About the Cool Mom Picks Editors, Writers, and Contributors
Liz Gumbinner, Co-Founder and Former Editor-in-Chief, is a born and bred New Yorker but without the accent. She has a background as a creative director in world of advertising, contributes commentary on culture, trends, media, and parenting to top newspapers and magazines, and has frequently been seen on programs including NBC’s TODAY Show, CNN, Nightline, GMA, and The Martha Stewart Show.
Liz has been included in lists of top moms to follow on social media by pubs like Forbes, The Daily Beast, Nielsen, The New York Post, and Parents. She was also awarded the prestigious AWNY Game-Changers Award from Advertising Women of New York, as well as a Working Mother of the Year Award. Parents Magazine named her “the online arbiter of cool for the swingset crowd.”
Liz is a passionate advocate for social justice, global maternal health efforts, celebrating the wonderful diversity of families, and helping parents raise the next generation of kind humans. She’s been an ambassador for organizations including The UN Foundation’s Shot@Life, and ONE.org’s ONE Moms.
You can now find her at her Substack I’m Walking Here for media, culture, parenting, and political commentary or on Instagram @mom101, on Threads @mom101, on Facebook or hosting the award-winning Spawned Parenting Podcast.
Kristen Chase co-founded the Cool Mom Picks network with Liz, was the former CEO, and has since moved onto a job writing novels full-time. She’s a mom of four living in the Philly burbs, a new fan of gardening, an old fan of reality shows and binge-watching of all kinds, and you’ll see tons of her articles all across our sites. Follow her on Instagram @thatkristenagain or learn more at kristenmeichase.com.
OTHER PEOPLE WHOSE POSTS YOU MAY BE READING HERE
Former Associate Editor Kate Etue hails from Franklin TN, a hip little craft food and indie-music-loving suburb of Nashville. She’s worked in the book industry for more than a decade, and she is the author of over a dozen books herself. (Not too shabby!) When Kate doesn’t have her nose buried in a hardcover, she’s checking out the newest tech trends for kids for Cool Mom Tech, whipping up recipes for Cool Mom Eats, crusading for moms in Africa, sitting on the sidelines at soccer or ballet, coaching scouts, advocating for adoption in honor of her youngest member of her family, and wrangling her gorgeous brood of four children.
Christina Refford, former Associate Editor and our longest CMP contributor, wrote here since way back when our photos were about 200 pixels square. She’s a New England ad agency exec turned homeschooling mom of three turned librarian. (So cool!) Don’t let her suburban Massachusetts address fool you — she can still school all of us on indie music and has the 90s-era concert photos to prove it. Her weekends are spent trail biking. running, rescuing animals, and throwing the best neighborhood parties in her backyard. Also, she’s hilarious. Just don’t ask her to watch a scary movie.
Caroline Siegrist is the mom to two energetic children, with years of experience as a cool aunt who has dedicated herself to encouraging her five nieces’ growing obsession with Star Wars. Caroline has applied her theology degree to her work as a hospital chaplain, and has written about religion, culture, children’s literature and yes, Star Wars. After living up and down the East Coast and in Vancouver BC, Caroline settled in Nashville with her tech-nerd husband, and devotes her downtime to yoga, experimenting with international cuisine, following female-led indie rock bands, and unapologetically quoting Oprah. She says “y’all,” and accepts favorable comparisons to Taylor Swift.
Ibidunni Ojikutu is a writer and professional singer based in Washington state, with appearances ranging from the Seattle Opera to the Cathouse Blues Band. When she’s not singing — and sometimes while she is — she’s a book-reading Kindleholic, a moisturizing and exfoliating evangelist, and an unapologetic lover of makeup, travel, great dresses, and cats. When she writes about beauty products here, you will want to buy all of them. You’ve been warned.
Georgette Gilmore is a writer, social media junkie, food lover, avid reader, and binge-TV watcher. She is the Engagement Editor for the popular nonprofit local paper in her New Jersey community, where she lives with her husband and raised two adorable Gilmore Girls. She will swear up and down that she’s not cool, but we all know better.
Nicole Blades is likely who you have to thank for a fabulous app round-up or brilliant tech tip post on Cool Mom Tech.She’s originally from Canada which means she’s not only a cool mom, she’s a nice one. She’s a tech junkie, amazing amateur photographer, former sports journalist, published author, certified trainer, and she’s co-hosted the Hey, Sis! podcast with her sister Nailah. So yeah, she’s a little busy.
