Since 2011, DinnerTime has been growing its team of professionals, all of whom are passionate about our mission. In addition to the people named below, we have a lengthy list of DinnerTime friends, investors, and advisors whose input has proven invaluable.
Co-Founder, CEO
“The daughter of a commercial fisherman and a registered nurse, I grew up the youngest of three children around a small yellow linoleum kitchen table. We all had our places, and all had our little jobs to do. Fish was “brain food” and it was drummed into us that education was the key to the American dream.
To me, DinnerTime is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a positive difference to millions of families, reducing the stress on ‘hectic moms’, and helping families find their way back to the dinner table, with all of its important social, emotional, and nutritional benefits. I’m dedicated to the idea that we can support happier, healthier families.”
After graduating from Dartmouth College with high honors in Economics, Laura married her classmate, Charlie Moore, whom she met during their first week at school. She began her business career in banking, becoming the youngest officer in American Security Bank’s history. After Harvard Business School, Laura joined international corporate strategy firm Bain & Company where she consulted to Fortune 100 companies, including retail, consumer products, healthcare and marketing information services. She left Bain to join Charlie investing in, advising and running high growth companies including retailers, food companies and technology start-ups. Laura mentors elementary-age girls in Baltimore’s inner city through the Enterprise Women’s Network and serves on the vestry of her church. She is the proud mother of a recent graduate of Harvard, where he studied economics and played lacrosse.
Co-Founder
“At age six, I bought a first baseman’s mitt with the money I earned selling strawberries door to door, and at age 15, I made enough from a summer camp I started to buy my first car. My career has been in the trenches with entrepreneurial ventures, however nothing has compared to how jazzed I am to be part of such an incredibly talented and passionate group of people committed to changing the world together.
I am fascinated with the potential of harnessing private market dynamics to drive transformative social good. DinnerTime will give consumers an aggregated voice to drive change in the food industry by providing them with deep insight into what we really want, as well as a clear, no-risk path to those sales. Imagine the power of millions of voices together!”
Charlie graduated with honors in Government and Urban Studies from Dartmouth College where he was also a two-time All-American lacrosse goalie. He earned his MBA from Boston College’s Carroll School of Management before joining Alex. Brown & Sons. He’s spent 25 years running, advising and investing in high-growth companies. He’s active in various charities, but devotes special energies to inter-faith work as a Trustee and Vice President of the Institute for Islamic • Christian • Jewish Studies. He’s an avid squash player and enjoys other racquet sports, skiing and coaching. Charlie and Laura share their home in Baltimore with their son, Laura’s brother and Charlie’s parents.
Co-Founder & VP, Wellness Initiatives
“It was my dear friend and DinnerTime CEO, Laura Moore, who observed that my life path led me directly to DinnerTime’s table. There is the obvious: I am a dedicated mom of four active kids. I built a career in the health insurance industry as an executive committed to issues of health and productivity. And then there is the back story: I was raised cooking in a kitchen at my mom’s hip with siblings and extended family… all around a noisy, busy dinner table under the watchful eye of my Italian grandmother. I came from a blue-collar household with two working parents trying to make ends meet. Time together at the table was both required and, as I came to discover later in life, central to forming the person and parent I am today.
I began working with at-risk kids at the age of 14 and never stopped. I am an active volunteer and Board Member with the Y of Central MD and year-round girls soccer and lacrosse coach. I believe that the dinner table is the anchor in our homes. We connect there with the families we have and the families we choose. We resolve conflict there. We share, teach, learn and linger, if we’re lucky. Welcome to the DinnerTime table. I hope you’ll stay awhile.”
Sharon built a 25-year career in the health insurance industry beginning as an underwriter, evaluating employee health risks and in later years, working for global leaders, AON and Marsh McLennan/Mercer. She was a member of the executive team at a Regional insurance agency, leading the transformation of the benefits practice. Sharon was CEO of the Greater Baltimore Technology Council, one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women, and a Baltimore’s Power 20 Honoree.
