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We’re a group of working moms (and a few dads!) trying to survive the juggling act of career and parenthood. We come from all over the U.S. and different backgrounds, but we’re all dealing with the same issues. Join us in our quest (usually chaotic) to keep everything running smoothly.

Kate Olson
Stephanie Sandifer
Christine Perkett
Christine Campbell
Diane Cordell
Rachael Cahours Acklin
Kristen Keller
Kelli Matthews
Kelly Phillips Erb
Lauren Vargas
Susan Roustan

More Moms!
Kymberli Mulford
Amy Giampetroni
Laura P. Thomas
Sherry Carr Deer

The Dads
Christian Long
Jon Becker
Corey Smith

Kate Olson

Kate Olson started This Mommy Gig as a playgroup for working moms (since she’s not welcome in any REAL playgroups) and shares her 40 acres in Wisconsin with her husband, 1-year-old son, 2-year-old daughter and a giant dog. She attempts to work at home and is constantly protecting

her laptop from little hands and sippy cups - her printer has already been corrupted by a mini-technician and her “fix-it” paperclips. She’s a child of the ’80’s and mistakenly believed that women could have it all………ha.

She’s an accountant turned stay-at-home mom turned teacher turned consultant, and always, always, always, no matter how hard she runs, MOM. In her excessive amounts of spare time she’s playing with WordPress, reading, walking, gardening (in the 2 seconds that Wisconsin calls summer) and pretending she has a housekeeper. She blogs about her other professions and lots of tech/geeky stuff at Kate Says and writes about fun education tips on a regular basis at Savvy Auntie. You can find her on twitter as @kolson29 and at LinkedIn.

Stephanie Sandifer

Stephanie Sandifer lives and works in Houston, Texas where she shares her life with an amazingly supportive and loving partner, two beautiful 4 month old twins — one boy and one girl, two yellow labs, and two spoiled cats. Stephanie works full-time in education at the high school level as an instructional coach, and has the great luck to work on a campus that has a daycare where the twins spend the day. Prior to her current education role, Stephanie studied and worked as a visual artist, graphic designer, and adjunct college art faculty. Her interest in education technology has led her to recent explorations with online education and she hopes to eventually become more involved in online eLearning adventures. As another “child of the eighties”, she feels passionate about focusing on family over career like many others of her generation, and she hopes eventually to find a better way to manage a career while also pursuing her passion for Motherhood.

A water-bug by nature who grew up in Southwest Louisiana, Stephanie enjoys the Houston weather (except in August) and access to the Gulf Coast. When she gets away from work she enjoys spending time with family and friends — especially when that time includes good Cajun food, barbeque, or chips & salsa and a sunny afternoon around someone’s pool or at a lake or beach house. She is also an avid reader and sports fan — especially college sports. She enjoys hiking, traveling, golfing, and can be found enjoying a nice dinner with wine as well as holding her own at a crawfish boil. She hopes to eventually dust off her golf clubs and her art supplies… someday…

Stephanie blogs about education, education technology, leadership, and school improvement on her own blog Change Agency and on the group blog LeaderTalk.org. You can also find her on LinkedIn and Twitter @ssandifer, and occasionally playing around in Second Life with a bunch of other edtech geeks on ISTE Island.

Christine Perkett

Christine Perkett is a busy mom of two busy boys, ages 3 and 6. As a working mother, Christine spends every day trying to maintain balance between her passion for family and motherhood and her drive to run a successful business. She founded and runs PerkettPR, Inc. - a high tech pr agency with over 30 employees across 10 states - in 1998.

Perkett is active in her local community as well as the city of Boston - serving as Vice President on the Board for Boston’s Business Marketing

Association and is also a member of the Board of Directors for the Norwell Visiting Nurses Association in Norwell, Mass. In addition to writing for This Mommy Gig about motherhood and its joys and challenges, she also writes for her company blog and two personal blogs including My Not So Personal Life and Training4Dublin, which follows her marathon training with her husband for the Dublin Marathon in October 2008. Perkett is also a Blogger for WomenForHire.com (run by

Tory Johnson, the Workplace Contributor on ABC’s Good Morning America) and has been a guest-blogger for PRWeek. She has been a featured speaker on the topic of technology and PR and is also a published author in “Inside the Minds: Public Relations Best Practices” by Aspatore Books and was profiled in the “Entrepreneurial Small Business” college text book by McGraw Hill (January 2008).

