Common Sense Media Reviewers
Emily is a stay-at-home mom to her two children, Megan and Colin. She earned her bachelor's degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 1997 and worked in meeting management for 3 1/2 years before having her first child in 2001. Since she often shares TV time with her kids, she knows by heart nearly all of the Baby Einstein and Disney Princess videos. But when she gets the TV to herself, she enjoys suspense series like Law & Order: SVU and Alias.
An elementary school teacher for 26 years with degrees in education and Philosophy for Children, Matt has written four books on children's literature. His reviews, articles, and columns have appeared in many journals, including Kirkus, School Library Journal, and The Times-Picayune. He has also taught Children's Literature at Tulane University and the University of New Orleans, and is a frequent speaker on the subject. Some of Matt's reviews have appeared previously in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, and are reprinted here by permission.
Scott has been writing and performing music for children in venues throughout the United States since 1993. His group, Beth & Scott and Friends, performs original programs, including concerts, a musical comedy, and songwriting workshops. Scott and his wife, Beth, have recorded two CDs: Learn and Play (winner of a Children's Music Web Award for Best Recording for Preschoolers) and Happy Holidays Around the World, a collection of songs for Hanukkah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa. Their songs have been featured on radio and TV shows, including the Disney Channel-produced Out of the Box. Their work also appears on Playhouse Disney: Vol. 2. Scott lives in Yorktown Heights, New York, with Beth and their two daughters, Helen and Stephanie. Visit Scott's Web site.
Jane Louise Boursaw has been writing for more than 20 years and has finally achieved her lifelong goal of getting paid to watch movies and TV shows. She loves helping parents make good choices for their kids and has plenty of help from her own two – – a teen and preteen. She writes a syndicated movie column, Reel Life With Jane, and has also written for Kaboose.com, Zeeks.com, Family Circle, Woman's Day, Ladies' Home Journal, USA Weekend, SELF, Fitness, MovieMaker Magazine, and others. Her favorite shows include Grey's Anatomy, House, Heroes, Friday Night Lights, and The Sopranos. If she has to pick one favorite movie, it's Bagdad Café. Jane lives with her husband and kids in a log home in Traverse City, Mich. Visit her online at www.ReelLifeWithJane.com.
An avid TV watcher since she was born, Melissa Camacho turned her love for the tube into a career. After working in media-related offices at the United Nations, the United States House of Representatives, and CNN, she earned her Ph.D. in Mass Media from Michigan State University. She currently teaches media criticism at San Francisco State University in the Department of Broadcasting and Electronic Communication Arts. When she isn't teaching, critiquing, or researching television, she lives it up watching The People's Court.
Charles Cassady is an internationally published critic who signed his first book contract to review films and videos before he graduated from college. His articles and reviews have appeared in the CineBooks Motion Picture Guide encyclopedia, the VideoHound reference book series (for which he created Family Video Retriever), the European Speelfilmencyclopedie, and the Web sites TVGuide.com and FamilyWonder.com. He has also been published locally in the Cleveland Free Times, the Morning Journal of Lorain, and West Life News.
Despite a journalism degree and a lifelong passion for writing, Conny Coon took a big detour before becoming a writer. Along the way, she worked for various advertising agencies and was advertising manager for a national chain of book and music stores. She came closer to her destination as editor of a regional magazine that focused on -- no surprise here -- the advertising community. After realizing that advertising was neither glamorous nor fulfilling, Conny left to become a freelance writer and copyeditor. She works from her home in Berkley, Michigan, and writes for a wide variety of clients. As the mother of two daughters, Conny constantly seeks out media that portray positive images of strong, independent women. Her perfect dinner party would include Kate Winslet, Ellen Degeneres, Barbara Kingsolver, Anna Quindlen, Johnny Depp, Joe Jackson, and David Bowie. And, of course, her husband.
With a bachelor's in child development and a master's degree in instructional technologies, Dana Cotter has been in preschool for several decades now. She has held numerous kid-focused roles; including teacher, educational consultant, trainer, and most recently, producer of award-winning software titles (he's big, he's red and he's a dog) just to name a few. Dana's biggest shoes to fill so far are those of stay-at-home mom with two young children. They keep her busy and honest, but honestly, mostly busy.
Kari Croop is a freelance writer based in Champaign, IL, home to Roger Ebert's annual Overlooked Film Festival (also known as Ebertfest) and a two-hour drive from her alma mater, Northwestern University. An avid fan of offbeat films and underappreciated television, Kari lists Big-Top Pee-Wee and Waiting for Guffman among her top-10 funniest movies and craves reruns of now-cancelled classics like Small Wonder, Strangers With Candy, and Freaks and Geeks. In addition to her work with Common Sense Media, Kari spends her time crafting movie blurbs and actor bios for Common Sense Media content partner Netflix.com.
