Who We Are

Editors/Founders

Jamie Stringfellow is the former editor-in-chief of Martha's Vineyard Magazine. She has held a variety of editing positions at Yankee Magazine and The Old Farmer's Almanac. As a freelancer she has written articles on a wide variety of subjects--everything from climbing giant Douglas firs to going carless in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in the Boston Globe, Yankee, Westways, VIA, AARP and elsewhere. She is a regular blogger at the travel site PeterGreenberg.com. She and her husband Barry, and children Ian and Hallie, divide their time between Hermosa Beach, California and Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Paul Schneider is the author of four books, including most recently Bonnie and Clyde: The Lives Behind the Legend, which Oprah magazine described as "a biography so intimate it feels like an act of ventriloquism."  His shorter work, primarily on subjects relating to the environment and travel, has appeared in the New York Times, The New Yorker, Esquire, Men's Journal, Audubon, Oprah, Travel & Leisure, Elle, and elsewhere.  

His first book The Adirondacks: A History of America's First Wilderness was a New York Times Notable Book of the year, and his second book, The Enduring Shore: A History of Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket was also well received.  Brutal Journey: Cabeza de Vaca and the Epic First Crossing of North America, which the New York Times described as "hard to believe and impossible to forget," is currently being adapted into an Illustrated novel by Spanish artist Jose Parra. He is also at work on a historical book about the Mississippi River.  Paul lives in Southeastern Massachusetts.  For more, visit www.schneiderbooks.com.

Assistant Editor

Kelsey Perrett is a magazine and web writer specializing in outdoor travel and adventure. She has written for Yankee magazine, manages the outdoor blog An Infinite Storm, and works as a writer and research assistant at the Alison Shaw Gallery on Martha's Vineyard.

Kelsey recently graduated from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she studied English, journalism, and history. She also holds her Wilderness First Responder certification, and hopes to obtain the other neccesary credentials to become a backcountry guide. She lives in New England, splitting her time between Amherst, Massachusetts, and Oak Bluffs, Martha's Vineyard.

Contributors (in alphabetical order) 

John Barrett (see "the Little Illinois Trail" in Walking Now) was born in Cork, Ireland and lived there for the first 30 years of his life.  A noted trauma surgeon, he moved to Chicago in 1975 to join the Trauma Service at Cook County Hospital, a career from which he retired in 2002. Since then, he has been walking: he's completed the Appalachian Trail, The Grand Illinois Trail, The Camino De Santiago in Spain, The Irish Coast to Coast Walk, and a walk from Lands End to Canterbury in England, which he calls “The Canterbury Trail”.  In addition to the Little Illinois Trail, he is currently engaged in an on-again-off-again walk from Chicago to the Atlantic Ocean.  He prefers to walk slowly in order to appreciate the journey – a trait that has earned him the trail name “Slow Walker," and that dovetails nicely with his recent studies in Natural History at the Morton Arboretum.  "I can now better understand the natural environments through which I hike," he says.  "I believe that the last step of one journey is the first step of the next."  He lives in Oak Park, Illinois with his wife, Kathy, with whom he has two grown children. 

Award-winning writer Ted Conover is the author, most recently, of The Routes of Man: How Roads Are Changing the World and the Way We Live Today, a groundbreaking book on the unintended social consequenses of the global road-buidling binge.  (Knopf, 2010)  What sets Conover's work apart is his ability to take a long historical view of human fallability without ever losing his sense of humor and humility.  As Janet Maslin wrote in the New York Times: "Conover is good company wherever he goes."

Loren Demerathis the Chair of the Sociology Department at Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport. He has published articles on the aesthetic pleasures of social interaction, the impact of development on the decline of social capital, and the importance of pedestrian spaces to the experience of community. Three years ago Loren started thinking about walking more seriously after he discovered that walking to school with his two children was the highlight of his day. He has occasionally been known to walk the streets of Shreveport while playing his guitar, but most of time he feels too funny about it and doesn't take it with him.

Gary Denton, weekendwalk's legacy routes editor, is currently walking the old Post Road from Boston to New York  Not surprisingly, he likes to walk. He also likes food, gardening, travel, birdwatching, watching soccer, collecting trivia, and golf (no carts!). He is a former lots of things, most recently a science teacher, but also, in no particular order, park ranger, lab technician, house husband, travel book store manager, SAT tutor at The Princeton Review (He still is a tutor actually, just not for TPR), kitchen worker, coin room attendant (counting money from vending machines, still the best job he ever had), waiter, salesperson at a clothing store, warehouse worker, and serial graduate student (although he has since been reformed). He is also quite fond of his wife, and of their menagerie of pets. When not traveling, he resides in Jamaica Plain, MA, within dog-walking distance of the Post Road.

 Kate Hooper, Style Editor, is a New York-based writer and event producer. Kate's editorial and advertising work has been published in ELLE, Fit, Condé Nast Traveler, Esquire, Essence, Harper's Bazaar, Marie Claire, Men's Fitness, Men's Health, and Shape, as well as on Cvent.com, where she reports daily on New York City meetings and events news. An avid traveler and long-haul walker, Kate’s most memorable walks include hiking along the ledge of an active, gas and rock-spewing volcano in Nicaragua and strolling around the top of Iceland’s Snaefellsjokull Glacier. Her motto? “I’ll go anywhere. Except Branson.”

