About Us

Welcome to FertilityAuthority, a comprehensive, interactive online network for women — and men — seeking fertility and infertility information, advice, referrals and appointments. Our website is designed to provide quality information on a wide range of fertility topics, as well as simplify your search for a trusted fertility doctor or fertility clinic.

At FertilityAuthority, our patient care coordinators can book appointments for you and help you in your search for a fertility doctor or fertility clinic that can best help you. Our personal approach through phone calls, email, and live chat will assist you on your way to achieving your family-building goals. Our goal is to help you navigate the waters and make the best, most effective decisions about your fertility in the least amount of time.

FertilityAuthority is the most comprehensive web portal dedicated solely to fertility with the quality tools and information to pursue your goals:

• Fertility doctor and fertility clinic searches by city, state and zip code to connect you with the specialist you need
• Quality content written by health care writers
• A robust, interactive community of bloggers, including health professionals and patients who are living the challenges of infertility
• Message boards and fertility forums at Fertile Thoughts
• Fertility news

Our patient care coordinators are former infertility patients across the country, who know the fertility clinics in their area and are adept at matching patients with the right doctor for their needs. We are a passionate team and we understand the need for one, comprehensive source of fertility information.

Management Team

Gina Bartasi, Founder, Chief Executive Officer
gina@fertilityauthority.com
A seasoned entrepreneur, Gina brings more than 17 years of experience to FertilityAuthority.com with a proven track record of building new business ideas from the ground up. She has launched several key brands and websites with a focus on financial performance and profitability. Prior to FertilityAuthority.com, Gina was the founder and chairman of The Leader Publishing Group, a magazine publishing firm in Atlanta, GA where she was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year finalist, Metro Atlanta Chamber's Small Business Person of the Year finalist and a finalist for Woman of the Year in Technology. Gina received her BS from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is a graduate of Harvard Business School. She serves on the boards of The Carter Center's Board of Councilors, Camp Sunshine, and UNC-Chapel Hill’s Department of Communications Studies.

Jennifer A. Redmond, Co-founder, Editor-in-Chief
jennifer@fertilityauthority.com
Jennifer has 20 years experience as an online editor and writer, specializing in reproductive health care. A savvy editor and accomplished online content strategist, Jennifer has honed her skills in creating, utilizing, and analyzing digital media and social media strategy, application, and metrics. She has had leadership roles in the launch and/or re-launch of several websites, using innovative approaches for presenting and optimizing content to increase traffic and user retention. Formerly, she served as Director of Communications for RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, and prior to RESOLVE, she was a Senior Editor with Inc.com, the website for Inc. magazine. Jennifer has a BA from Adelphi University in New York.

Editorial

Kim Griffiths, Associate Editor
kim@fertilityauthority.com
Kim Griffiths has been active in the infertility arena for over three years, volunteering with RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. She served as a patient spokesperson on an Infertility Awareness media campaign with RESOLVE launched during National Infertility Awareness Week in April 2012, and contributed to a RESOLVE and Redbook Magazine awareness campaign in October 2011. Kim also provides support services and volunteer coordination for the national non-profit. She has previous online forum and blog writing experience dating back to ther personal infertility struggle. Kim has a BA from Rutgers University and MA from Nathan Weiss Graduate College at Kean University.

Stacey Elgin, Senior Healthcare Editor
Stacey@fertilityauthority.com
Award winning journalist Stacey Elgin has spent nearly two decades in front of the camera at CNN, Fox 5 Atlanta, and NBC in Atlanta. After a long and open struggle with fertility, Stacey's most important job now is being the mother of her twin boys who were born two months premature in December of 2011. The now healthy twins are teaching mommy that it's a work in progress to have it all -- marriage, family and career. She brings her journalistic expertise, passion and infertility experience to our team. Stacey is involved in several charities including MDA, Ronald McDonald House, March of Dimes and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.

Suzanne Rico, Chief Healthcare Correspondent
suzanne@fertilityauthority.com
A veteran journalist who has interviewed newsmakers from President Clinton to Oprah, Suzanne Rico brings 18 years of media experience to FertilityAuthority.com. Most recently, she anchored the Emmy Award winning morning newscast for CBS in Los Angeles before moving into the fertility space. Suzanne has not only researched the subject of infertility as a reporter, but she also has two children born via IVF, with one carried by a surrogate. Suzanne’s articles have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Conceive magazine, and many others, and she is a seasoned, media savvy speaking professional, interviewer, and host. Suzanne received her BA in Mass Communication from the University of California, Los Angeles, and her Master's Degree in Broadcast Communication from San Francisco State University. Suzanne is active in her community, mentoring two at risk young women for the last decade and sitting on the board of Youth Mentoring Connection.