Chief Technology Officer
“I was first exposed to the Internet while attending library school in the early 1990s and knew I’d found my life’s calling. I have always loved to eat as much as I love to code, and I’ve been fortunate enough to be around a lot of great cooks in my life, beginning with my mother. (I’m a fair-to-middling cook myself, not afraid to occasionally try out a challenging new dish that may or may not work out). I’ve also long been intrigued by possibilities of achieving positive social change through entrepreneurship. So when I heard about DinnerTime from Sharon Lacy, it did not take long for me to be sold. DinnerTime has everything… the Internet, tough information management challenges, positive social change and FOOD — who could beat that? Within a few weeks I’d departed my steady job and jumped into this start-up with both feet. Haven’t regretted it for a moment since.”
Doug brings nearly two decades of experience building and enhancing content-driven Web sites in a whole range of domains. He spent 11 years as the lead technologist at the U.S. News & World Report Web site entrenched in news and rankings. Prior to that, he spent 2.5 years in the communications industry (at MCI), as well as time building online storefronts and portals for social science and legal research. Doug holds graduate degrees in both computer science and library science, with a focus on online information retrieval and knowledge management systems.
Vice President, Analytics & Population Health
“Growing up in Parkville MD, my family grabbed fast food or whatever we scrounged from the kitchen and ate it on the go, or in our bedrooms. There were four kids in my family and two parents who worked long hours and were often not home. My husband and I eat dinner sitting at the table and have long discussions about our lives. It is such an important part of our day. I am so wholly behind the DinnerTime mission and am excited that I can contribute to the ease and efficiency a solution that will empower people to eat healthier — and more affordably — at home.”
Angela worked several part time jobs to finance her education and became the first of her siblings to earn a Bachelor’s Degree. She received her BS in Biological Sciences at University of Maryland. Her interest in human health led her to a Master’s Degree from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and a Doctorate from University of Maryland School of Medicine. Dr Jansen took the opportunity to travel abroad for her post-doctoral fellowship to Cambridge England, studying at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Queens College, Cambridge University. She was then recruited to the Biodesign Institute, a research facility in Arizona in which biology-inspired innovations move from lab to market and whose core mission is to engage the talents of multidisciplinary scientists to find solutions to some of society’s largest problems. While in Arizona, Dr Jansen became more interested in food deserts in urban settings (neighborhoods without any grocery stores) and became involved in local organizations working to give people the opportunity to choose healthy food options.
Senior Advisor
“Big on food and big on family I regularly host gatherings of 20-40 family members and the center of the party is always the kitchen. That crowd includes folks with food allergies, picky tastes, and medical conditions; hooray DinnerTime to the rescue! I feel so fortunate to be part of the DinnerTime revolution to bring pleasure back to the dinner table.”
As a CEO, CFO and VP in media and education companies, Jean’s career has focused in industries that are driven by missions of public trust. Her fond memories of her childhood dinner table and the food traditions that come naturally to a child in an Italian family of seven, draw her to DinnerTime’s public trust mission. In addition, she likes to say she has “one of everything” in her family and she loves that DinnerTime can contribute to healthier, easier and more fun meals for all the folks with allergies, health conditions and hectic lifestyles… beyond all of those that seem to occur in her large, extended family.
Digital Brand Strategist
“I love to eat. And not just a little bit. A lot. A whole lot. It’s almost shocking. Definitely astonishing. And just short of appalling. My appetite for good food is matched by my energy and enthusiasm for the power of technology to transform lives. I am a long-time technophile and an ambassador for all things digital. It is at this very intersection — of food and technology — that my passions have found a home with DinnerTime.com. The greatest irony… is that I don’t actually cook. But DinnerTime is even built for people like me (who don’t like to be stressed when they’re microwaving dinner). I’m baby-stepping my way to better cooking with the help of DinnerTime and my 8-year-old, who created my first meal profile and spins the recipes for my nights to (try to) cook.”
