Sports, and The Wall Street Journal. In addition to the Platypus book, he also illustrated Herman the Loudmouth. He has been a children's book designer for Random House, Inc. and is currently creating new children's books for Reader's Digest. He lives in Peekskill, NY with his wife Barbara, and baby, Julia.

Barbara Barthelmes, Copyeditor

Along with being a copyeditor and proofreader for Platypus Media projects, Barbara has worked for The Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group for five years, and is currently Senior Managing Editor. When she's not flipping through manuscripts or catching typos, she's probably cuddling with or nursing baby Julia, if "Da-da" Andrew isn't already holding her. The family enjoys the outdoors any way they can in their hometown that's still home, Peekskill, NY.

Laura L. Fitzsimons, Marketing Manager

Laura has several years of marketing and sales experience in a retail environment dealing with baby and parenting merchandise. She is excited about joining the team at the corporate office of Platypus Media and Science, Naturally! She has a degree in Marketing and Professional Writing. She recently relocated from the Philadelphia area and now enjoys living on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Brian, an Attorney at the Securities and Exchange Commission, and their two cats, Louis and Bella.

Martin Foner, Director of Operations

In addition to consulting with mid sized and small publishers since 1982, Marty has owned and managed two publishing companies. He was CEO for 15 years at KIDSRIGHTS, a mid sized publisher/cataloger, which is now owned by a large Midwestern publisher. Marty's training and early career in Strategic and Tax Planning for small businesses gave him the opportunity to work with and help grow hundreds of small and mid sized companies in various fields, providing broad experience in what it takes to make a business successful. He was a Co-Founder and Past President of the Florida Publishers Association pets.

Janelle Hatton, Researcher

Janelle is currently enjoying the 'quiet' life of caring for her two young daughters. A former member of U.S. Army military intelligence community, Janelle received a degree in marine biology which lead her to working at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. In 2000, she left her job in defense contracting to be a full-time mom. She now resides in northern Virginia with her husband, two daughters and an assortment of pets.

Kathy Leggett, Supervising Editor, Activity Guides

Kathy Leggett has been creating exciting schooldays for little people for more than 20 years, most of them as a first grade teacher in Prince William County, Virginia, public schools. She incorporates ideas that have worked in real classrooms into our Platypus Media activity guides. Kathy earned her teaching degree from Fairmont State University and her masters in gifted and talent education from West Virginia University. The mother of two boys, Kathy is also an active Cub Scout pack and den leader.

Nathan Levy, Author, 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Science and 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Math

In his thirty five years as a teacher and principal, Nathan worked directly with children, teachers and parents. He has developed unique teaching strategies that encouraged the love of learning. Mr. Levy has mentored more than thirty current principals and superintendents, as well as helped to train thousands of teachers and parents in methods to help children learn. For the past thirty years Nathan's workshops have been among the most popular at state and national education conferences. Nathan has done workshops in the areas of Reading Language Arts, Social Studies, Math, Critical Thinking, Gifted, Special Education & Classroom Management.

Dia Michels, President

An internationally published science and health writer, Dia L. Michels has written for People, Parents, Parenting and Public Radio, International. Prior to founding and writing for Platypus Media, she wrote the award-winning Milk, Money & Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding and the best-selling A Woman's Guide to Yeast Infections. Michels is a popular speaker, lecturing frequently at conferences, universities, libraries and schools around the country. She lives in Washington, DC with her husband, a physicist with NASA, their three children and three cats.

Emily Schuster, Research and Editing, If My Mom Were a Platypus

Emily works in publications at a museum, where she gets to learn about all kinds of cool mammals every day. A graduate of Johns Hopkins University, she has also worked as the assistant editor of the children's magazine Science Weekly. Her articles have appeared in the Baltimore Sun and the National Zoo's ZooGoer magazine. Emily lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Kevin Segal, co-author of 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Math

Kevin Segal earned his Bachelor's in Pure Mathematics and his Master's in Applied Mathematics from California State University, Fullerton, and also spent 4 years on post-graduate studies in Applied Mathematics at UCLA. He is an Associate of the Society of Actuaries and has spent the last 12 years working as a "charismatic number cruncher" in one of the nation's premier executive benefit consulting firms. Kevin lives in Chatsworth, California with his wife, daughter, and son.

Debra Stover, Graphic Design, Marketing

Debra is a freelance graphic designer and illustrator living and working in Sterling, Virginia. She has a degree in graphic design and has been a designer/illustrator for over 20 years. She is a member of the Graphic Artists Guild, the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and Cultural Arts of Greater Washington.

Sarah Watson, Marketing Assistant

Sarah Watson has recently returned from a 2 year stint with the Peace Corps. She worked in a tiny village in Moldova teaching Health Education to anyone who would listen to her. Sarah has an intense love for anything involving literature. She grew up with a librarian mother and has spent a lot of her time with her nose buried in a book. Sarah is excited to be working at Platypus with another returned Peace Corps volunteer, Maya Brown. In addition to her job at Platypus Media and Science Naturally, Sarah teaches English as a Second Language in Georgetown.

Douglas Wink, Art Director

Douglas Wink is an award-winning designer whose career began at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. There he taught graphic design and book arts. He has designed publications for Doubleday, The Pierpont Morgan Library, The Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. His wife, Marcia Sullivan, is active in the dance community, an interest Wink shares. He has designed materials for dance companies including Parsons Dance, Alvin Ailey and Dance Theater of Harlem, as well as the Joyce Theater and Jacob's Pillow. Today, Wink runs Inkway Graphics from a Victorian townhouse in Jersey City. He collects fountain pens to remind himself that email is only a passing fad.

Denise Wright, Office Manager

Denise was born in York, Pennsylvania and has lived in northern Virginia since 1993. A mother of three, she has held numerous administrative positions, and has worked as a freelance writer, editor, and desktop publisher. She even had a brief stint as proprietor of a clothing store. A talented singer/songwriter, she occasionally performs in the area with her husband Charles. Denise is the backbone of the office; she is dedicated to the company mission and keeps everything running smoothly.

Marc Zev, co-author of 101 Things Everyone Should Know About Math

Marc Zev is the founder and president of the Foundation for Innovative Learning, a non-profit dedicated to enhancing the problem solving abilities of children and adults, and is also the owner of Pensive Products, a company created to develop educational tools. He lives in Chatsworth, California with his wife, two sons and their dog.

Interns

College interns play an important role in the day to day operations at Science Naturally!. Students spend a semester working part-time in the office. Through a hands-on approach to learning students are submerged in the publishing industry. We are happy to consider students and/or college graduates from any school who have an interest in writing, editing, publishing, or marketing. For more information please email us at info@ScienceNaturally.com.
If you are a George Washington University student or a student at American University you can easily apply to our internship program through your career resource center on campus or online.