Contributors
Family Matters Switzerland is a part of the International Community Fair Verein. Since 1994, Family Matters Switzerland (formerly Mothering Matters) has been providing parenting information, in English, for families in Switzerland. It emerged from the La Leche League as a newsletter, and quickly grew to become a print journal for a wider audience. Since 2013, Family Matters Switzerland has been online, run by a team of dedicated volunteers and remains not-for-profit; advertising and sponsorship contribute to the running costs and the charitable organisations we support.
Family Matters Switzerland only exists due to the tireless efforts of our dedicated team of volunteers. They plan issues, source material, manage writing teams, research and write excellent content, copy-edit, run the website, manage social media, plan and host events, manage sponsors, run contests, and many other small, unseen tasks that help get our bi-monthly issues out the door. A big thanks to all of you!
Behind the Scenes
Andrea Snashall keeps the Family Matters ship running, often serves as editor, social media coordinator and contributes many articles. Andrea grew up in Western Australia and moved to Switzerland in 2001. She has a son and a daughter and has been a Family Matters Team Member since 2004.
Laura Munteanu designed the Family Matters logo. She also manages our team of illustrators and provides many illustrations for our website template and issues. Laura has studied journalism and advertising, and has been working as a journalist and an illustrator. She has been illustrated for magazines, websites, charity and different campaigns. She lives in Zurich with her husband and her ten-year-old daughter.
Tracy Wellons joined our team in 2018, more or less fresh off the plane from the USA. She’s contributed informative articles and is also an administrator / moderator of our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Columnists
These volunteers regularly write columns for Family Matters Switzerland.
Monica Shah is our education specialist and writes for our Education Matters column. Monica is the founder of Children First, an international pre-school, nursery and kindergarten in Zürich. She enjoys living and working in Zurich and hiking in Switzerland with her 14-year-old son whose favourite sports are Taekwondo and Cricket.
Joanna Koch shares the coordination of our La Leche League column. Joanna is a busy mother and grandmother, La Leche League leader, tireless worker for community projects and a founding member of Mothering Matters – Switzerland.
Dr. Teresa Müller looks after our Out & About column. Teresa is an earth scientist and instructor by education and an avid traveler and adventurer by nature. She has three sons ages 32, 19, and 16.
Former Contributors
Tanya Deans managed the website and writes the occasional article. She writes the travel blog, Moms:Tots:Zurich, which focuses on hiking in Switzerland with kids and other family-friendly activities in Switzerland. Follow her on Instagram and Facebook. Tanya is originally from California and has lived in Zurich since 2005, raising two boys.
Tammy Furey wrote for our Expat Corner column for four years. Tammy is a coach, educator, writer and blogger who lives in St. Gallen, Switzerland with her husband and daughter whilst attempting (badly) to speak German, fold her paper recycling in the correct manner and finish writing her book (www.thegratitudepapers.com). Visit her at www.fureycoaching.com
Dr. Jahura Hossain wrote our Family Health column. Jahura is a U.K.-qualified doctor, born and brought up in London. She has worked in hospitals, general practice, public health, prison medicine, and the pharmaceutical industry.
Robyn Goss wrote our humour column, Loco Parentis. Robyn is a part-time writer and full-time slave to her two young daughters. Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, she now lives in a little cow-rich village in Switzerland. She spends her free time making To Do lists of things she’ll probably never get around to doing (have the car cleaned; vacuum under the bed; run a half-marathon) and putting the finishing touches to her third novel. To read more of Robyn’s writing, click here or find her on her Facebook page, Loco Parentis.
Karin Mohler wrote for our Third Culture Matters column. Karin has lived between cultures for her entire life and has come to the conclusion that this will always be a big part of her. Having no roots doesn’t bind her anywhere in particular, but she is careful not to impose that sense upon her children, who have been born and bred in Switzerland. She has taken a lot of inspiration for understanding her “in-betweenness” from the book Third Culture Kids: Growing Up among Worlds, by D. C. Pollock and R. V. Reken (2009).
Didi wrote for our Twinville column. She is an Egyptian mother of twin girls living in Zurich. Before having the twins she worked in the field of economic development. She is currently a stay-at-home mom focused on the growth and development of her daughters.
Brian Wilson, father of three children, wrote for our Fathering column. He teaches golf and coordinates a Zurich Dads’ group in his spare time. Email:bwilsoniag@gmail.com
