About Boston Mamas

Guest Contributors

Michelle Stern may be based in the Bay Area, but her enthusiastic, earth friendly approach to helping guide busy families towards healthful meals together makes her a natural fit for the Boston Mamas team. In her former life, Michelle was a high school science teacher who, during one research stint, logged field hours studying monkey mating behavior on an island off of Puerto Rico.

Now Michelle is a mother of two and the founder of What's Cooking, a green business that offers healthy and seasonal cooking classes and birthday parties to kids in the San Francisco Bay Area. And for the adults, she offers What’s Cooking Weekly, an online subscription service for healthy family menus, including recipes, grocery lists, nutrition information, and tips on getting kids involved in the preparation of meals through the week.

For the past two years, Amy has served as the Manager of Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts’s Let's Be Honest! parent education program (see our review). She was a PPLM community health educator for three years prior, developing and teaching comprehensive sexuality education to middle and high school students, youth in DSS and DYS care, and parent groups and professionals who work with youth. Amy also has worked as a field supervisor for graduate and undergraduate students at Wheelock College, an elementary school teacher, and an environmental sciences teacher at the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

In her “free time” Amy serves on the board of The Cambridge School of Weston, an independent secondary day and boarding school, and volunteers for The Second Step, a transitional program for women and children who are survivors of domestic violence. She and her husband have a 21-year-old son and a 19-year-old daughter and are busy training their new puppy.

Carole Arsenault handles babies like nobody’s business. The found of Newborn Nurses, Carole is a certified childbirth educator and board certified lactation consultant who has worked at the Brigham, St. Elizabeth’s, and Caritas, and has helped many new parents survive the “boot camp” phase with a new baby at home.

Carole will provide content on pregnancy and postpartum topics; she lives in the Boston area with her husband and three children.

Kate, a Boston lifer, is mama to a fabulous 16-month-old daughter. She spends her working hours as an urban planner solving the pedestrian and transportation quandaries of Massachusetts (no small feat!), and her evenings and weekends hanging with her friends and family, scoring killer retail finds, and absorbing an unbelievable amount of printed matter. We totally love that someone so smart (really, you have no idea how many "real" books this woman reads and how many different graduate degree programs she has passed on!) also digs kicking up her heels with a juicy celebrity gossip mag.

Kate and Christine have been friends since before the dawn of e-mail; experiencing the mama journey together has been as wonderful, natural, and decidedly chaotic as all of their adventures through adolescence and early adulthood.

Tracy, a psychologist and mother of two boys, ages 5 ½ and 3, hails all the way from Canada. Tracy's interest in "all things mama" began when her first son was born during grad school; she joined various mama groups, and quickly realized that her situation was both fortunate and challenging. She was lucky to have a flexible schedule, but the immense unspoken pressures of being a woman in academics loomed. However, Tracy soon realized that all her new mama friends were struggling with a variety of issues, which naturally piqued her interest from a psychological adjustment perspective (surprise, surprise).

Tracy and Christine met during grad school, and quickly bonded over their love of good food, crafty things, and a required year of statistics tantamount to 'academic hazing.' Her interests otherwise span everything from useless trivia, to voraciously reading anything and everything, to art, to running. An avid Boston Mamas reader and tipster, she's thrilled to formally join the party.

Sharon, among many other things, is the famous Auntie Sha-Sha to Laurel. When she's not outputting far more energy than Christine could ever dream of mustering at the park or in the "art studio" at home with Laurel, her work involves teaching kids and adults to appreciate music (via private tutelage and in the public schools) and food (via her work at one Boston's finest restaurants). Sharon also is the family Iron Woman; she knocks off half-marathons or 5K runs with enviable ease, she's pedaled the Boston-NYC AIDS ride, and now she's learning to swim so she can become a triathlete. Christine likes to think that she's getting her own daily exercise via osmosis through Sharon.

Sharon and Christine obviously have known one another for a long time; but Sharon is a natural and dynamic caregiver, and we look forward to her contributions on these pages.

Jules may be the spring chicken of our gang, but her many gifts have taken her on a whirlwind tour around the professional block. Jules started out after college as an assistant in the catering industry and eventually founded her own catering business before changing course and earning her MSW. Not too shortly thereafter, though, the lure of the kitchen called again, and she returned to professional cooking, food styling, and freelance writing/editing for premiere food magazines in New York City. When she’s not busy writing, psychoanalyzing, and creating in the kitchen, Jules burns the pavement training for marathons.

Jules recently returned to the Boston area and will provide content related to food (recipes that really and truly can be made quickly, without the assistance of Rachael Ray’s prep staff…), fitness, and how to keep it all together from a mental health perspective.

Heather, a former South End mama who now resides in the burbs of Boston, works in insurance technology by day, and otherwise relishes her time with her husband, 4-year-old daughter Em, and 8-month-old triplets Will, Adie, and Theo. Heather’s family and friends typically are found traipsing the local parks, gardens, museums, aquariums, and libraries. That is, when they aren’t rocking national holidays with festive baked goods, decorations, and dress. This Halloween, Heather’s kids will suit up as The Three Little Pigs and the (tiara-wearing) Big Bad Wolf.

Christine and Heather met earlier this year and made an instant connection through their love of parenthood, similarly sweet and shy preschool daughters, and passions for baking, crafting, gardening, cool mama finds, and - most recently - paper.

April, a local freelance writer and editor, has an appetite for the cool and crafty. She has written on a range of topics including architecture, design, food, travel, science, and crafts. Her work has appeared in publications such as Martha Stewart Living, New Old House, Body and Soul, and Wondertime; she also co-authored The Artful Bride.

When April’s not writing and editing, she’s crafting or rocking music and swim lessons with her 23-month-old daughter, experimenting in the kitchen or in cooking classes (she went to pastry school in Paris), or plotting her family’s next travel adventure.

[April's photo credit: Kathleen Dooher]

After many years moving up, down, and around the East Coast - from her native Philadelphia, and then to law school, and then to follow her husband during his stint in business school - Jen has finally settled in Boston. A former prosecutor turned writer and proud Boston mama, Jen is currently working on the sale of her first novel, searching for inspiration for her second novel, and freelance writing.

When Jen’s not writing, she’s traipsing all over Boston with her adorable baby daughter, attending baby classes and attempting to resist her newfound weakness for organic baby toys. She’s also an avid reader.

Suz lives in Norton with her husband, 2-year-old son Evan, 3-month-old daughter Addison, and 2 big Labrador Retrievers. Evan was born with Trisomy 21, the most common form of Down syndrome, and the family’s lives quickly changed. And after time, research, and connecting with other amazing people and resources, they realized the change was for the better.

Suz is passionate about making the world an amazing place for differently-abled kids. She is an active member of the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress, and works part-time as a corporate recruiter for Boston Scientific. When Suz isn’t working, enjoying time with her family, or researching Down syndrome, her favorite spot is a bookstore or cafe to read and sip a latte on her own.