With 20 years of experience running her own virtual advertising and marketing agency, GrayMatter Marketing, Renée was introduced to the DinnerTime founders and saw an opportunity to join the marketing arm of a group dedicated to making a difference. As an accomplished branding and messaging strategist, account director, writer and agile project manager, Renée brings a multi-disciplinary, efficiency-driven approach to developing integrated, strategically sound marketing programs and content for online and offline channels — with a laser-like focus on driving response. Her branding and marketing experience seamlessly blends “traditional” and “emerging” media insights to deliver deeply dimensional big-picture perspectives. Her résumé includes work for clients such as Under Armour, M&T Bank, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, as well as dozens of small to mid-sized businesses. Renée is incredibly proud to be a part of the DinnerTime revolution where her inexhaustible hunger for innovation might contribute to making it a little easier for other people to get dinner on the table — in less time, with less hassle and with a whole lot more smiles.
Dr. Cheskin is the Director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center and an Associate Professor of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health serves as a Special Advisor to DinnerTime. A board-certified internist, Larry holds joint appointments in Human Nutrition and in Medicine (GI) at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Larry founded the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center in 1990 and is known for his empathetic “bedside manner”. He is the principal investigator on several research grants and is a frequent contributor to research and popular articles on weight management. Larry and his team of nutritionists and behavior specialists will be closely involved with DinnerTime’s nutritional content and counsel.
Dr. Gourdine wrote her latest book, Reclaiming Our Health: A Guide to African American Wellness (Yale University Press, April 2011), because African Americans are affected by obesity, high blood pressure, cancer and other serious health conditions at far greater rates than other Americans. Her book reveals the unique cultural factors that influence African American health, and provides motivation and practical steps for the readers to follow to live longer, happier and more prosperous lives. She is a Board-certified Pediatrician who earned her medical degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She currently is Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and Senior Associate faculty at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and is the former Deputy Secretary of Health and Chief Public Health Physician for the state of Maryland, and former Health Commissioner for Baltimore County Maryland.
Dr. Passen is an internal medicine primary care physician and Director of the Center for Medical Weight Loss in Lutherville, MD. Dr. Passen graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. degree in Biology and Psychology from Tufts University in 1986. He graduated from The University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore in 1990, and completed his Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine at University of Maryland Medical Center in 1993. Dr. Passen was subsequently selected as a Chief Resident for Internal Medicine (1993-1994) and elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha medical honor society. Dr. Passen is a member of the American College of Physicians, the American Society of Bariatric Physicians, and is a recent past president of the University of Maryland Medical School Alumni Association.
Ms. Frutchey earned a master’s degree and is completing a doctoral degree in clinical psychology at Bowling Green State University, with specialization in Behavioral Medicine. Prior to joining the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center, she worked in a variety of settings, including a community mental health clinic, university counseling center, and several rehabilitation hospitals. She has helped individuals change their behavior and improve their lives as part of smoking cessation, weight management and chronic disease management programs. Ms. Frutchey’s general approach towards working with clients emphasizes hope, compassion and mutual respect. She believes that therapy is collaborative, as ultimately the power to change rests within the client. Her clinical and research interests include mood disorders, chronic illness, pain management and weight management.
Ms. Finger is a Registered Dietitian who is the lead dietitian at the Johns Hopkins University Weight Management Center. She is also a certified personal trainer, nutrition consultant and founder of Running on Green, www.runningongreen.com. She is passionate about helping clients make healthy lifestyle changes and empowering them to reach their nutrition and weight loss goals. Ms. Finger not only regularly contributes nutrition and wellness articles for various publications and media outlets, but is also a nutrition educator for a corporate wellness company and a guest lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from Texas Tech University and a M.S. in Nutrition Education from Columbia University in New York City, where she also completed her dietetic internship. She loves to cook and is an avid runner, completing the New York City Marathon three times.
A clinical pharmacy specialist, Dr. Donney John, is working with DinnerTime to identify food and drug interactions to be included in our personalization engine. Dr. John is currently V.P. Product Development at Innovate Wireless Health, which develops and deploys customized prescription adherence platform solutions for people with chronic illness. He also runs a consulting company called Urban Medical Solutions, which focuses on creating online patient educational tools that address cultural competency and health literacy within healthcare. A graduate of St. Johns University, he was previously an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice at Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.
