Authors

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Camille Peri, Caring.com features editor

Camille Peri, features editor, has covered health and family issues as a journalist for many years. She was a senior editor at Salon.com, where she was cofounder and editor of the department Mothers Who Think. She coedited two collections of essays, Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood , which was a national best seller and received an American Book Award, and Because I Said So: 33 Mothers Write About Children, Sex, Men, Aging, Faith, Race, and Themselves . Camille has also written and edited for WebMD, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, Ladies' Home Journal, Parenting, San Francisco, and Mother Jones, and has been a book editor for Pearson Education. She has a B.A. in American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

Camille lives in San Francisco with her husband and two sons. With her children in their teen years and her parents in their 80s, she often feels that she's dealing with the same issues -- driving, safety, scheduling -- with both generations. Her mother survived a heart attack and cancer in 1999, and Camille and her brothers have spent periods providing their parents with round-the-clock care. She recently helped them move into an independent living retirement community, where they have opened -- and are thoroughly enjoying -- a new phase of their lives.
Caring.com Staff
Carol O'Dell, Caring.com contributing editor

Carol D. O'Dell is the author of Mothering Mother: A Daughter's Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir, about her experience caring for her mother through Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and coronary diseases. Visit her blog that explores the joys and challenges of caregiving at Caregiving, Mothering Mother and More. Carol is a featured speaker at caregiver workshops and conferences of caregivers and healthcare and geriatric professionals.

Carol can be reached at carol@caring.com.
Connie Matthiessen, Caring.com senior editor

Constance (Connie) Matthiessen, Senior Editor of the Life channel, has worked as a healthcare and environmental journalist at the Center for Investigative Reporting, and has written for WebMD , Consumer Health Interactive , the Washington Post , the San Francisco Chronicle , BabyCenter.com, San Francisco Magazine, Mother Jones and other publications. Connie's background also includes a B.A. in literature from Evergreen State College and an MFA in writing from Warren Wilson College. She has been interested in eldercare issues since shortly after college, when she spent a year caring for elderly people in a nursing home.

Connie, who lives in San Francisco with her three children, considers herself lucky that her parents are still healthy and active as they approach their 80s. They both continue to pursue their passions, including fishing, horseback riding, travel, and spending time with their children, grandchildren,and great-grandchildren, providing living proof that growing old -- for all its challenges -- can be a time of inspiration, connection, and adventure.
Dr. Christiane Northrup, at <a href="http://www.vibrantnation.com">VibrantNation.com</a>, Special to Caring.com.

Internationally known for her empowering approach to women's health and wellness, Dr. Christiane Northrup is the author of groundbreaking books such as Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, and The Wisdom of Menopause. Special to Caring.com from VibrantNation.com, an online destination where women 50+ exchange information and join in smart conversation.

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VibrantNation.com[vibrantnation.com] - An online destination where women 50+ exchange information and join in smart conversation.

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Elaine Ambrose, at <a href="http://www.vibrantnation.com">VibrantNation.com</a>, Special to Caring.com.

Elaine Ambrose is the co-author of Menopause Sucks: What to Do When Hot Flashes and Hormones Make You and Everyone Else Miserable, a celebrated speaker, and maintains a blog, Midlife Cabernet. She has shared some great tips for making food work for you during menopause.
Elizabeth Hanes

Elizabeth Hanes is a caregiver, Registered Nurse and award-winning journalist whose specialties include caregiving, dementia, mental health, nursing, art, antiques, and travel throughout the Rocky Mountain region. Elizabeth founded The Cheerful Caregiver to promote self-care for caregivers, who too frequently put their own needs at the bottom of the priority list. Elizabeth lives in Albuquerque with her husband, Lee, and together they care for her mother.
Elizabeth Shean, Caring.com contributing editor

Elizabeth Shean is Registered Nurse and professional writer who won the 2010 Online Journalism Award for "Best Commentary/Blogging." In "Dad Has Dementia," she chronicled her all-too-brief journey of caring for her dad as he rapidly declined and died.
Erica Wollman

Erica Wollman is a speech pathologist and swallow therapist with Bayada Nurses, a provider of home nursing services, based in southern New Jersey. She speaks on swallowing issues to cancer groups and has participated in the American Cancer Society's Look Good, Feel Better program.
Ingfei Chen, Senior contributing editor