Dana DuGan is an award-winning writer who has held staff positions with various newspapers and magazines for more than a decade. She began her career in New York City where she also worked in film production. She currently writes for two blogs: chickwithaview.com, and Sun Valley Magazine's local-buzz, and is the editor of 5B bulletin, an online newsletter for the Ketchum (Idaho) Community Development Corporation. DuGan, a dedicated traveler and gardener, is the mother of two girls, and closely identifies with the Patsy Cline song, “Walking After Midnight”.

Kate Feiffer, who designed our walking couple logo,  is a children's book author. Her two new books are The Wild, Wild Inside: A View from Mommy's Tummy! and But I Wanted a Baby Brother!  She lives and walks on Martha's Vineyard, where she has walked around the perimeter of Chappaquiddick. www.katefeiffer.com

Leslie Garrett, the Virtuous Walker, is a journalist, author and mother of three, from London, Ontario. Cursed (or blessed) with serious wanderlust, she’s devoted to finding ways to travel responsibly – to ensure that her travels enrich not only her, but also the communities she visits.

Her column, “The Virtuous Traveler” runs regularly on the website of CBS travel editor Peter Greenberg (www.petergreenberg.com) and in The Toronto Starr. Leslie is a regular contributor on sustainable living for gaiam.com, lime.com, greenmuze.com and healthharmony.ca and the author of 13 books, includingThe Virtuous Consumer: Your Essential Shopping Guide for a Better, Kinder, Healthier World Visit Leslie at www.virtuousconsumer.com

Cary Hazlegrove is a photographer on Nantucket, Massachusetts. Her 13^th book Nantucket, was recently published by Turner Publishing. www.hazlegrove.com

Edward Hoagland is the author of many books, including The Courage of Turtles and Heart's Desire.   His non-fiction has been widely praised: John Updike famously called him “the best essayist of my generation.”  His essay on John Muir, which was reprinted with the permission of the author, appeared in Hoagland on Nature: Essays, which was published by Lyons Press in 2003.  For a more information on Hogland and his work, visit edwardhoagland.com.

Joseph Hooper will be writing regularly about health for WeekendWalk.com.  He has worked as a freelance magazine writer in New York City since 1985, writing about movies, music, science, health, psychology, travel and religion, among other not so obviously connected subjects.

He is currently a contributing editor/writer at both Elle and Popular Science magazines and has written for Men’s Journal, Esquire, the New York Times Magazine and the New Yorker. His first book, an integrative guide to muscle and joint health, entitled Muscle Medicine: The Revolutionary Approach to Maintaining, Strengthening, and Repairing Your Muscles and Joints, written with Rob DeStefano, D.C. and Bryan Kelly, M.D. (Simon and Schuster/Fireside), spent two weeks on the New York Times bestseller list in the fall of 2009. Joseph Hooper lives on Manhattan’s Upper West Side with his wife, Kate Doyle Hooper.

Nick Kaye spent close to six years as a staff member of The New York Times where he contributed many articles, primarily on travel and real estate related subjects. In the spring of 2009 he profiled the past, present and future of brewing in New Orleans for the newspaper,  Times in spring 2009, and that summer he joined the new, Atlanta-based Beer Connoisseur Magazine as Managing Editor.

David Levinger is an international expert on the cultural dimensions of transportation policy.  He recently relocated to Washington DC to become Director of Research at the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. In his former home of Seattle, David was the first Executive Director of Feet First, the founder of the Mobility Education Foundation, and a professor of Urban Design & Planning at the University of Washington.  He was briefly famous for crossing the road in a chicken suit to raise awareness. As one of WeekendWalk.com's Urban Trailblazers, he'll be updating us often with news that connects the big picture with local reality.

Renée Loth is a columnist for The Boston Globe’s opinion pages and the former editor of the Globe’s editorial page. In a distinguished journalism career Loth has worked in a variety of high-visibility assignments at the Globe, including political editor, State House bureau reporter, and magazine writer. With the support of traveling journalism fellowships she has reported from 14 countries.

Renée is a member of the Massachusetts Women’s Forum and is board vice-chair of PEN /New England, which promotes literacy and free expression worldwide. In the fall she will be a fellow at Harvard's Joan Shorenstein Center for the Press, Politics and Public Policy.

Ms. Loth, 58, was born in Port Chester, NY. She is married to the jazz pianist, Bert Seager. They live in Boston.

Anne Lutz Fernandez is a former corporate executive who also spent a decade as an investment banker in New York and London. She left her position as Director at Credit Suisse to become a writer and teacher of English. She is the co-author, with her sister Catherine Lutz, of Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and its Effect on Our Lives (Palgrave MacMillan 2010).

Ian MacCormack is our staff Photoshop and Google Maps assistant; he's in 11^thgrade in Manhattan Beach, California. When he’s not playing the cello or watching old episodes of Seinfeld, Ian spends his weekends taking epic walks with his friends Jack and Christian to various In ‘n Out Burgers in the South Bay. 