Leigh Ann McDonald Woodruff, Executive Editor
leighann@fertilityauthority.com
Leigh Ann has more than 20 years of experience in many facets of the communications industry — from publishing to public relations and marketing. She has worked in public relations for a private school and been a writer and editor for numerous consumer, trade and industry publications, including Piedmont Parent, Health Care Buyer, Vitality Digest, and multiple custom hospital publications for hospitals throughout the Southeast. She has extensive experience researching and writing about the areas of health care, parenting, travel, technology and education. She has won several awards for editing and writing, including the Gold Crown and the Bronze Quill Awards of Excellence from the International Association of Business Communicators; The Communicator Award of Excellence from the Carolinas Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Society; and Gold Awards for Travel Writing and Service Feature from Parenting Publications of America.

Sales & Marketing Team

Anna Coltrane, Account Executive
anna@fertilityauthority.com
Before joining Fertility Authority, Anna interned in the digital department of an advertising agency, worked in a marketing assistant role in a healthcare company, and helped found a student-led social media agency in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In May of 2012 Anna competed in the National Student Advertising Competition where her 6 member pitch team represented the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and won Runner-Up status.

Ann Gaines, Director of Sales
ann@fertilityauthority.com
Ann has a passion for building personal relationships and has proven success in professional sales for more than 16 years. Ann was an upper tier Pharmaceutical Sales Consultant where she was awarded multiple honors including “Representative of the Year”. She most recently enjoyed a seven-year career as a Multi-Million Dollar Realtor where she was recognized for her exemplary customer service skills. Ann has a Bachelor of Science Degree from Valparaiso University.

Robin McCarthy, VP Business Development and Operations
robin@fertilityauthority.com
Robin has over 12 years of online marketing experience, with the last 8 focused exclusively on performance marketing. She has provided strategy and management of marketing initiatives for Fortune 500 clients including Walmart, 3M, Siemens, Citrix, Hilton Hotels, Integramed and others. She currently serves on the Advisory board for Affiliate Summit, the industry’s most attended networking event and tradeshow with over 5,000 attendees and is active member of the Performance Marketing Association. Her work while at the NYC Social Media agency, Converseon, won a 2011 Digiday Sammy Award for online engagement and socialization.

Jennifer "Jay" Palumbo, Patient Care Manager
jay@fertilityauthority.com
Jay is a writer, performer and infertility activist. She was named one of the “10 Standout Stand-ups Worth Watching" by BACKSTAGE Magazine, she performed in Covergirl's "Stand Up for Beauty" and her blog, The 2 Week Wait, shares both her sense of humor and personal struggle with her own journey to get pregnant. She has brought her wit, compassion and eagerness to help those who are going through fertility treatment to her Patient Care Manager Role with Fertility Authority. Jay received a BA from Binghamton University.

User Experience & Interface Team

Frank Kessler, Lead Developer
frank@fertilityauthority.com
Frank has 7 years of experience developing dynamic content driven web sites. Mostly gaining experience by developing his own sites, he has gained extensive knowledge across all facets of web development including system administration. In additional to Frank's technology skills, he graduated from Binghamton University with a BS in Business Management with concentrations in Finance and Management Info Systems. After college Frank attained a MBA, also at Binghamton, with concentrations in Marketing and Operations Management.

Advisory Board

Alex Baxter
Alex Baxter is Vice President and General Manager of Conde Nast’s PARADE Digital. Alex leads Parade Publication’s interactive initiatives for consumers, newspaper partners and advertisers. Since coming aboard, web traffic has increased significantly, revenue grown, editorial enhanced, and the number of partner syndicates increase with attractive new content and revenue sharing products.

Alex has held a variety of positions in and managed resources for editorial, sales, marketing, business development, product development, operations, strategic alliances and advertising. Prior to joining PARADE, he was the Executive Director of Digital Media at Wenner Media (Rolling Stone, Us Weekly and Men’s Journal), where he spearheaded Internet, mobile, video and other interactive initiatives. Alex has also served as Vice President of Sales at Silicon Valley mobile media startup 4INFO, Director of Internet Sales & Marketing at Dow Jones & Co. / The Wall Street Journal, and as Managing Partner for Transition Assistance Online.

Alex holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a BS and BA from Southern Wesleyan University, and lives in New York City with his wife, Amanda, and daughter, Sophie.