Ingfei Chen has witnessed the hope and hype and miracles and failings of medical care and scientific research during more than 15 years of covering both areas as a journalist. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, she started her career as a general assignment reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle but shifted to the medical beat at Time Inc.'s Hippocrates and Health magazines. As a freelancer, her work has been published in The New York Times , Discover , Reader's Digest , and CR , a magazine for cancer survivors. Chen has a B.S. in biology from Brown University and an M.A. in journalism from Stanford University. She was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2004-2005 and has been a lecturer in the graduate science writing program at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Chen's awareness of the challenges of aging was heightened when she worked as a contributing editor in 2002-2004 for Science Magazine's Science of Aging Knowledge Environment, a website about gerontology research. Her own mother and father live in the same New York City neighborhood where she grew up. Now approaching their 80s, they play tennis twice a week and walk to the grocery store or library every day. Chen regularly checks in with them by phone and bugs them to go to the doctor when necessary.
Jill Gilbert
Karen Miles, Caring.com senior contributing editor

Karen Miles is a regular contributor to numerous national magazines, including Woman's Day , Reader's Digest , Family Life , Family Circle , and Better Homes & Gardens , as well as to the award-winning website BabyCenter.com. She is the author of The Power of Loving Discipline , published by Penguin and Psychology Today . Karen holds a joint B.A. in English and anthropology from the University of Iowa.

Karen and her husband, who live in Iowa, have raised four children who are now young adults. Karen offers tangible help to her mother (at a distance) and in-laws (nearby). She says that for her, a perfect moment is when she can help not only with facilitating daily tasks but also with enrichment, for example by taking a parent shopping or to a concert, by finding a perfect book on tape, or by introducing a new friend.
Kate Rauch, Caring.com senior editor

Catherine Anne Rauch, Senior Editor of the Daily Care channel, has spent more than two decades writing about health for websites and print media, including WebMD, Drugstore.com, the Washington Post Health Section, and Newsday as well as HMOs such as Kaiser Permanente (in the San Francisco Bay Area) and Group Health (in Seattle). Catherine holds an M.S. in journalism from Columbia University and a B.S. in cultural geography from the University of California at Berkeley. Catherine's degree in geography led her to spend five years working as an archaeologist and anthropologist in Alaska. One of her main activities there was collecting oral histories from Eskimo elders, and she was very moved by the reverence Eskimos have for older people -- the keepers of essential wisdom and skills.

Catherine lives in Albany, California with her two children. She is the only sibling of three to live near her 80-something father, enjoying the still developing richness of their relationship as they both get older. Very much a member of the "sandwich generation," she often finds herself driving her son to Little League games one moment, and touching base with her dad about his new pacemaker the next.
Laurie Udesky, Caring.com senior editor

Laurie Udesky , Senior Editor of the General Health channel, has covered health and medical issues for National Public Radio (NPR); produced features for "Crossroads," a cross-cultural program that aired on NPR; and served as a reporter or editor for medical trade journals such as TB Monitor and AIDS Alert. She wrote a chapter on drug interactions for The Self-Care Advisor , a Time Inc. health publication, and has written regularly on health and mental health issues affecting older people for Consumer Health Interactive , where she is a contributing editor. As a foreign correspondent in the Middle East, Laurie covered health, social welfare, and political issues for the Dallas Morning News , the St Petersburg Times , Salon.com, Macleans magazine , NPR, and Consumer Health Interactive . She has been recognized with an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism, a California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowship, an Exceptional Merit Media Ward (EMMA) from Radcliffe College, and other top awards in magazine writing. Laurie's B.A. is in English with honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz.

In the 1980s Laurie served on the board of an intergenerational organization. The experience of working with older people in the community helped shape her views and interest in reporting on issues affecting older people. She also was very close to her grandmother, who lived to be 95.
Leslie Gordon , Caring.com senior contributing editor

Leslie Gordon's legal and business journalism career has included providing news service content for Productopia ; covering law firms and business issues for a statewide legal affairs newspaper, the Daily Journal ; and writing for law firms, financial services companies, and other professional service firms. Her work has won a Reader's Digest Foundation Excellence in Journalism award. Leslie has been an adjunct professor at U.C. Berkeley's Hastings College of the Law and was an associate attorney after receiving her J.D. from Loyola Law School, where she was also an editor and writer for the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review. She also holds a master's degree in journalism from Stanford University and a B.A. from U.C. Berkeley.

