Health Media Lab creates interactive health education for people of all ages. Research and development is supported by private funding and by grants from the National Institutes of Health (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services), including the National Cancer Institute, the National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute, the National Institute of Child Health & Human Development, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Founded in 1994, we are based in Washington, DC, with consultants and contributors throughout the United States.

As part of its desire to expand into online learning, in 2004, Health Media Lab formed a partner corporation, Accel e-Media, created specifically to develop, create, sell, and market Web-based learning tools for adults. Learn more at www.accelemedia.com.

D. Michael Anderson, Ph.D., M.P.H., President & Executive Producer

Dr. Anderson has been active in research and development of interactive health education since the early 1980s. He is currently President of Health Media Lab where he has been Principal Investigator on several R & D grants from the National Institutes of Health. His interactive health education projects at Health Media Lab, include our Web-based fitness product Multimedia Fitness Promotion for Sedentary Adults (Fitness Lab©); the educational software product, Children’s Multimedia Nutrition Simulation Software (Hungry Red Planet™); the children’s educational product, Multimedia Sickness Simulator for Preadolescents (D.M. Dinwiddie, Physician-in-Training™); the multimedia educational product, Food Handler’s Safety Course© for food service workers; and the school health education software project Children’s Interactive Anatomy & Physiology Lab (Body Lab©), and more. He began his career at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health and its College of Education, where he was Principal Investigator on a computer enhanced, multi-year, comprehensive, cognitive and developmentally appropriate health education program for students ages 9-12. Later, as Youth Health Program Director at National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, Dr. Anderson worked on the National Cholesterol Education Program, the National High Blood Pressure Program, and the NHLBI Smoking Education Program. He moved to the National Cancer Institute where he was Research Program Director and initiated several research and education programs, including studies in the areas of high-risk youth, school health education diffusion research, skin cancer prevention, and a large portfolio of grants in the area of emerging technologies and cancer prevention. He is the author of over 50 scientific articles, chapters, and professional presentations. Dr. Anderson is a frequent consultant to universities, institutes, and small businesses on the application of multimedia technologies to health promotion and disease prevention.

Kathleen Bober, Producer

Ms. Bober has been an active producer of interactive, multimedia for over 15 years. She is the Producer of several projects at Health Media Lab including our Web-based fitness information and tracking site, Fitness Lab©; our nutrition education software product for children ages 9 to 15, Hungry Red Planet™; our medical diagnosis and treatment educational software product for children ages 8 to 11, D.M. Dinwiddie, Physician-in-Training™; our multimedia educational product for food service workers, Food Handler’s Safety Course©; and our elementary anatomy and physiology education software project, Body Lab©. She has also been Multimedia Producer for The Newseum, a multimedia museum devoted to the history of news in Washington, DC. She produced games for kiosk and Internet, and was the voice casting director and audio producer for an interactive comic strip entitled Chip Tracer. She produced video sequences of three educational interactive kiosk games entitled Be A Reporter, Be An Editor and Be A Photographer. For Legend Entertainment, she produced several interactive CD-ROM games, including the award winning Mission Critical (video and audio producer); Wheel of Time, John Saul’s Blackstone Chronicles, Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon; Star Control 3; Death Gate; Superhero League of Hoboken; Companions of Xanth (casting director and audio producer), and Gateway, Spellcasting 301 — Spring Break, Companions of Xanth, Wheel of Time, and Eric the Unready (lead or supporting artist).

Jennifer Cuthill, M.B.A., Vice President of Marketing

Ms. Cuthill has been with Health Media Lab since 2002, contributing to marketing and sales strategy efforts. She has 13 years experience working in the areas of business strategy and implementation. Her broad range of skills have resulted from management responsibilities in industries such as financial services, retail sales and manufacturing, and work with government and non-profit organizations. As a Marketing Director at Charles Schwab, Ms. Cuthill focused on developing a business strategy targeting smaller investors, which included competitive assessment, consumer input and strategy implementation. At InnoVentry Corp, she led efforts to develop kiosk based financial products, including product specifications, software development and testing, user interface, back office operations and product marketing. Prior to that, Ms. Cuthill worked as a management consultant for Marakon Associates. She worked with Fortune 500 companies to identify and analyze strategic opportunities to increase the value of the business. Ms. Cuthill holds a BA in Economics and Communications from the University of Delaware, and an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Penelope A. Lantz, J.D., Vice President & General Counsel

Ms. Lantz has a law degree from the George Washington University and an undergraduate degree in economics. Since 2001 she has been responsible for oversight and management of sales and marketing efforts to commercialize Health Media Lab products. She is also responsible for corporate legal issues including protection of intellectual property, contract negotiations, licensing arrangements and other day to day legal operations. In addition, she is the lead professional in Health Media Lab’s emerging emphasis on health law issues, including Medicare, Medicaid, government subsidized health programs, long-term care planning, elder care, and other health care and health insurance education topics. Ms. Lantz is also the president of the Health Education and Law Project, a non-profit corporation created in 2001 to educate and empower health care consumers about issues, entitlements, and legal rights in health and wellness related topics. Prior to this, Ms. Lantz was an Associate Professor of Clinical Law at the George Washington University and Director of the Health Insurance Counseling Project and Advocates for Older People. Ms. Lantz also has experience in government and private practice.