Maia Benson
Maia Benson, a Senior Director, Strategic Partnership with Clickable, has 12 years of experience in product management and business development in the technology industry. Prior to Clickable, she spent four years at LexisNexis, two as a part of their general-management training program and two as a product manager. As a product manager, she transformed LexisNexis’s SEO and SEM business from a conceptual plan to one of the fastest growing revenue streams in the company. Before moving to the East coast, Maia spent eight years in Silicon Valley working in Sales and Business and Development. She spent four years with IDC, two years with a Knowledge Universe company, and two years with Xerox—all focused on the technology SMB marketplace. Maia holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Syracuse University, and an MBA from Cornell University.

Gina D'Andrea
A seasoned Advertising Executive, Gina brings over 15 years of experience to FertilityAuthority, offering a successful track record in Sales, Sales Leadership and Strategic Development. Most recently, as Senior Vice President of Vertical & Product Sales at AOL, Gina led a team of more than 50 sales professionals responsible for Category Sales, Product Sales, Product Development, Business Analytics & the AOL Performance Network. Gina joined AOL in 2004, responsible for building and leading a Category Sales initiative. Prior to AOL, Gina spent 5 years at Yahoo! holding multiple sales leadership positions, with a focus on Retail and Commerce. She spent her earlier years in the online media business managing sales teams at both GeoCities, and Juno and began her media career at Ziff Davis, where she held multiple sales/sales management positions responsible for selling print advertising for a variety of titles including MacUser, MacWeek, FamilyPC, Computer Life and ZD Internet Magazine.

Andrew Gansler
Andrew Gansler most recently served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of EducationDynamics, LLC, providers of the leading consumer web resources for online education, eLearners.com, as well as numerous other best in class interactive products and services. Andrew was the sixth employee and second executive at eLearners.com, Inc., serving as V.P. of Finance and Chief Operating Officer during the earliest, and most challenging stages of growth. Together with the company’s founder, Gansler led eLearners.com to become the industry quality leader, resulting in the sale of eLearners.com to form what would ultimately become EducationDynamics, growing to more than 250 employees and 9-digit revenue.

His experience and oversight spanned virtually all areas of the business, including business strategy, technology, product development, direct response media and performance analytics, sales and account management, marketing, finance and accounting.

Board of Directors

Kathy Harris
Kathy Harris serves as Senior Vice President Corporate Development of Sharecare, Inc., an interactive, social Q&A platform designed to greatly simplify the search for quality healthcare information and help consumers live their healthiest life. Prior to Sharecare, she was a General Partner at Noro-Moseley Partners, the oldest and one of the largest venture capital firms in the Southeastern US. She led the Firm’s business development efforts throughout the Southeast and Texas and also focused on its investment activities in the healthcare industry. Prior to Noro-Moseley, Kathy was a Partner at Technology Ventures, a venture capital firm focused on Internet and e-commerce companies, the National Marketing Manager of Sirrom Capital Corporation, where she oversaw all business development and loan origination activities and Senior Vice President of the Investment Banking Group at J.C. Bradford & Co. (now UBS). Over her career, she has invested in early and growth stage companies in a broad array of industries and has been involved in more than 100 investment banking transactions totaling over $2 billion. Kathy started her career at KPMG.

She serves on the Boards of the Clemson University Research Foundation, the Health Care Advisory Board of Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management and The Women's Leadership Board at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Linda Mintz
Linda Mintz is a Managing Partner at LCP Advisors, LLC, is a business advisory firm that provides strategic growth strategies, merger and acquisitions advisory services, exit strategies, and operational, transactional and financing assistance to companies at all stages of business development. Ms Mintz has represented clients in a variety of industries including fashion, consumer products, financial services, specialty chemicals, hospitality, real estate and technology.

Contributors

Betsy Anderson is a freelance writer specializing in health and medical topics with a demonstrated understanding of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries. She has written a number of CME courses, scripts for interactive CD-ROMs, educational videos, 3D animation, and web sites on topics including drug-induced movement disorders, diabetes, bipolar disorder, breast reconstruction, and hemophilia. Betsy's programs have won numerous awards. While on staff at public television’s science documentary series, NOVA, her program on AIDS won a national Emmy award from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. In addition, Betsy has received highest honors from the International Television Association, John Muir Medical Film Festival, Health Science Communication Association, National Educational Film & Video Festival, and the Association of Visual Communicators.