Christine lives with her husband, children and three dogs – two beagles and a Chihuahua – in Marshfield, Mass. She enjoys the areas many beaches as well as running, kayaking, reading, writing, travel, wine, chocolate, cheese and is an avid Red Sox fan. If you can catch her in between her family and work commitments, you can connect with Christine on Linkedin, Facebook or on Twitter at @missusP.

Christine Campbell

For Christine, mother of twins in Reston, Virginia, a great day begins at 5:30am with fellow “mamas” in her neighborhood gathered for early morning boot camp – a run, some crunches, some arm work and last but not least planks. It’s a group she started because she knows “mommy time” only happens in the wee bitty hours of the morning…and she didn’t want to drive far to get in some good exercise.

Next up - getting a sassy pair of seven year old twins up and out the door for school. One boy, one girl, and both coming into their own defined sense of self.

With a sincere and drawn out wave goodbye at the bus stop she turns herself into that savvy woman who does business development at Erickson Barnett, a business to business focused marketing agency where she has spent her days (first part time and now full times) since her kids were born. Before Erickson Barnett she was a marketing maven (some have said) at several emerging technology firms, her favorite was Riverbed Technologies (mostly because they were bought by Aether for a whole darn lot
of money).

At about 5:00 she does the fast switch back to “mama”, watches her daughter turn cartwheels or her son at bat…claps and cheers and says things like “great job honey, you’re the best, that was perfect” until practices are over and it’s time for dinner. She can often be convinced to go to McDonalds (oh don’t roll your eyes) but more often grabs a frozen entrée she got from Dream Dinners out of the freezer and desperately tries to thaw it in time for dinner that night.

Skip ahead…bath…book…song. Now it’s her time to dedicate to her own business, For U Mothers, an athletic wear business targeting mothers.

In bed by 9:30 (she needs a solid eight). Up again at 5:30…start again.

Diane Cordell

Diane Cordell has been there, done that, hopes to do it again as a grandmother in the not too distant future.

A K-12 SLMS (School Library Media Specialist = teacher/librarian), Diane works in a small rural district in upstate New York. Next year, she plans to “retire” to an online position with CyberSmart!

An empty nester now, Diane had her first child in 1977, her second in 1980. She was a stay-at-home Mom for about 10 years before returning to the workforce. There have been challenges and changes, but an interesting 35-year marriage partnership with artist/musician husband Tim, and a stubborn, inquiring mind have helped stave off boredom.

Diane is a mother, she will continue to work. And read. And knit. And write for her blog, Journeys. And enjoy living and learning. You can also find her on twitter as @dmcordell.

Rachael Cahours Acklin

Rachael Cahours Acklin has two last names because she likes her maiden name AND her new husband’s last name. She lives in Michigan with her three awesome kids (and 1 more on the way!), one extremely hot husband, no pets except for dust bunnies, and several computers running multiple operating systems.

She’s a geek and a caffeine lover, and regularly wears comfy pants. She recently quit her job to be a full-time web designer for her own company: Caffeinated Design & Hosting (http://caffeinatedelf.com), which was both scary and wildly exciting. Her favorite pastimes include browsing other designers’ portfolios for inspiration, teaching her kids how to use Linux, uploading photos of trees to Flickr, and eating chocolate cake with her husband at half past midnight, while watching reruns of Original Star Trek (NERD ALERT!).

She blogs about her family, writes geeky advice, and rants about the Michigan economy almost every day at Antithete, and you can also find her on Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed , Flickr , and lots of other places too.

