Mark Zanger

Current

• Director of Communications at Coalition of Families and Advocates
• Freelance contributer at JFL Media
• Author, the American History Cookbook at Greenwood Books

• Mental Health Advocate at self-employed (Sole Proprietorship)
• Restaurant Columnist at The Boston Phoenix

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Past

• Media Relations Manager at Cambridge Health Alliance
• Author, The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students at Oryx Books
• Columnist at Boston Magazine

• Online Monitor (freelance) at ABC-Disney
• Managing Editor at A Trip by Modem
• Executive Editor at COOK'S ILLUSTRATED
• Chief Editor, Delphi at News Internet Services
• Chief Editor at Delphi Internet
• Op-ed editor at Middlesex News
• Public Information Officer at Oxfam
• Reporter, Feature Writer at Boston Herald
• Editor (in chief) at Real Paper
• Staff Reporter at Citizen Group Publications

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10 more...

Education

• National Alliance on Mental Illness, MA
• Yale University
• Holyoke High School

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Recommended

6 people have recommended Mark

Connections

255 connections

Industry

Writing and Editing

Mark Zanger’s Summary

Veteran journalist with significant experience in reader-generated content and Internet communities, some in PR and marketing.

Mark Zanger’s Specialties:

Specialties in food, investigations, travel, child and adolescent mental health, community health and housing.

Mark Zanger’s Experience

• Director of Communications

  Coalition of Families and Advocates

  (Health, Wellness and Fitness industry)

  April 2007 — Present (2 years 4 months)

  Newsletter,PR, and general communications work, 20 hours weekly, for voluntary organization of family members of people with mental retardation/ developmental disablity

• Freelance contributer

  JFL Media

  (Non-Profit; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

  June 2004 — Present (5 years 2 months)

  Book reviews and essays for jbooks.com, a web site about Jewish-interest fiction and non-fiction.

• Author, the American History Cookbook

  Greenwood Books

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Publishing industry)

  August 2001 — Present (8 years)

  Authored cookbook for students with 350 authentic, verbatim recipes from all periods of American history, often illustrating social history, and modern directions to make the flavor of the past accesssible.

• Mental Health Advocate

  self-employed (Sole Proprietorship)

  (Sole Proprietorship; 1-10 employees; Mental Health Care industry)

  April 1997 — Present (12 years 4 months)

  Serve on three boards of directors: PPAL (Parent Professional Advocacy League, www.ppal.net) a statewide group that advocates for children and adolescents with mental illness and their families; MADI (Mood and Anxiety Disorder Institute, www.moodandanxiety.org, www.schoolpsychiatry.org) which disseminates psychiatry research done at Massachusetts General Hospital; and Accessible Knowledge, Inc (http://www.simtalk.com/bibli/index1024.htm) which creates online libraries and software to make books and other sources of knowledge accessible to people with disabilities. I've also volunteered with the Boston Public Health Commission and NAMI, and done some professional writing and PR around Mental Health Issues

• Restaurant Columnist

  The Boston Phoenix

  (Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Entertainment industry)

  September 1981 — Present (27 years 11 months)

  Boston's most experienced and demanding restaurant critic, under the pseudonym "Robert Nadeau." Media column. Pieces on politics and music.

• Media Relations Manager

  Cambridge Health Alliance

  (Non-Profit; 1001-5000 employees; Health, Wellness and Fitness industry)

  September 2005 — January 2006 (5 months)

  Used Bacon's MediaSource to build press lists, wrote releases, updated web pages, developed column for intranet newsletter as part of two-person PR department in major public hospital. Used background in mental health advocacy to advance missions of state's largest provider of mental health services to the poor.

• Author, The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students

  Oryx Books

  (Writing and Editing industry)

  1999 — 2003 (4 years)

• Columnist

  Boston Magazine

  (Privately Held; Publishing industry)

  2000 — 2001 (1 year)

  "Of Local Interest" books column, co-written with Jessika Bella Mura. Reviewed books and authors with New England ties or subjects.

• Online Monitor (freelance)

  ABC-Disney

  (Public Company; 10,001 or more employees; Entertainment industry)

  September 1998 — April 1999 (8 months)

  Online monitor for discussion boards about daytime television shows, children's shows, and Oprah.com. Located and deleted objectionable or illegal messages.

• Managing Editor

  A Trip by Modem

  (Privately Held; 1-10 employees; Internet industry)

  August 1997 — February 1999 (1 year 7 months)

  Half-time webmaster and copy writer for online, discount travel agency. Managed email newsletter list, wrote newsletters, coded HTML promotional pages, worked on QA and help system for site.

• Executive Editor

  COOK'S ILLUSTRATED

  (Partnership; 51-200 employees; Publishing industry)

  January 1996 — May 1996 (5 months)

  Assigned and edited stories for the flagship COOK'S ILLUSTRATED, a national magazine about cooking techniques. Wrote for the magazine during and after the time I was editor, reviewing cookbooks and software, testing equipment and recipes and writing on emulsion sauces and New England dishes.

• Chief Editor, Delphi

  News Internet Services

  (Writing and Editing industry)

  1994 — 1996 (2 years)

• Chief Editor

  Delphi Internet

  (Public Company; 11-50 employees; Computer Networking industry)

  October 1994 — December 1995 (1 year 3 months)

  Managed reader experience and a network of freelance hosts and information providers on the first full-Internet service provider and fourth-largest online service at the time. Promoted to manage a staff of eight.

• Op-ed editor

  Middlesex News

  (Public Company; 5001-10,000 employees; Publishing industry)

  1986 — 1989 (3 years)

  Developed new opinion page primarily written by readers, some in-house articles. Wrote editorials for 7-day daily serving 30-odd diverse New England Towns. Organized and lead staff education lecture series.

• Public Information Officer

  Oxfam

  (Non-Profit; 51-200 employees; Philanthropy industry)

  February 1983 — June 1985 (2 years 5 months)

  Edited newsletter, fundraising and education materials, two book manuscripts, some photography, logo police, endless meetings, for international charity. The challenge was to get staff to contribute to organizational goal of educating the American public, raise publication standards.

• Reporter, Feature Writer

  Boston Herald

  (Writing and Editing industry)

  1981 — 1983 (2 years)

• Editor (in chief)

  Real Paper

  (Writing and Editing industry)

  1975 — 1981 (6 years)

• Staff Reporter

  Citizen Group Publications

  (Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Publishing industry)

  February 1974 — September 1975 (1 year 8 months)

  Reporter, arts critic, and columnist for urban weekly. Covered city government, school bussing controversy, film, music, theater, restaurants, trivia, and features.

Mark Zanger’s Education

• National Alliance on Mental Illness, MA

  certificate , NAMI family-to-family teacher , 2007 — 2007

• Yale University

  AB , English , 1966 — 1970

  Activities and Societies:

  Yale Daily News

• Holyoke High School

  College , Comprehensive , 1965 — 1966

Additional Information

Mark Zanger’s Interests:

Internet communities, reader-generated content, human services, politics, economics, culinary history, ethnicity, SCUBA, percussion, banjo, fiction, poetry, investigative reporting, insurance arson, real estate

Mark Zanger’s Contact Settings

Interested In:

• career opportunities
• consulting offers
• expertise requests
• reference requests
• getting back in touch