Jennifer Bright Reich has more than 10 years’ experience in publishing, and she has contributed writing, editing, fact checking, copyediting, or indexing to more than 150 books. Just a few of her credits include writing The Babyproofing Bible, contributing to 12 books in the How to Survive Guide book series, project editing The South Beach Diet Cookbook, indexing The Martha Rules, developmental editing Mrs. Clean Jeans' Housekeeping with Kids, copyediting 8 Weeks to a Healthy Dog, co-writing The Outwit Your Weight Journal, writing two features for Women's Health magazine, more than a dozen Medical Breakthroughs for Prevention, and more than 80 articles in five newspapers.

Diane Clapp was the Medical Information Director of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, for 29 years. She is the author of numerous articles and fact sheets on infertility and pregnancy loss, and co-author of the book, Resolving Infertility. Diane also contributed to the DVD “Infertility Explained.” She completed the Mind Body Medicine Training at Harvard Medical School, leads support groups, and has a private practice in Lincoln, MA.

Rachel Lehmann-Haupt is an author and investigative journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, The London Times, and Wired. She has worked as a multi-media columnist for MSN Money and was executive editor of Plum magazine. She is the author of In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment and Motherhood (Basic Books, 2009).

Joy Cohen Meyers is a freelance writer and editor in Portland, Oregon. As a researcher and copywriter for MTV Books/Penguin Books, Joy’s work has appeared in Road Rules Road Trips and The Real World Diaries. She has worked in human resources and financial recruitment in New York City and Portland, Oregon, as well as as a buyer and manager for an upscale boutique. In 2005, she started her own business, a shop called The English Dept., where she wrote regularly for the company’s blog. The English Dept. received industry accolades garnering her features in Lucky Magazine and Portland Monthly.

Paula J. Maute has 20 years’ experience as a writer/reporter (freelance and staff), copy editor, writing coach and fact checker. She has written news and features for The Boston Globe, The Boston Herald, The Boston Business Journal, Lawyers Weekly USA, Harvard Business School Bulletin, Parent Source Magazine, State House News Service, UPI, The Worcester Business Journal, and The Whole Cat Journal.

Leigh Ann McDonald Woodruff is a freelance writer and editor living in Winston-Salem, N.C. She is the former editor of Piedmont Parent magazine.

Kathryn Mintz writes about a wide range of subjects for educational and financial companies, as well as for non-profits. Before becoming a freelance writer and editor, Kathryn produced online teacher professional development courses in science and mathematics at Teachscape. Earlier, Kathryn published a best-selling series of foreign language instruction courses for a division of Random House. Kathryn studied biology at Columbia University’s Science Honors Program for High School Students, as well as at Wesleyan University, before changing her major to American Studies. She also earned an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Glendale Arizona.

Coco Myers is a freelance writer and editor living in East Hampton, New York. Her articles—covering health, style, beauty, and child-care— have appeared in Elle, Elle Decor, Martha Stewart Living, Allure, Parenting, and The New York Times. Previously, she held senior staff positions at Elle, Mirabella, Allure, and Self. Coco is the author, with Susan Carlton, of The Nanny Book: The Smart Parent's Guide to Hiring, Firing, and Every Sticky Situation In Between (1999, St. Martin's Press) and Lyn Peterson's Real Life Kitchens (2007, Clarkson Potter).

Lissa A.H. Poirot is a writer and editor who has covered multiple topics, including entertainment, health, fitness, arts, fashion, lifestyles, travel, and bridal, for national consumer magazines like Arthritis Today, travelgirl, Pregnancy and Modern Brideas well as trade and business-to-business subjects on design, engineering and tennis for magazines including Display & Design Ideas, CE News and the United States Tennis Association’s Tennis Championship Magazine.

Christa Sgobba is a writer and editor with a demonstrated interest in women’s health issues. Previously, she worked as an intern with FertilityAuthority and as an associate editor with East West magazine, an Asian American lifestyle publication where she focused on the health disparities affecting women in the community. After graduating summa cum laude from Wilkes University, Christa completed New York University’s Summer Publishing Institute in 2010, where she honed her digital skills writing for an online platform.

Susan Sweenie is a communications professional with years of experience as a freelance writer, authoring byline articles for her clients in the healthcare sector. She has assisted in the development of editorial web content and company newsletters in addition to authoring articles focusing on numerous healthcare and business-related topics. Her work has appeared in publications such as Boston Herald’s Women’s Business, The Journal of Consumer Marketing and The Canton Citizen.

Contact Us

We are very interested in hearing from you and welcome your comments, suggestions and feedback. Please email us at feedback@fertilityauthority.com.