Marsha Takeda-Morrison lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two daughters. She’s an LA Times contributor who began writing on her popular personal blog, Sweatpants Mom, and went on to become a successful freelance writer published on Babble, Yahoo!, Genlux Magazine and Mom.me. she frequently covers pop culture and has interviewed the likes of Paris Hilton, Jessica Alba, Kim Kardashian and Mila Kunis. In her former – and some say less stressful – life she was an art director, and the owner of her own entertainment marketing company with clients such as E! Entertainment, Sony Pictures, NBC and Capitol Records. While she still spends a lot of time in Hollywood she has never had plastic surgery, given birth to a famous actor’s love child or starred in a reality show. Yet. Her Instagram photos will make you hungry.
Our original Cool Mom Eats Editor, Stacie Billis is one of our longtime favorite food bloggers — she’s the author of One Hungry Mama, and the co-host of the parenting food podcast Didn’t I Just Feed You? Stacie’s common sense approach stems from her Masters Degree in child development, as well as her experience developing the organic family food brand, ChowBaby Foods. But we like her just as much for her sense of humor, her amazing energy, and her non-judgy approach which does not preclude the occasional dip into the Nutella jar.
Jane Sweeney is a California girl turned New Yorker. She has a professional culinary degree, cooked in New York City restaurants, and produces for Martha Stewart. Yes, that Martha Stewart. So you know she’s way buttoned up. Yet, she still believes her hardest gig is cooking for her two ferocious-eating daughters. You can find more of her delicious eats on Instagram @janey.cooks, and they really, really are delicious!
Anne Wolfe Postic is a Cool Mom Eats contributor who lives and writes in South Carolina, travels with relish (and often a jar of Duke’s mayonnaise), and cooks her feelings so everyone can eat them — then writes about it. She has an M.S.W. she mostly uses to torment her three sons when they’re in trouble by having long, boring conversations about why they made a misguided choice instead of grounding them. Family dinner is her passion, and she likes it in all forms — on a budget, on the sofa or around the table, in takeout containers or on plates, and on whatever schedule works. Anne chronicles her cooking successes (and failures) on Instagram @AnneWolfPostic and loves the challenge of making a meal out of whatever’s in the fridge so she doesn’t have to leave the house.
Albuquerque-based Lexi Petronis has made sure that the entire team can now spell Albuquerque. She writes and edits for national publications, with a roster including Glamour, Parents, CosmoGIRL!, SELF and Fitness, but Cool Mom Picks is her favorite. (NB: Our editors wrote that.) She stays busy with a husband, two kids, four cats, and a never-ending supply of coffee. Only the good stuff though. Oh, and she’s hilarious.
We think Delilah S. Dawson is the reason geek rhymes with chic. An Atlanta native, she loves adventure and is equally happy on horseback in skinny jeans and boots or exploring a new city in red heels. She also authored some of our very favorite posts over the years, with her trademark wit and big personality. She is now a NY Times best-selling author of Star Wars: Phasma,, as well as Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, The Skywalker Saga, and The Perfect Weapon. She also writes comics, including the creator-owned Star Pig, Ladycastle, and Sparrowhawk and comics in the worlds of Marvel Action Spider-Man, Firefly: The Sting, Adventure Time, Rick and Morty Presents, Labyrinth, The X-Files Case Files, Disney’s Descendants, Star Wars Adventures, and Star Wars Forces of Destiny. So basically, you can find her at all kinds of Disney and Star Wars conferences, with a long line for her book signings. You can imagine why kids wanted to grow up to be a vampire and the Hulk, respectively. She couldn’t be prouder.
Linda Kerr is the author of Travel Teening, a website dedicated to…travel. With teens. (As you might have guessed.) She’s lived in Qatar and Sweden with her Diplomat husband, and life has now taken them to Germany, giving them incredible opportunities to travel around Europe and beyond. She’s offering tons of travel tips on Cool Mom Picks especially for those of us with older kids, and every single post she writes will make you want to keep an eye on the airline price drops, with your valid passport by your side.
Bona fide tech junkie (seriously, ask her about processors and she can go off) Jeana Lee Tahnk has written so many of our top Cool Mom Tech posts over 6 years, including app roundups, tech tips, photography hacks, safety info, and gift guides. She’s contributed to Mashable, Parents Magazine, and Pop Sugar, while raising kids in the Massachusetts suburbs. She’s currently the global communications director of a top identity and access management company.
Lisa Barnes is our former Brand Partnership Director turned CMP contributor, covering food, cooking, entertaining, and tips for parents of teens. After a long stint in SoCal, then Colorado, she moved to Oregon with her husband and now three grown children–all of whom are now taller than she is. Lisa stays in shape so she can keep up with her kids, never says no to a volunteer request, and will make you laugh 24/7.