Management

STEVEN WALDMAN -- Editor-in-Chief, President and Co-Founder
Waldman oversees editorial strategy for Beliefnet, and writes a daily blog about faith, politics and culture. He also writes a column for Wall Street Journal Online and is the author of Founding Faith: Politics, Providence and the Birth of Religious Freedom in America (Random House). Before starting Beliefnet, he was National Editor of US News & World Report, National Correspondent for Newsweek in the Washington bureau and editor of the Washington Monthly. He also served as senior advisor to the CEO of the Corporation for National Service and authored The Bill about the passage of the AmeriCorps law. He was named by Time magazine one of the nation's top "spiritual innovators." He is a sought-after expert on religion and spirituality. He has also served on the board of advisors of Consumer Reports Webwatch, the board of directors of Understanding Government, and on the Search for Common Ground Working Group on Human Needs and Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

BETH-ANN EASON -- General Manager and Chief Operating Officer
As GM/COO Beth-Ann is responsible for shaping the strategy and driving the execution of the Internet product offerings. She manages the day to day operations of the company as well as the financial planning. Eason was most recently the Senior Vice President Internet, GM for Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, where she was responsible for the Internet division. Prior to MSLO, Eason was a vice president at Yahoo! responsible for the category development, ad solutions and sales enrichment programs. Eason graduated from Lehigh University of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, with a bachelor of science in marketing and minors in both speech and social relations. She is on the board and the Executive Committee of the Advertising Club of New York and has served on the boards of the Online Publishers Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In 2006, Eason was inducted into the American Advertising Federations Hall of Achievement--a coveted honor for industry professionals under 40. She is a 2007 recipient of the Presidents award for the Advertising Club of New York for her outstanding contribution to the organization and industry.

JU-DON MARSHALL ROBERTS -- Vice President, Senior and Executive Editor
As Executive Editor, Roberts oversees all the company's content divisions, including editorial, product, video and community. Prior to joining Beliefnet, Roberts was managing editor of washingtonpost.com, where she won numerous awards for innovations in multimedia storytelling. In 2004, Roberts was awarded the Nieman Fellowship for a year of study at Harvard University. She serves on the board of the 1,700-member Online News Association, the digital task force of the National Association of Black Journalists, the news/editorial advisory board of the American Press Institute and the awards committee of the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards. Roberts graduated from Howard University with a degree in journalism.

CARL TRAUTMANN - Vice President, Sales
Carl is currently the Vice President of Sales at Beliefnet, the latest position in a 20+ year ad marketing career. Previously, Carl was the SVP of Sales for Allrecipes.com, where he helped evolve the company into the largest food and top 10 social networking community on the internet and enabled the formation of a rich, interactive stronghold with over 50 million unique visitors per year before the site was acquired by Reader’s Digest Association. Before his tenure at Allrecipes, Carl focused on building sophisticated and integrated sponsorship programs and ad platforms in endemic Food/CPG/Lifestyle business and the non-endemic automotive, pharmaceutical, and technology categories as the Advertising Director at Ladies Home Journal, Associate Publisher for Brill’s Content/Contentville.com/Brill Media Ventures, Eastern Sales Manager at Parade Magazine and Category Development Director at Golf Digest and Family Circle. Carl earned his B.S.in Advertising/Marketing from Syracuse University.

MICHAEL KRESS - Vice President, Editorial and Managing Editor
Part of Beliefnet's original editorial team, Michael returned to the company in June 2005 after a four-year hiatus. During his time with Beliefnet, he has served as Judaism editor, Entertainment editor, Assistant Managing Editor, and now Managing Editor. Michael has a master's degree in religion from Harvard Divinity School and was the founding editor-in-chief of the educational website MyJewishLearning.com. His writing on religion and spirituality has appeared in Newsweek, Slate, The Dallas Morning News, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Salon, The Forward, and many other newspapers, magazines, and websites.

REBECCA PHILLIPS - Vice President, Social Networking
Rebecca Phillips directs Beliefnet's social networking department and community website, community.beliefnet.com, which launched in October 2007. has worked at Beliefnet since February, 2000 and has also held positions as the site as Assistant Managing Editor and Director of Content Strategy. She has previously worked at Dow Jones Newswires and the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Her writing has appeared in Newsweek, The Dallas Morning News, ABCNews.com, Jbooks.com, and the Forward, and is anthologized in "The Hadassah Jewish Family Book of Health and Wellness." She has participated in the Gralla Fellows Program for journalists and the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship Program, and is on the Advisory Board of New Voices magazine.

JASON RODRIGUEZ - Chief Technology Officer
Jason has over 11 years experience in software development including development and management. Jasons primary responsibility include managing all the software initiatives within Beliefnet as well as managing technology partner relationships. Prior to Beliefnet Jason was the Director of Technology for The Princeton Review, where he manage the software development process for the K-12 Division. Jason worked over 6 years with the Princeton Review and saw his division go from 30 employees to over 120 employees and grow 5x in revenue. Prior to The Princeton Review Jason worked as a Sr. Software Engineer for a few software companies including Applied Visions and Fujitsu. Jason Rodriguez holds a BS in Computer Science and a minor in Management from Polytechnic University.

ELISE HOLZHEIMER – Vice President, Product Management
Elise Holzheimer is responsible for the Beliefnet product development including strategy, new features and functionality, and user experience. Prior to Beliefnet, Elise consulted at Harpo Productions on a redesign of Oprah.com, managed Hyatt.com and has other internet management opportunities with Orbitz and AT&T. Elise Holzheimer Holds a BS in Finance from the University of Illinois and a MBA from the University of Chicago.