The Rodale News Team

Maria Rodale Maria Rodale is the CEO and Chairman of Rodale Inc., the world’s leading multimedia publisher of advice and information about health, wellness, and the environment, and the largest independent book publisher in the United States. Rodale reaches tens of millions of people worldwide through magazines like Prevention, Men’s Health, and Women’s Health; through books like The South Beach Diet and Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth; and with the content-rich web sites that complement its publications. Maria is Editor-in-Chief of the company’s newest online venture, Rodale.com, which features the latest news about healthy living on a healthy planet. Maria is the author of three books: It’s My Pleasure, written with her daughter Maya Rodale, Betty’s Book of Laundry Secrets, and Maria Rodale’s Organic Gardening. You can find out what she’s currently thinking about on her blog: mariasfarmcountrykitchen.com. In 2004 Maria received the National Audubon Society’s "Rachel Carson Award" for "Working to Ensure a Healthy Environment for Future Generations." In 2007 she received the United Nations Population Fund’s "Award for the Health and Dignity of Women." She is a member of the board of Bette Midler's New York Restoration Project, a board member of the Rodale Institute, and has recently joined the board of the Lehigh Valley Hospital. Maria lives in an ecologically friendly house in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with her children.

Leah Zerbe, Online Editor  Leah Zerbe grew up reading her dad’s mail-order Rodale health books (The Doctor’s Book of Home Remedies is still a favorite) and was thrilled to join Rodale.com as an online editor in the summer of 2008. Prior to this gig, she was the senior online editor at NBCPhiladelphia.com, where she headed up the station’s online “Going Green” initiative, wrote about center city crime and traffic jams, and blogged about her beloved Philadelphia Phillies. Her stories about health, the environment, jocks, pets, crime, and ordinary people have appeared in The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and half a dozen other newspapers. This 2005 Temple University grad also appeared on CNN’s Nancy Grace Live. Her greener stories have been featured online at HuffingtonPost.com, CBSNews.com, and NBC’s GreenisUniversal.com. She lives with her husband on a farm in the boondocks of Pennsylvania, where they are feverishly trying to rehab a 90-year-old chicken coop.

Julia Westbrook, Assistant Editor Julia Westbrook is the assistant editor for Rodale News. Having spent some of her best summers as a kid hiking around campsites (and then working as a camp counselor because she loved it so much), she is psyched to contribute to a website that values living a healthy life in harmony with nature. She started her career at Rodale as an editorial assistant for Men's Health and Women's Health's books, where she broadened her knowledge of all things health and fitness working on titles like The Body Fat Breakthrough, by Ellington Darden, PhD; Your Body is Your Barbell, by BJ Gaddour, CSCS, and the upcoming 20 Pounds Younger, by Michele Promaulayko. She graduated from Lehigh University with majors in English and psychology and a minor in French. Living in Stamford, Connecticut, with her fiancé and two cats, Julia loves all kinds of do-it-yourself projects, yoga, and reading.

Email the Editorial Team at [email protected]