KJ Dell'Antonia is the co-author of Reading With Babies, Toddlers and Twos. She has written for Parents, Parenting, American Baby, and Mothering, and once, in a former life, reviewed restaurants for Time Out New York's Eating and Drinking Guide. She now lives with her husband, three kids, and two dogs on a mountainside in New Hampshire. Her favorite TV shows, delivered by satellite, are The Magic School Bus, Charlie and Lola, and Arthur, because without them, she would never have time to write. Or shower.
Former preschool teacher Ellen Dendy is a writer/editor based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Ellen is passionate about quality kids' content and believes that learning should be a positive experience. Ellen was 4 when Sesame Street premiered, and she's been friends with Ernie, Grover, and the rest of the gang ever since. Among her heroes are Jim Henson, Theodore Geisel, and J.K. Rowling.
Amy Weaver Dorning is a freelance writer and editor living in San Francisco with her husband and their baby daughter Alice. A former preschool teacher and reporter at Entertainment Weekly, Amy has an MFA in creative writing from Sarah Lawrence College. She also spent a year as the research editor at BabyCenter.com, and continues to freelance for the popular parenting site. Amy has many treasured memories of watching Captain Kangaroo and listening to kids’ music with her three sisters growing up in East Texas, and looks forward to sharing such fun times with her daughter -- when she’s old enough. Her current favorite TV shows are The Wire, Men in Trees, and Ugly Betty.
Sue has two decades of experience with children's media, not including the years she spent as an actual kid gobbling up books, magazines, movies, and TV shows. As executive director of Action for Children's Television (ACT), a national nonprofit children's TV advocacy organization, she worked to get broadcasters to live up to their public service obligation to serve young viewers and worked successfully for passage of the Children's Television Act of 1990. As the Internet emerged as the next frontier for kids' media, Sue turned her attention to the Web. She has been an editor for JuniorNet Parents, an expert for iVillage's Parent Soup, and producer of BabagaNewz.com, an educational Web site for Jewish middle school students, their parents, and teachers. In her spare time, she hosts a community radio program on Tufts University's WMFO-FM.
Sierra Filucci is a Bay Area-based freelance writer and editor who covers parenting, children, relationships, and media for various online and print publications. Previously she worked for ChickClick.com (a now-defunct Web site for teen girls and young women), where she was a media reviews editor, as well as for Kitchen Sink magazine, where she edited the culture section. If only she were as witty as Veronica Mars and as good in a crisis as Jack Bauer, her life would be near perfect. She has two kids who are both too young to watch television.
Dawn Friedman has spent her career focused on kids. Before moving to full-time freelancing, she worked with homeless families and kids at risk in Portland, OR. Her writing work has appeared in numerous publications including Salon.com, Utne, and Parenting. She lives with her husband and two children in Columbus, OH.
Karen Fu is New York City-based freelance writer. A proud native of a quaint town of Metuchen, New Jersey, Karen also writes about music for Indypendent Newspaper, Pulp Magazine, and Sentimentalist Magazine. In her spare time, she dreams of visiting her motherland of Taiwan, dabbles in radio and peer-counseling, and lurks the underbelly of the Brooklyn music scene.
Cynthia is the director of George Mason University's Film & Media Studies Program, as well as the film/TV editor for PopMatters (since 2000) and the film reviewer for the Philadelphia Citypaper (since 1988). She has published academic articles on Brad Pitt, Shakira, Lord of the Rings' Gollum, hip-hop, Taxi Driver, Bully, George Washington, and media coverage of the war against Iraq. She edited Spike Lee: Interviews (University of Mississippi Press, 2002), and co-edited Between the Sheets, In the Streets: Queer, Lesbian, Gay Documentary (University of Minnesota, 1997).
Jeremy has been an avid video game player since the days of the Apple II+ and Karateka. But his interest has developed beyond simply playing the games to trying to understand games' historical, social, and cultural impact. He has a master's degree with distinction from the University of Salford in Manchester, England, where he conducted empirical research on video games and the new cultural heritage they've created. Jeremy is a consultant for the National Institute on Media and the Family.