Leslie lives in San Francisco with her husband, their two small children, a cat, and an animal-assisted therapy dog who visits seniors frequently. Leslie recalls a time with her family and her very frail father in a burger jointâ€”he couldn't remember his granddaughter's name, but he plucked a flower from a vase and handed it to her as a gesture of affection. He died a month later. Leslie notes that her husband has set a strong example for their kids by caring for his parents. Their son has said, "Dad, when you're old, I'll come visit you, too."
Lisa Trottier, Caring.com senior contributing editor

Lisa Trottier, Senior Editor of the Housing channel, is a journalist whose rich background includes writing or editing on topics such as family issues, lifestyles, travel, food, and health for San Francisco magazine, Via magazine, and other publications. She has also held editorial positions as Managing Editor of San Francisco magazines, Deputy Editor of BabyCenter magazine, and at Sunset and Diablo magazine. Lisa's B.A. is from Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania.

Lisa lives in Kensington, California, with her husband and two children, who are fond of dragging around the same panda bear and mouse that Lisa's grandmother knit for her when she was a baby. Lisa is one of six kids and notes that they all adore their 66-year-old mother, who recently found true love and married a man who is well over 80 and hikes every day.
Liz Barlowe, Florida.

Liz Barlowe is a geriatric care manager in Clearwater, Florida.
Mard Naman , Caring.com senior contributing editor

Mard Naman has written extensively on health, housing, and real estate issues for San Francisco magazine, Diablo magazine, the Institutional Real Estate Letter , and other publications. His work has won the Best Feature award from the American Society of Business Publication Editors, and his book Insider's Guide to Success: Buying a Franchise was published by the Better Business Bureau. Mard has also been Managing Editor for Publish magazine and a Senior Editor for New West magazine. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley.

Mard grew up in Santa Cruz, California, and happily resides there today as a single dad with his son Tyler, a high school senior. Mard lives less than a mile from his mother, who's in her 80s and, according to Mard, "could probably beat you in arm wrestling."
Maria M. Meyer and Paula Derr, Contributing Writers
Maria M. Meyer and Paula Derr, with Mary Gilmartin, Contributing writers

Maria M. Meyer has been a longtime advocate of social causes, beginning with her work as cofounder of the Society for Abused Children of the Children's Home Society of Florida and founding executive director of the Children's Foundation of Greater Miami. When her father-in-law suffered a stroke in 1993, Meyer became aware of the need for better information about how to care for an aging parent, a responsibility shared by millions of Americans. That experience led her to found CareTrust Publications and to coauthor the award-winning guide The Comfort of Home: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers , now in its third edition. This book earned the Benjamin Franklin Award in the health category. Meyer is a keynote speaker and workshop leader on caregiver topics to healthcare professionals and community groups, as well as a Caregiver Community Action Network volunteer for the National Family Caregiver Association.

Paula Derr has been employed by the Sisters of Providence Health System for more than 25 years. She has broad experience in many different clinical settings and for many years served as clinical educator for three emergency departments in the Portland metropolitan area. She was a founder of inforMed, which publishes emergency medical services field guides for emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters, physicians, and nurses, and has coauthored numerous healthcare articles. For Derr, home care is a family tradition of long standing. For many years, she cared for her mother and grandmother in her home while raising two daughters and maintaining her career in nursing and healthcare management. Paula is active in several prominent professional organizations and has held both local and national board positions. Paula is a native Oregonian and lives with her husband in Portland.

Mary Gilmartin is a nurse specialist and coordinator of the COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) Clinical Research Network at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver, Colorado. National Jewish Medical Center has been rated first in the nation for treatment of lung disease by U.S. News & World Report . For more than 30 years, Gilmartin has worked with people who have severe lung disease. Her focus has been to educate both patients and their families about lung disease to help them have more control over the illness.
Maria M. Meyer, Mary S. Mittelman, Cynthia Epstein, and Paula Derr, Contributing writers

Maria M. Meyer has been a longtime advocate of social causes, beginning with her work as cofounder of the Society for Abused Children of the Children's Home Society of Florida and founding executive director of the Children's Foundation of Greater Miami. When her father-in-law suffered a stroke in 1993, Meyer became aware of the need for better information about how to care for an aging parent, a responsibility shared by millions of Americans. That experience led her to found CareTrust Publications and to coauthor the award-winning guide The Comfort of Home: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers , now in its third edition. This book earned the Benjamin Franklin Award in the health category. Meyer is a keynote speaker and workshop leader on caregiver topics to healthcare professionals and community groups, as well as a Caregiver Community Action Network volunteer for the National Family Caregiver Association.