Julie Michaels is an award-winning writer and editor with 25 years of experience in newspaper and magazine journalism. She has worked as an editor at The Boston Globe Magazine, was a founding editor at New England Monthly Magazine. She also edits books and writes regularly for The Boston Globe, The New York Times, and a variety of monthly magazines. Michaels grew up in New York City and didn't know she loved hiking until, at 15, some friends took her to the top of Mt. Marcy. She's since hiked the Rockies, the Grand Tetons, the White Mountains, and a few Swiss Alps. The only thing keeping her from more adventures is the desire to find a comfy hut at every summit! For the last five years, Julie has lived with her husband and daughter in Western Massachusetts where she works as a freelance writer and editor.

Thanks to their patented Readecom Universal Grow Hats, Nathaniel Reade and his son Henry, left, now have thick, rich, luxuriant heads of hair. When he's not tinkering with hair-loss solutions, Reade writes magazine stories; in his 20 year career, he has been published in magazines beginning with most letters of the alphabet, from Attache to Yankee (Z is a tough one), including GQ, Outside, Men's Journal and Playboy. Much of his work has focused on the outdoors and the environment, from West Nile virus and the biology of mosquitoes to the Northern Forest of Maine. You can visit him and his work at www.nreade.com

Suzanne ("Suzie") Rodriguez is a travel, culinary and wine writer based in Sonoma, California. Her work has appeared in Gourmet, Relish, Woman's World, and other national magazines.  Her love of variety has led her to write on subjects as diverse as Gladys Knight and Americans in Paris in the 1920s. She will be a frequent contributor to WeekendWalk.com. Visit Suzie at www.culinarygadabout.com

When Laurel Schneider is not out walkling beagles and border collies around the Canadian wine country, she  is a professor of Theology, Ethics, And Culture at the Chicago Theological Seminary.  She is the author of two books: Beyond Monotheism: A Theology of Multiplicity, and Re-Imagining the Divine: Confronting the Backlash Against Feminist Theology.

Harti Schrader moves between working for his law clients and working with students from first to tenth grade, including some with severe mental handicaps.  "It's great to be here," he is often heard to say no matter where he is.  His proudest moments are when he sees his twelve year old daughter employing some of the most important life skills, including leading steep ski climbs, playing trombone in their gypsy punk band, and cooking family dinners.  Harti left New England for Seattle twenty years ago to be closer to big mounains. 

Susan Smalley is a Professor of Psychiatry, and the Founder and Director of the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC) at the Jane and Terry Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA (www.marc.ucla.edu). During her 20-year research career as a behavior geneticist, she received numerous NIH grants and published extensively on autism, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and mindfulness. She is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and Psychology Today online communities and has her first book, Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness (Smalley and Winston: Da Capo Publishing) being released July 2010.  She is currently completing her second book.  She and her husband, Kevin Wall, live in Beverly Hills and have three adult children. www.suesmalley.com

Karen Terzano is currently walking from Maine to New York on the East Coast Greenway and blogging for Weekendwalk.com.  In her own words:  "I am a 59, soon to be 60, year old woman who has developed a passion for seeing life up close through long distance hiking.  Roles I have played in life to date have been, or currently are: psychologist, teacher, entrepreneur, bagpiper and monk. My all-consuming, life-affirming loves are Zen and Deep Ecology.   I have been known to pet moss, laugh with the loons and walk around Central Park for absolutely no reason at all. I like people and talk to strangers in elevators and check out lines.  Currently I live in Maine, but have been lucky enough to spend years at a time in Costa Rica, Vermont, Michigan and Nevada.

Jay Walljasper is the author of The Great Neighborhood Book: A Do-it-Yourself Guide to Placemaking (2007) and What We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons (coming July, 2010). Walljasper is a Senior Editor at Project for Public Spaces and an editor of OnTheCommons.org. He writes frequently about sustainable tourism for National Geographic Traveler, where he is a contributing editor, and about sustainable cities for a number of publications. www.JayWalljasper.com

Kate Williams, Executive Director of NFCT has worked in the fields of outdoor recreation, education and conservation for fifteen years.  She served as an instructor with the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS). With the Trust for Public Land, she sought to expand the conservation community's ability to connect land and people in meaningful ways Kate and husband Rob are avid Nordic skiers, runners and hikers, and live with their two children in  Waitsfield, Vermont.

Editorial Assistants:

Vilte S. Holstad moved to Los Angeles from Lithuania in her preteens and still considers herself very European! After earning her degree in Fashion Design, she decided to explore all aspects of the industry. She worked in PR, journalism and television exposing herself to every opportunity. Today she writes her blog lace of time, freelances and loves to travel and try new things. One her favorite places to visit in California is Napa Valley, mostly due the the amazing wine that makes her simply jump for joy!

Actually, Vilte likes to jump for joy everywhere she goes. During her travels  she makes a "jump for joy" at spots she loves. When traveling alone, this means asking strangers to snap pictures and try to catch her in the air! Needless to say friends are made where ever she goes...