Christine Koh, Founder & Editor
[Learn more about Christine by visiting our Press Section.]
Boston Mamas was developed, designed, and founded in July 2006 by Christine Koh, a Boston mama with a passion for people, communication, art, food, retail, web surfing, and all things mama-related. Christine spent a decade as an academic (she has a Ph.D. in music and brain science), although her family and friends had long urged her to make better use of her artistic inclinations. As she drew close to the end of her postdoctoral fellowship (the final training prior to a professorship) at MGH/Harvard/MIT, Christine finally came to terms with the fact that while she was a decent academic, she rather would perish instead of publish, and she decided to make a big leap. Within a few months, Christine hung up her research spurs, created Boston Mamas, launched her design site Posh Peacock, and began working as a freelance writer and editor. She also recently started a third blog - Pop Discourse - where she gives voice to her fascination with the intersecting streams of pop culture, the intellectually interesting or absurd, motherhood, and trying to “make it work” as a modern woman, and is the proud owner of the new alter ego Minimalist Mama, her monthly column on less is more living for Shoestring Magazine.
Christine is grateful to Andrew Robertson and David McKinley for early technical and development advice, and to several near and dear mama friends and family members who have provided feedback and inspiration along the way. And of course, Christine is grateful for her husband Jonathan, who has encouraged her to take leaps, and to their daughter Laurel, who has inspired Jon and Christine to grow, ask the hard questions, and implement change.
Regular Contributors
Christine writes a majority of the content for Boston Mamas, but she is deeply grateful to the following talented women for their voices and expertise:
Sara Cabot, Regular Contributor - Nutrition
Never one to shy away from a big challenge, Sara decided to figure out how to bring the zippy veggie and fruit recipes that her babies loved to parents. She also was committed to cooking organic, and – whenever possible – local, and after vigorous research, testing, and hoop jumping, she founded Little Lettice, an organic baby food company that makes – among other things – the best pureed apples on the block.
Michelle Stern, Regular Contributor - Nutrition
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.
Amy Cody, Regular Contributor - Sex & Sexuality Parent Education
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, Regular Contributor - Pregnancy & Postpartum
Carole provides content on pregnancy and postpartum topics; she lives in the Boston area with her husband and three children.
Kate, Regular Contributor
Kate, a Boston lifer, is mama to a fabulous 2.5 year 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.
Tracy, Regular Contributor
When she's not busy parenting and counseling, Tracy loves good food, crafty things, voraciously reading anything and everything, and art.
Sharon, Regular Contributor
Jules, Regular Contributor
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, Regular Contributor
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, 5-year-old daughter Em, and year-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. (Last Halloween, Heather’s kids will suit up as The Three Little Pigs and the (tiara-wearing) Big Bad Wolf.)
Aside from parenting, Heather loves baking, crafting, gardening, discovering cool mama finds, and anything related to paper.
April Paffrath, Regular Contributor
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]
Kristin Chalmers, Regular Contributor
Evadne, Regular Contributor
Hetti Wohlgemuth, Regular Contributor
Sheri, Regular Contributor
Sheri’s heart clearly is in education, but dance also ranks among her other talents; she danced with the Boston Ballet from ages 8-17.
Jennifer, Regular Contributor
For herself, Jen strives to enjoy the crazy blur that is life with her young kids (a kindergartner who would give anything to live among dinosaurs and a preschooler obsessed with wearing pink cowgirl boots and tutus), and for her fellow Boston mamas, she wants to share cool finds that are fun and serve to recharge, whether it’s a venue for a night on the town with the girls, where to find funky tees and cool jewels, or even a great new soundtrack to keep groovin’ in the minivan.
Jennifer lives in a ‘burb outside of Boston and is not so good in the kitchen but LOVES to help her friends organize their closets.
Sarah, Regular Contributor
Paige, Regular Contributor
When Paige isn't working or stirring up new creative ideas, she loves relaxing with her husband and kids, catching up with her shoe-obsessed gaggle of girlfriends, and curling up with the stack of design and style magazines that seem to multiply every time she gets her mail.
Jennifer, Regular Contributor
BIO FORTHCOMING
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, 3-year-old son Evan, 1-year-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 Covidien. 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.