Kathi Kamen Goldmark is the author of the novel And My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You. She is a contributor to Single Woman of a Certain Age, and My California: Journeys by Great Writers; co-author of The Great Rock & Roll Joke Book, and Mid-Life Confidential: the Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America with Three Chords and an Attitude. With Sam Barry, she writes a monthly aspiring-writer-advice column in BookPage called "The Author Enablers." Kathi is the founder and a member of the all-author rock band the Rock Bottom Remainders, president and janitor of "Don't Quit Your Day Job" Records, Author Liaison for various charity events and Book Group Expo, and producer of the coast-to-coast radio show West Coast Live. She likes to think she is ready for anything.
Andrea holds a bachelor's degree in anthropology from Lake Forest College and a master's of science in childhood development and youth culture from Brunel University in London. Currently she works as a consultant for nonprofit youth organizations and is writing a book about the American high school experience. During her free time, she enjoys reading, discovering good music, and saving the world in Nintendo's Legend of Zelda series.
Joly very much enjoys fusing her two passions -- writing and education -- into a common format. She received a bachelor's degree in English and earned a master's degree in creative writing from the University of Michigan. She has received fellowships and awards for her work. Upon moving to the Bay Area in 1995, Joly completed her Montessori Primary Teacher's training and has since taught in Montessori schools in San Francisco, Kansas City, and Berlin. Joly was the head content writer for Chevron's educational Web site, Treehouse, from 1999-2001, and has worked as a freelance writer and a teacher ever since.
Amber Keyser, Ph.D., is an evolutionary biologist by training and has published extensively in the scientific literature. In the interests of family, she reinvented herself as a freelance children’s writer and reads as much young adult fiction as she can. Happiest in the wilderness, she loads up her two kids (ages three and five) for canoe trips or cross-country skiing whenever possible.
Brenda Kienan balances a career as an Internet content strategist with parenting a daughter who knew how to run the VCR before she could talk. As a reviewer, Brenda also draws on a background in writing and publishing. While her personal taste runs to dramas like Deadwood and Six Feet Under, she longs for more high-quality scripted shows that the whole family can enjoy together.
Erik Lande, Ph.D., is a licensed clinical psychologist with an emphasis on child psychology and neuropsychology. He has engaged in a number of psychological research projects and presented his results at national conferences. He has worked as a mentor for troubled teens and often enjoys playing video games with them. Dr. Lande started out with an Intellivision video game system as a child and continues to play games to this day.
A former newspaper reporter, Lucy Maher is a freelance writer living in New York City. In addition to reviewing for Common Sense Media, she's written for the New York Post, the New York Daily News, People.com, Teen People, and Ladies' Home Journal. Her favorite shows include Nip/Tuck, Ugly Betty, and anything on the Food Network.
Erika reviews kids' music for Parenting magazine and writes about arts and entertainment and popular culture for a variety of papers and magazines, including the New York Times, Time Magazine, the LA Times, Entertainment Weekly, and others.
Author of The Movie Mom's Guide to Family Movies, Nell's reviews have been featured in three editions of The Practical Guide to Practically Everything. She's the family movie reviewer for Yahoo! Movies, is a regular on radio stations across the United States and in Canada, and has been profiled in a number of major publications, including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and Working Woman. She's been writing online reviews of current releases and classic videos since 1995. Nell served on the board of WETA (educational television and radio in the Nation's Capital) for 12 years and now serves on the board of Reading Is Fundamental.
Ginny is a writer and editor in Los Angeles. She's the former news editor of ChickClick.com, a site for teen girls and young women, and has written frequently on youth issues for print and online magazines including Kitchen Sink magazine, WireTap.org, and Pop + Politics. She's also written for the magazines Shape, BUST, Venus, and SOMA and for the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
As Net-mom, Jean is the author of six editions of Net-mom's Internet Kids & Family Yellow Pages, a family-friendly directory to 3,500 of the best children's resources the Internet has to offer. In addition to being an author and mom, Jean is a professional librarian who works for the Liverpool (NY) Public Library as assistant director and administrator of systems and technology.
Cynthea, a graduate of Brown University and NYU School of Law, is a volunteer docent in the Teacher and School programs at the National Gallery of Art and writes frequently about art, music, and family entertainment. She lives outside Washington, D.C., with her husband and three children.
S. Jhoanna Robledo is a freelance writer who has written for New York magazine, Newsweek, Glamour, Self, Fitness, Real Simple, and other publications. She has both bachelor's and master's degrees in journalism and justifies her sometimes-gluttonous TV-watching habits by pointing to the fact that, as an undergraduate, she also minored in telecommunications and film. On some days, she's even able to take command of the remote control, despite the fact that she shares it with her husband and three children.