Mary S. Mittelman is an epidemiologist who has been evaluating psychosocial interventions for family members of people with Alzheimer's disease for the past two decades. She is director of the Psychosocial Research and Support Program at the Silberstein Institute, a research professor in the department of psychiatry at New York University School of Medicine, and leader of the Education and Psychosocial Cores of the NYU Alzheimer's Disease Center. She is principal investigator of the NYU-Spouse Caregiver Intervention study, funded by the NIH since 1987, as well as other studies of psychosocial interventions for people with cognitive impairment and/or dementia, and their family members. In the past few years, Mittelman has made a commitment to disseminate research findings to both healthcare providers and the community at large and to collaborate with researchers and community organizations to implement and test psychosocial interventions.

Cynthia Epstein , a social worker and clinical investigator, is a graduate of the Hunter/Mt. Sinai Geriatric Education Center and the Brookdale post-master's program on aging. For more than ten years, she has counseled family caregivers and people with Alzheimer's disease who seek cognitive evaluations and participate in psychosocial interventions at the NYU Aging and Dementia Research Center. In addition to providing clinical supervision to social work students, many of whom are now Alzheimer's care providers themselves, Epstein offers workshops for professional and family caregivers under the auspices of the New York City Alzheimer's Association. In her private psychotherapy practice, she works with people coping with Alzheimer's-related issues as well as a range of other emotional concerns.
Maria M. Meyer, Paula Derr, and Jon Caswell , Contributing Writers

Maria M. Meyer has been a longtime advocate of social causes, beginning with her work as cofounder of the Society for Abused Children of the Children's Home Society of Florida and founding executive director of the Children's Foundation of Greater Miami. When her father-in-law suffered a stroke in 1993, Meyer became aware of the need for better information about how to care for an aging parent, a responsibility shared by millions of Americans. That experience led her to found CareTrust Publications and to coauthor the award-winning guide The Comfort of Home: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers , now in its third edition. This book earned the Benjamin Franklin Award in the health category. Meyer is a keynote speaker and workshop leader on caregiver topics to healthcare professionals and community groups, as well as a Caregiver Community Action Network volunteer for the National Family Caregiver Association.

Paula Derr has been employed by the Sisters of Providence Health System for more than 25 years. She has broad experience in many different clinical settings and for many years served as clinical educator for three emergency departments in the Portland metropolitan area. She was a founder of inforMed, which publishes emergency medical services field guides for emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters, physicians, and nurses, and has coauthored numerous healthcare articles. For Derr, home care is a family tradition of long standing. For many years, she cared for her mother and grandmother in her home while raising two daughters and maintaining her career in nursing and healthcare management. Her personal and professional experience adds depth to many chapters of this book. Derr is active in several prominent professional organizations -- including the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), and the National Flight Nurses Association (NFNA) -- and holds both local and national board positions. Paula is a native Oregonian and lives with her husband in Portland.

Jon Caswell has been lead editor and staff writer of Stroke Connection Magazine, published by the American Stroke Association, for more than ten years. During that time he has written about many of the emotional travails and triumphs of stroke survivors and their caregivers. Over the years he has covered most of the scientific developments that are improving the lives of stroke families. In addition to his career as a writer, Caswell was an instructor in the Wellness Department of Southern Methodist University for 15 years. He teaches Finding Time Sitting Still, a meditation class, with Linda, his wife of 25 years. They live in Dallas, Texas.
Maria M. Meyer, Paula Derr, and Susan Imke , Contributing writers

Maria M. Meyer has been a longtime advocate of social causes, beginning with her work as cofounder of the Society for Abused Children of the Children's Home Society of Florida and founding executive director of the Children's Foundation of Greater Miami. When her father-in-law suffered a stroke in 1993, Meyer became aware of the need for better information about how to care for an aging parent, a responsibility shared by millions of Americans. That experience led her to found CareTrust Publications and to coauthor the award-winning guide The Comfort of Home: An Illustrated Step-by-Step Guide for Caregivers , now in its third edition. This book earned the Benjamin Franklin Award in the health category. Meyer is a keynote speaker and workshop leader on caregiver topics to healthcare professionals and community groups, as well as a Caregiver Community Action Network volunteer for the National Family Caregiver Association.

