2012 Speaker Bios A-K
Jason Avant, dadcentric.com
Jason Avant is the founder and managing editor of DadCentric, an award-winning and popular website for fathers. He and the website have been featured on ABCNews.com, BusinessWeek.com, USA Today, Time.com, CNN.com, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and the CBS Evening News. A freelance writer since 2004, Jason is also a Featured Contributor at Man of The House.com, the Dadding blog at Babble.com, and the pop culture website MamaPop.com, as well as other websites and magazines.
Paul Banas, GreatDad.com
Paul Banas quit his career in 2005 to stay at home with his new son. Out of that experience the idea for GreatDad.com, was born. GreatDad.com acquired Pregnancy magazine in early 2011 and Paul is leading a relaunch of the magazine as a digital-only publication in March 2012. Paul lives with his wife and two kids, 7 and 11, in San Francisco.
Shawn Bean, Parenting.com/popculture
Shawn Bean is the executive editor of Parenting and Babytalk, and pens the monthly op-ed column ‘Pop Culture.’ His illustrated fatherhood manual Show Dad How was published by Weldon Owen last spring. Bean lives with his wife and two young sons in Melbourne, Florida, where family time often means fielding questions about body parts, ninjas, cavemen,
and lava.
Doug Block, dougblock.com
Doug Block’s prize-winning documentary credits include The Kids Grow Up, which premiered on HBO last Fathers Day, and 51 Birch Street, which was named one of 2006’s outstanding films by the NY Times and National Board of Review. He most recently executive produced the Sundance award-winning Resurrect Dead and produced The Edge of Dreaming (POV). Block is also the founder and co-host of The D-Word, a popular online discussion forum for documentary professionals worldwide.
Robert Candelino, DoveMenCare.com
Robert Candelino is Vice President, Brand Building, for Unilever’s Skincare business. He is responsible for a number of America’s favorite beauty and grooming brands including Dove, Dove Men+Care, Axe, Vaseline, Simple, Pond’s and Suave. Robert has spent 15 years with Unilever in a wide variety of Marketing and Sales roles across multiple geographies and product categories. Robert holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.
Charlie Capen, HowToBeADad.com
“How To Be A Dad” is a not so much a “how-to”, but a “how-not-to” blog for dads, moms, soon-to-be parents and even those with no plans of procreating, whatsoever. Bloggers Andy Herald and Charlie Capen are two sleep-deprived friends with nothing left to lose but their sanity as they learn to be dads. They’re not experts, but that isn’t gonna stop them from pretending.
C.C. Chapman, cc-chapman.com
C.C. Chapman is a best selling author and award winning marketing professional. He is the founder of Digital Dads and the producer of Passion Hit TV. He speaks and consults with organizations around the globe. He is a graduate of Bentley University and lives in the woods outside of Boston with his family.
Kristen Chase, coolmompicks.com
Kristen Chase is a mom of four and CEO/Publisher of CoolMomPicks.com and CoolMomTech.com, two of the most influential blogs for parents on the web and hailed by Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and inStyle magazine. Along with her co-publisher Liz Gumbinner, she can be found doling out tech tips and recommendations on The Today Show, The CBS Early Show, and in newspapers and magazines across the country.
Adam Cohen, dadarocks.com
Adam Cohen, founder of dadarocks.com, is a NYC based daddy blogger. While enjoying the company of his wife and toddler son, he manages to be the Director of Marketing and Social Media for J&R Jr. Adam has
extensive technology and communications. His ability to leverage the Internet to create synergies among his blog visitors comes from his passion for fatherhood, social media and sharing.
Ken Denmead, geekdad.com
Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as a civil engineer. He’s also the publisher and editor of GeekDad, the parenting blog for Wired magazine’s online presence, where along with a group of other dedicated, geeky parents he posts projects, book and movie reviews, weekly podcasts, and more about being a parent and being a geek.
Jonathan Fisher, brandextract.com
Jonathan Fisher, is a founding partner in BrandExtract, a brand experience company focused on creating brands and transforming company touchpoints. Jonathan personally consults across both B2B and B2C markets. He serves on a number of industry and non-profit boards, and has taught graduate classes at Texas State University. BrandExtract consistently earns top recognition in leading competitions and publications, including the International Web Awards, American Marketing Association, Business Marketing Association, American Advertising Federation, and more.