Josh Mandel, Senior Designer & Associate Producer

Mr. Mandel has been a writer and software designer since 1990. For Health Media Lab, he has designed and written scripts for D.M. Dinwiddie, Physician-in-Training™; Food Handler’s Safety Course©; and Body Lab©. He also contributed to the design, production, and writing of Fitness Lab© and Hungry Red Planet™. Prior to Health Media Lab, he was Senior Designer at Vicarious Visions, Inc. where he had design and oversight of numerous projects include HydroCross PS/N64, Wild Thornberries products, Blue’s Clues products, and numerous other projects. He was also the Producer and Director of Game Design at Sega of America, Inc. where he was responsible for evaluating and maintaining overall quality of all Dreamcast first-party game designs and executions. At Legend Entertainment he was the designer and writer of the CD-ROM, Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon. At Sierra On-Line, Inc., Mr. Mandel was Producer, Designer, Project Manger, or Writer for dozens of interactive products, including: Space Quest 6 (Designer, co-Writer); Freddy Pharkas, Frontier Pharmacist (co-Designer, Director, Writer, Producer); Police Quest I-VGA (co-Designer, Director, Writer); Hoyle Book of Games 3; EcoQuest; Twisty History (co-design); Space Quest 1-VGA; EcoQuest 2; Leisure Suit Larry 1-VGA; King’s Quest VI; Scary Tales (co-design); Leisure Suit Larry 5; Island of Dr. Brain; Laura Bow 2: The Dagger of Amon Ra; Zeliard; King’s Quest 1 - Enhanced; Space Quest 4; Thexder 2: Firehawk; and Jones in the Fast Lane. Mr. Mandel has also contributed his design and writing skills to: Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?; Skull; Swat 2: the Official Strategy Guide; VXP; and Jagged Alliance 2.

Daphne Mott, Vice President for Sales

Ms. Mott joined Health Media Lab in 2002 because of her interest in our health education materials for schools. She has 25 years of experience in sales of goods and services in US and world markets including Western Europe and South America. Her product lines have included snow removal equipment, construction supplies, Italian-made brass valves and connections for the gas products (LPG) market, Colombian coffee, hand crafted items, and promotional awards. While with Cavagna North America she managed distributor accounts of Italian-made brass valves and connections for the LPG market. During her five years at West Chester Machinery she provided oversight and direction on the company’s sales accounts totaling over three million dollars per year from all aspects, from initiation of sales through to collections. She also has five years of teaching experience at the elementary school level. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Montclair State University. Additionally, her 30 years of volunteer activities and affiliations include PTA/PTO’s, recreation sports programs, county health and human services committees, and religious education programs.

Lead Contributors

Noah Falstein, Designer, Hungry Red Planet™;
James Montanus, Programmer, Hungry Red Planet™ and The Adventures of D.M. Dinwiddie, P.I.T.* (Physician-in-Training)™

Scientific, Education, & Content Consultants

Thomas C. Ambrosia, CEC,
The Ambrosia Group, Pennsylvania

John Bober, M.D.,
University of Kansas

Carman Cartagena, R.N.,
Suburban Hospital, Maryland

Julie Conrad, M.A.,
Kipp Charter School, Washington, DC

Jennette Dowler, Fairfax County Schools, Virginia

Colleen M. Farmer, Ph.D.,
University of Maryland

Alwidina Figueroa, R.N.,
Suburban Hospital, Maryland

Robert S. Gold, Dr.P.H.,
University of Maryland

Elmer E. Huerta, M.D., M.P.H.,
Washington (DC) Hospital Center

Robert Jones, M.D.,
Maimonides Medical Center, New York

Mark A. Kantor, Ph.D.,
University of Maryland

Jack Kouri,
The Avalon Resource Group, New Jersey

Melinda Lantz, M.D.,
Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York

Caryn Lerman, Ph.D.,
University of Pennsylvania

Helen C. Levine, M.A.,
Washington Lab School, Washington, DC

Rosalinda Liendo, R.N.,
The Washington (DC) Hospital Center

Marc S. Micozzi, M.D., Ph.D.,
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia

Gregory Mott, M.A.,
Smalley School, Bound Brook, NJ

Amy Natalini, M.A.,
Fairfax County Schools, Virginia

Katherine A. Paulsen, M.P.H.,
Children’s Hospital, Washington, DC

Susan A. Schaeffler, M.A.,
Principal, KIPP Charter School, Washington, DC

Julie Strand, Ed.D.,
Private Practice, Tucson,AZ.

Shirley VanGarde, Ph.D.,
VanGarde Consulting, Gresham, Oregon

Vanessa Vechell, M.S.W., A.C.S.W., L.I.C.S.W.,
Private Practice, Minneapolis, MN

Institutional Review Board (NIH IRB #00001211)

Bruce Abramson, Ph.D., J.D.
Rick Boyd, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Susan Brink, Dr.P.H.
Susan Charen, J.D.
Jennifer A. Crumblish, Ph.D.
Madeleine Gauthier, Ph.D.
David Goehl, J.D.
Gerald Kasunic, M.S.W.
Michael Knipmeyer, J.D., R.N.
Penelope A. Lantz, J.D. (Chair)
Felice C. Wagner, J.D.

Artists

Tom Burns
Philip Cook
Nick deSomov
Kim Johnson
Karin Nestor
Thach Nguyen
James Powell
Rich Powell

Music and Sound Effects

Andy Frazier

Voice Talent

Marc Biagi
Kathleen Bober
Lani Minella

Sound Effects

Absolute Pitch

Voice Recording

Bill Corkery

Photography

Candice diCarlo
Phil Joseph

Marketing & Sales

Jahan Byrne
Andy Cuthill, M.B.A.
Mindy Smyth

Web Design & Technical Support

Advance Concepts
Beacon Consulting Services
Capacis Information Design
Pie Design
Tanabe Allan Design

Medical Disclaimer

The information provided here is educational only. It should never be considered the same as offering medical advice. Health Media Lab assumes no responsibility for how this material is used. If you feel that you are sick, please check with a physician. Health and medical information changes rapidly, and while Health Media Lab frequently updates its contents, some information may be out of date. For further information, please refer to Terms and Conditions.