Kristen Keller

A mother to two boys, ages 3 and 1, Kristen Keller believes she has found the perfect balance in juggling work and family – working three days a week out of her home office as an independent public relations consultant and spending the other days rediscovering the simple pleasures in life through activities such as treasure hunts, running through sprinklers, and looking for dinosaur bones in the sandbox with her boys. That’s not to say she doesn’t work many a late night to compensate for her “days off.” But she’s not complaining.

Every day begins at 6:30 when Kristen wakes up and prepares for the day. Her older son (who recently got a new clock in his room) will yell shortly after, “Mommy, it’s 7-0-0!” Then it’s time to get the boys dressed, pack the bags and get the kids to school or out for the activity du jour – either way, every day is an adventure. An avid Starbucks fan, Kristen can usually find a way to incorporate a chai tea stop into her day; her kids can spot the Starbucks logo from a mile away (is that wrong?).

Kristen lives with her husband, boys and two dogs in Ewing, NJ. In any “me” time she can get, Kristen enjoys reading a good book (favorite author is James Patterson), treating herself to a pedicure, taking late night walks with a good friend, and watching “Desperate Housewives” with the girls.

You can connect with Kristen on LinkedIn or on Twitter at @kkeller0704.

Kelli Matthews

Kelli Matthews, mother of one rambunctious 2-year-old, Braxton, has multi-tasking in her blood. She lives in Eugene, Oregon and is an instructor of public relations at the University of Oregon’s School of Journalism and Communication, a business (co) owner of a boutique PR, marketing and graphic design firm Verve Northwest Communications and active community volunteer with United Way of Lane County, Birth To Three (parenting education) and Rotary.

Yes, Rotary. And she’s under 65.

No chance she could do all that stuff without her partner, Mike. And she loves that she can do all this stuff. He’s a stay-at-home dad. And she says “partner,” because no, they are not married. Kelli and Mike are high school sweethearts (there’s even a senior prom picture that you will not see) and just celebrated 15 years together. Somewhere around 10 years, she decided to stop calling him her boyfriend.

Thanks to a large family (Kelli is the oldest of seven kids) and terrific parents, Kelli’s learned to manage chaos. [the black and white photo is Kelli and her three sisters] But being a mom trumps everything else. Figuring out how to balance, how to stay sane and how to be good at all of it is a daily struggle but one that’s so unbelievably worth it.

You can read her PR blog for her students at PRos in Training and find her on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

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Kelly Phillips Erb

Kelly Phillips Erb is a hip urban mom living in Philadelphia – if you define hip as constantly being covered in yogurt, dragging strollers onto the bus while being scowled at and never quite having time to dry her hair.

Okay, so she’s just an urban mom living in Philadelphia.

Kelly is a transplant, having moved to Philly from the rural South to attend law school. One day, she urged her husband, Chris - who is also an attorney - to quit his fancy high-paying job and open a law firm together. Imagine her surprise when he listened (that never happens). Kelly and Chris also bought a house, got a dog, got married and had three children. Yes, in that order.

When not working, chasing the kids or volunteering, Kelly love to travel. She also likes to dig in the dirt, and occasionally raises a decent flower in the garden. Kelly also enjoys the occasional martini, but somehow listing drinking as a hobby while in your 30s just sounds sad.

Kelly blogs about tax for b5media where she also serves as Editor for the Business Channel. Other projects include Gossip Girl Report about - well, you know, Gossip Girl - and a blog about beer that she writes with her husband – hey, chicks drink beer, too.

Kelly has promised her husband no more blogs. So she’s currently working on a second novel and a book about taxes.

Did I mention that she drinks a lot of coffee?

You can find Kelly all over the place on the web but she prefers to hang out at twitter (@taxgirl).

Lauren Vargas

Lauren Vargas is a single mother of four year-old, diva-daughter, Merrick. Twice divorced, but not bitter, Lauren juggles motherhood while pursuing a career as a public relations professional and marketing communications professor in Dallas, TX. On the heels of divorce, yoga, scrapbooking and practicing Al-Anon assist in life balance while her heart actively awaits a metamorphasis.

This page has the following sub pages.

• More Moms
• The Dads