Paula Derr has been employed by the Sisters of Providence Health System for more than 25 years. She has broad experience in many different clinical settings and for many years served as clinical educator for three emergency departments in the Portland metropolitan area. She was a founder of inforMed, which publishes emergency medical services field guides for emergency medical technicians, paramedics, firefighters, physicians, and nurses, and has coauthored numerous healthcare articles. For Derr, home care is a family tradition of long standing. For many years, she cared for her mother and grandmother in her home while raising two daughters and maintaining her career in nursing and healthcare management. Her personal and professional experience adds depth to many chapters of this book. Derr is active in several prominent professional organizations -- including the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM), the Emergency Nurses Association (ENA), the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), and the National Flight Nurses Association (NFNA) -- and holds both local and national board positions. Paula is a native Oregonian and lives with her husband in Portland.

Susan Imke is a certified gerontological nurse practitioner with more than 20 years of experience working with patients who have Parkinson's disease, as well as with family caregivers. Originally certified as a family nurse practitioner, her focus shifted to elder care in the 1980s when she was appointed associate director of the Texas Tech Alzheimer Center in Lubbock. She later recruited to practice with a leading movement-disorder specialist, Abraham Lieberman, at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix. Imke is the CEO of Senior Health Solutions, a geriatric consulting practice, helping families living with chronic illnesses to navigate a complex healthcare system and maximize the functional abilities of the individual with neurological impairment. Imke serves on the Center of Excellence review board for the National Parkinson Foundation and on the board of directors for the Parkinson Alliance in Princeton, New Jersey. She lives with her husband in Fort Worth, Texas, and is the down-the-street caregiver for her 90-year-old father, who is recently widowed and has Parkinson's disease.
Megan Kempston, Caring.com staff writer
Melanie Haiken, Caring.com senior editor

Senior Editor Melanie Haiken, who is responsible for Caring.com's coverage of cancer, general health, and family finance, discovered how important it is to provide accurate, targeted, usable health information to people facing difficult decisions when she was health editor of Parenting magazine. She has written about health and family-related issues for magazines such as Health , Real Simple , Woman's Day , Yoga Journal , and websites such as BabyCenter.com, WebMD, and the Blue Cross/Blue Shield websites (aHealthyMe.com, aHealthyAdvantage.com) managed by Consumer Health Interactive. Melanie has held positions as Executive Editor at the Industry Standard and BabyCenter.com , and Managing Editor at San Francisco magazine. She has also worked for San Francisco's renowned Center for Investigative Reporting. She has a master's degree in Journalism and a B.A. in English, both from the University of California at Berkeley.

Melanie cared for her father while he battled esophageal cancer, which ended his life much too soon. She currently cares for her mother, who has multiple health problems including low vision. Melanie is a single mother of two daughters, so she understands the complicated pressures on the so-called "sandwich generation."

Melanie can be reached at mhaiken@caring.com.
Mellanie True Hills, at <a href="http://www.vibrantnation.com">VibrantNation.com</a>, special to Caring.com

Mellanie True Hills is a women's health expert who speaks and coaches individuals and organizations in creating healthy productivity. She is the author of A Woman's Guide to Saving Her Own Life: The HEART Program for Health and Longevity and the CEO of the American Foundation for Women's Health and the Atrial Fibrillation Patient Resource, StopAfib.org. Find out more on her website and on StopAfib.org.
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Nell Bernstein, Caring.com senior editor

Nell Bernstein's writings have appeared on Salon.com and in Glamour , Health , Legal Affairs , Marie Claire , Mother Jones , Newsday , O: The Oprah Magazine , Self , Redbook , and the Washington Post . Nell often writes on family issues and the legal system. Her award-winning book All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated was selected as a Pick of the Week by Newsweek , a Best Book of the Year by the San Francisco Chronicle, and a top-ten Book of the Year by the Online Review of Books. Nell graduated magna cum laude with a degree in comparative literature from Yale University and began her career in journalism by helping her freelancer mom edit stories at the kitchen table.

