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Who We Are
Laura K. Barrett (“What Women Want”) is the mother of three sons. Laura grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from the University of California at Davis with a major in Economics. She teaches yoga and takes walks every day. For fun, she loves to read; her house is filled with books; she is on a first-name basis with the local librarian. She writes about family relationships from the woman’s perspective.
Jessica Kearney Heidgerken and Daren Heidgerken (“Newbies”) are the first-time parents of a new daughter. Daren
is a manager at an engineering firm in California. More specifically,
he is a rocket scientist, which might get him some oohs and aahs were
he to go on Jeopardy but
doesn’t mean diddly squat to a baby. In a former life, say a couple of years ago,
Jessica was a full-time editor. Now she’s mostly a stay-at-home mom
who has not the slightest urge to buy a minivan. Another offspring is due in the Fall of 2008. 
Sheila Hopkins (“Old Men”) lives in Prague in the Czech Republic. She is one of the first female graduates of Notre Dame, the mother of three grown children, the wife of a man she fell in love with when she was 19, and something of a rolling stone. She has two old men in her life – her dad, whom she has known forever, and her father-in-law, who has been in her life for more than 35 years. She is also married to a dad who is getting older by the minute.
Michael Lester is the father of two sons and the founding father of the Dad Company. He has written for magazines, newspapers and television and has been the editor-in-chief of travel, investment and lifestyle magazines. Michael is the author of How to Have Fun with Your Body (Houghton Mifflin). He teaches journalism at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill, California, and – lately – he has been sleeping a lot.
Miles Lester (“Teen Talk”) wrote about parenting from a teenager’s perspective when he was in high school. Today he is a college sophomore, majoring in the culinary arts, and the bulk of the writing that he does is text messaging.
Glen Mezher (“International Dad”) was born and raised in South Africa. He has a masters in physics from the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa, and a masters in business administration from The London School of Economics. Twice married and the father of three children, he has spent most of his adult life with his families, working in businesses both small and large in South Africa, Brazil, California and, currently, England.
Harry Shenk (“Great Expectations”) is a freelance writer, author and editor. He and his wife were pregnant during the first eight months of our site’s life. (His column runs in reverse chronological order.) In December 2007, they gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. Pictured here are Harry’s forefathers and foremothers – the Shenkelbach family of Vienna, Austria.
Ethan Sorscher (“Teen Talk”) started writing for Dad as a high school student, way back when he lived at home with his parents and wrote a monthly column for the Northgate Sentinel, his school paper. Still a teenager, in the Fall of 2008, Ethan moves to Davis, California, to attend the university there. Ethan writes about life with his father (who, once upon a time, looked like the man pictured here).
Bebe Vaughan (“History Lessons”) is the product of an uneasy alliance between the Welsh and the French, with the Brits patrolling the borders. She has been writing since the age of nine. She is a member of The Kensington Ladies Erotica Society, contributing as both author and editor to all three of their popular books. Bebe is the mother of two and the grandmother of four.
Mark Wiertalla (“Empty Nest”) is the father of two adult daughters and an adult son. Twice a winner in the annual National Novel Writing Month contest, Mark has been motivated to express his thoughts within the confines of a non-fictional format – his Empty Nest column. He writes about how his life has changed – and continues to change – as he transitions from an active, full-time nest keeper to the role of a consultant dad. Mark is a product manager for a software company in California’s Silicon Valley. 
Jesse Young (“Single”) is a divorced dad with shared custody. He writes about the struggles and joys of being a single parent, about his sons and their relationship. He also writes about the struggles and joys of dating as a divorced man with children.