Deirdre Sheppard graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a degree in playwriting. In addition to reviewing TV shows for Common Sense Media, Deirdre has worked at Picture This Television and in several departments at Sesame Workshop (including International TV Distribution, Creative Development, and Themed Entertainment). She also writes for Swing-Dancer.com and Talkmedia.us and teaches children's ballroom dancing classes in Manhattan. Her favorite kids' shows include Little Bill, Jacob Two-Two, The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, and Batfink. Her grown-up side enjoys Inside the Actors Studio and Dinner for Five.
Jan Silbermann works as a shadow for a special-needs child. She's also the mother of five children, (including two teenagers who help feed her interest in children's music and literature), and was a teacher for many years. She especially loves the band Trout Fishing in America and singer-songwriter Sarah Hickman. She lives with her husband and all those children in Memphis, TN.
Joyce Slaton is a freelance writer and full-time stay-at-home mom in San Francisco. In between scraping yogurt off floors and exhorting her daughter Violet not to pull the cat's tail, she writes frequently about women's health, cooking, the politics of food buying, motherhood and history (check out her journal on BabyCenter). She is addicted to Project Runway, Lost, and Supernanny and hasn't had a good night's sleep in close to two years.
Sarah has a master's degree in education and is the mother of two teenagers who have invested countless hours in video games yet still manage to be well-adjusted, academic high achievers with healthy social skills. She credits this to a thorough, investigative parenting style (general nosiness) and a willingness to meet the beast of modern culture head on. Sarah is also a writer and teacher and works with pre-teens and teens in social development workshops.
Teresa Talerico is a Los Angeles-based freelance writer. Her work has appeared in Hispanic Business, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and other publications, including the youth-oriented SuperOnda and Latin Teen magazines. She has been a movie buff since her father took her to see Fiddler on the Roof as a kid.
After 28 years of teaching, Patricia has retired from Woodland Montessori Children's House where she taught the Advanced Elementary class (9-12-year olds). Patricia also spent a few years teaching writing part time at Woodland Community College. She has a bachelor's degree in the Physiology of Exercise and a master's degree in English.
Dana Villamagna is a Wisconsin-based freelance journalist, mom of three children (ages 9, 5, and 1), and long-distance runner. She holds a graduate degree in journalism from Northwestern University, and she completed a fellowship in media leadership at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies. Since childhood, Dana's favorite book series and television show has remained Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie, and she's currently working on a kids' book club activity guide for the Little House series.
Will Wade has covered business and technology on both coasts and has written for The New York Times, Wired, The San Francisco Examiner, Salon.com, and other publications. He has master's degrees in journalism and Japanese studies from the University of Michigan, and a bachelor's degree in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley -- where he spent many late nights discussing the life lessons to be learned from Star Trek. Will is a sucker for thoughtful sci-fi dramas but will tolerate mediocre sci-fi if the alien costumes aren't too cheesy. He watches TV in New York, where he shares control of the remote control with his wife and three children.
Betsy is currently a senior communications specialist with a nonprofit organization in San Francisco. She was previously provided guidance on family entertainment as the TV and movie editor of FamilyWonder.com and helped develop multimedia reading software at Soliloquy Learning. She has an MFA in creative writing from San Francisco State University, where she taught undergraduate story-writing workshops, and a bachelor's in communication from Stanford University.
David Walsh, Ph.D., is the president and founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family in Minneapolis. Psychologist, educator, author, speaker, and father of three, Dr. Walsh has emerged as one of the leading authorities in America on the impact of media on children and families. He's written six books, including the award-winning Selling Out America's Children. He has spoken to professional and general audiences all over North American and has been a frequent guest on national media.
Sarah is a mother, writer, and aspiring triathlete. She has a master's degree in English and has worked as a teacher, Web site producer, and personal trainer. She lives in Brooklyn with her teenaged son, two cats, and a lizard.
Tony Whittum lives in Portland Oregon where, for the last six years he has been working in human resources as a technical and finance recruiter. He has two boys, Edan and Nik, ages 10 and 17, and when he is not busy trying to live by their fine example he is playing guitar, listening to a wide range of music, creating artwork, cycling, camping, and being tugged along by his 110-pound white German shepherd, Jax.
After a five-year stint working as a copy editor for Netflix, Larisa became a mom in September 2005; both experiences serve her well when it comes to writing for Common Sense Media. A native of upstate New York, Larisa received a dual bachelor's degree in English and theatre from Hartwick College before moving to California in 1990. She lives in Santa Cruz with her husband and daughter and enjoys singing, acting, reading, and anything ocean-related. When her television's not tuned to Noggin, Larisa enjoys watching The Apprentice, Sex and the City, and Project Runway; her favorite movies include When Harry Met Sally and The Wizard of Oz.