Nell now lives in Albany, California, with her husband, artist Timothy B. Buckwalter, and their young twins. The twins enjoy playing poker for M & M's with their grandfather, and they plan to let him win a hand on his upcoming 88th birthday.
Nell Casey, Contributing Writer

Nell Casey is the editor of the national best seller Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression and, more recently, An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family. She has written for such publications as the New York Times , Slate , Salon , and Elle . She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her husband and son.
Pamela Marshall, Washington.

Pamela Marshall is a geriatric care manager in Tacoma, Washington.
Paula Spencer Scott, Caring.com senior editor

Paula Spencer Scott, senior editor, works on Caring's Health and Caregiver Wellness channels, including writing the Steps & Stages Alzheimer's resource, FYI Daily, the Self Caring blog, and other medical and caregiving content. She's specialized in women's life-stage concerns (baby care, family care, self care, elder care) from her first job as an editor at 50 Plus Magazine through stints as a Woman's Day columnist, a Parenting Magazine contributing editor, the author of Momfidence, and the co-author of five books with doctors at Harvard, UCLA, Duke, and Arizona State. She's a 2011 Met Life Foundation Journalists in Aging fellow, awarded by the Gerontological Society of America and New American Media, and serves on the board of the University of North Carolina Science and Medical Journalism Program. A mother of four, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In the late 2000s, she lost both her parents, in their 80s, to cancer; her father also had dementia and stroke. "In short order during that phase," she says, "I experienced just about everything that's on this site, from dealing with their illnesses to selling the family home and moving Dad, plus advance directives, end-of-life planning, hospice, death -- and stress."

Paula Spencer Scott can be reached at paulaspencerscott@caring.com.
Sarah Henry, Caring.com senior editor

Sarah Henry has covered health stories for most of her more than two decades as a writer, from her ten-year stint at the award-winning Center for Investigative Reporting, to her staff writer position with Hippocrates magazine, to her most recent web work for online sites including WebMD, Babycenter.com, and Consumer Health Interactive. Sarah has collaborated on several books, including the popular Dr. Koop's Self-Care Advisor, and her health articles have appeared in a wide range of publications including Modern Maturity , Health , Parenting , Glamour , the Washington Post , and Los Angeles Times Magazine . She holds a B.A. in communications from the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, where she majored in journalism.

Sarah understands the tyranny of distance faced by many adult children caring for their aging parents. Her mother and father are both in their 70s and dealing with health challenges. Although Sarah returns to her hometown regularly, she's grateful that her five siblings -- who include a doctor and a nurse -- live near her parents. Sarah herself lives in Berkeley, California, with her nine-year-old son, whom she hopes will look after her in her old age.
Stephanie Miles, Caring.com senior editor

Stephanie Miles, Senior Editor of the Finance channel, is a former business journalist for the online Wall Street Journal and CNET Networks. She focuses on consumer issues including finance and personal technology, as well as consumer marketing and advertising. Stephanie's father died following a sudden stroke in 2005, so she is intimately familiar with the emotional and financial issues that are faced by adult children following the death or catastrophic illness of a parent.
Stephanie Trelogan, Caring.com senior editor

Stephanie Trelogan is Senior Editor of the Heart, Stroke, and Depression channels. Older people in Stephanie's family have coped with a variety of stroke- and heart-related conditions, and several family membersincluding Stephaniehave struggled with depression.
Susan Kostal, Caring.com senior editor

Susan Kostal, Senior Editor of the Legal channel, has covered legal affairs issues as a journalist for more than 20 years. Her work has appeared in San Francisco magazine, ABA Journal , and California Lawyer , and on Law.com . She is also an editor for private foundations focusing on policy and healthcare, and she runs roundtable discussions for attorneys and other professional service firms. Susan is a graduate of Drake University and holds a bachelor's degree in news and editorial journalism.

She enjoys keeping up with the many sports activities of her three daughters and notes that her favorite exercise class at the gym is one for seniors. She is the youngest in the class by at least 15 years, and she finds that her most inspiring workout buddies are those in their 60s and 70s. While her parents are healthy and active, Susan is grateful they've understood the importance of planning for their futures and have established trusts, wills, living wills, and durable powers of attorney
Virginia D. Frantz RN, Caring.com Expert

Virginia D. Frantz RN

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