Sara Cabot is a Boston area mother of four with a passion for helping parents feed their babies. Born and raised in the UK, Sara grew up with cooking role models and made it a priority to cook for all of her babies. When she moved to the States just before her second child was born she saw a very different pattern of eating (i.e., high carbs, low veggies), and she heard many of her new mama friends fret about how difficult it was to get veggies into their kids.
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.
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.
Tracy, a psychologist and mother of three, actually hails all the way from Canada but she's a Boston mama in spirit. 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).
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.
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. Oh yeah, and she's also mom to an adorable son!
Kristin – a former professional dancer - was born and raised in Philly, traveled through Europe working in the music industry, and worked in LA as a television producer. But she caught the Boston bug while in school at Emerson, and returned back to the area in 2006. A mother of two boys, Kristin shoots amazing pictures via her photography business, and is the host, coordinator, and producer of Baby Loves Disco Boston. Despite being out of her mind busy, she is otherwise obsessed with helping new mothers in their daily struggles.
Evadne is the mom of two kids (a son and daughter), with a third on the way. Now firmly entrenched in the Boston area, Evadne is a native of Toronto who grew up with a holistic upbringing (in her house, sore throats were treated by sucking on zinc tablets instead of throat lozenges) and subsequently remains traumatized that diapers and food scraps aren't recyclable. She studied environmental sciences & biology, worked in human resources, and loves stationery and paper goods, photography, shopping for good finds, and relaxing with a good book or movie.
Hetti Wohlgemuth is a Massachusetts mama and lifer. She has been giving advice to mamas and papas of all aged children from Hingham to Hopkinton, for nearly twenty years, first as an elementary guidance counselor and now as a parent educator. She has worked with nearly 1000 new moms assuaging the very real anxieties of a first time parent. She also has offered workshops on topics such as potty training, positive discipline, and raising responsible families. Her proof might be in the parenting pudding; her oldest daughter is studying to be a midwife and her younger daughter works at American Baby magazine. When not talking about or writing about mamas, Hetti enjoys walking, playing tennis, seeing films, and cooking for friends and family.
Sheri is a Boston lifer who strives to balance the amazing, energetic life of her 8-year-old son Trey with her own life as a single mom. An elementary school teacher with 14 years of teaching experience, Sheri’s goals are to inspire students to love the learning process even when challenging, maintain laughter daily in and out of the classroom, and create opportunities to learn in every experience - positive or negative. She also serves as a mentor to new teachers.
A Southerner by birth, Jennifer made her way north via Philly and NYC, married a Yankee, and landed in Beantown for good in 1995. As a former advertising/marketing/publishing corporate raider, she’s now a stay-at-home-mom and writer. She blogs about all things “Girlhood. Momhood. Lifehood” on her blog, HeyGirlMommaGo.
Sarah is a lifelong fashion addict who has never not bought a beautiful outfit because she had nowhere to wear it. She got her start giving advice to family members while still in elementary school; it was only a matter of time before she began style consulting professionally. Her house is filled with boys: her husband, Ed, and sons Whit and Avery, none of whom understand her addiction, but who only need two pairs of shoes each (more for Sarah!). Her perfect night out, aside from a black-tie event of any sort, is a light dinner, a cocktail, and two uninterrupted hours of shopping with a good friend; a mailbox full of new catalogs is a close second.
Paige is a Boston mama of two sons, ages 3 and 5. By day she oversees community education programs for one of Boston's esteemed institutions of higher ed; by night she cultivates her creative passions for writing, style, and all things home-related. She recently unveiled a fabulous blog, The Mudroom - Boston, where she shares tips and ideas about how to mix great design with real life.
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Mary, a marketing and public relations freelancer, left the traditional office environment in 2007 in search of better balance. She’s the proud mom of Jillian and Dylan, and often can be seen running the streets of Melrose while pushing her blaze-orange double jogger stroller with the kids + dog Bond in tow. She finds solace in family, good friends, and a neat, clean home (although she’s no Bree Van de Kamp), and loves travel and learning about other cultures (someday she hopes to speak another language). She also loves to experiment with cooking, particularly since she has a daughter with a gluten-allergy, and enjoys a good book and glass of wine whenever she can, as well as her fix of traditional and humor media.
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