Caleb Gardner, TheExceptionalMan.com
Caleb Gardner is a Digital Strategist at Edelman, focusing on strategic thinking and digital insights. An MBA with a background in non-profit and small business marketing, Caleb joined Edelman to provide clients such as ConAgra, Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation and Dairy Management, Inc. with insights into social business planning and influencer engagement. A regular contributor to EdelmanDigital.com and the Etsy Blog, he is also active on his personal site, TheExceptionalMan.com – which was recently featured as one of Babble’s Top 50 Dad Blogs of 2011.
Craig Heimbuch, andnowweshalldomanlythings.com
Craig Heimbuch is an award-winning journalist and author of “Chasing Oliver Hazard Perry” and “And Now We Shall Do Manly Things” (HarperCollins, 2012). The founding editor of ManoftheHouse.com and the senior editor at interactive agency Barefoot Proximity, he is launching his podcast, “Manly Hats,” in 2012. He is a father of three and husband of one. Or maybe it’s the other way around. He’s very busy you see, it’s hard to keep these things straight.
Alan Heisterkamp, wivp.waittinstitute.org
Alan Heisterkamp, Ed.D., CEO/President of Cultivating Minds, Inc., delivers bullying and violence prevention education using the Mentors in Violence Prevention Strategies (MVP) and Coaching Boys Into Men programs. He directs the MVP Leadership Institute at the University of Northern Iowa and served as the education consultant on the film documentary, Bully. (In theaters, March 30, 2012). He and his wife, Patricia, of 27 years have three daughters and a son.
Jim Higley, BobbleheadDad.com
Jim is the Bobblehead Dad – writer, speaker, radio show host, brand spokesperson and cancer warrior. His favorite role, however, is being “Dad” to his three kids. Jim writes a parenting and family column for Chicago Tribune TribLocal and is one of the first “Dad” correspondents for NBC Universal’s iVillage. Jim’s also the reigning “World’s Greatest Dad” for Man of the House magazine. His kids, however, are requesting a recount.
Andy Hinds, butterbeanandcobra.blogspot.com
Andy Hinds became a stay-at-home dad to twin girls when he was 42-years old, putting his former vocation as part-time contractor/part-time adjunct professor of college writing on hold indefinitely. As soon as he finished building the addition on his house so the kids could have some place to sleep, he started blogging. In addition to his personal blog, Beta Dad, he also contributes to DadCentric, Daddy Dialectic, Man of the House, Aiming Low, and San Diego Family Magazine.
Whit Honea, whithonea.com
Whit Honea is a writer living in Los Angeles with his family and too many pets. He is the author of award-winning fiction, poetry, and assorted blog posts. He would love to talk to you about his screenplay.
A.J. Jacobs, ajjacobs.com
A.J. Jacobs is the editor at large at Esquire magazine and author of three New York Times bestsellers, including: The Know-It-All (about his quest to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica) and The Year of Living Biblically (about his quest to follow every rule in the Bible as literally as possible). His latest book, “Drop Dead Healthy,” will be out in April. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly, and is an occasional correspondent for NPR. He lives in New York City with his wife, Julie, and their children.
Richard “RJ” Jaramillo, SingleDad.com
Richard “RJ” Jaramillo, Single Parent and Founder of SingleDad.com, a website and social media resource dedicated to single parenting and specifically for the newly divorced, re-married, widowed Father with children. RJ is self employed, entrepreneur living in San Diego and a father of three children, (18,16,12). Rj is a contributor to DinnerTool.com, Huffington Post, Traveling Dad and variety of local morning news shows in San Diego. Current SingleDad projects include: CookLikeADad, DadProductReviews, and GettingFitDad.
Adam Keats, about.me/adamkeats
Adam provides strategic oversight and leads award-winning programs that help clients achieve their public relations and marketing goals using the interactive, emerging and social media technology. Adam’s 13-plus years of experience in the digital space spans all of the firm’s key practice areas, including consumer marketing, pharmaceutical healthcare, personal technology and business-to-business.
