PAULA SPENCER SCOTT
ABOUT PAULA
BOOKS
My baker's dozen includes Surviving Alzheimer's: Practical Tips and Soul-Saving Wisdom for Caregivers (2018 expanded second edition), When Your Aging Parent Needs Help (2021, with Dr. Leslie Kernisan; audiobook version 2022) and Momfidence (based on my long-running Woman's Day column).
I've also created a series of fun interactive journals for Peter Pauper Press: Lucky Us: A Couple's Discovery Journal in 52 Weeks (2022), Pregnancy Journal (2020, revised edition), Mother and Son: Our Back-and-Forth Journal (2019), An Oral History: Preserve Your Family's Story (2018), and Like Mother, Like Daughter (2015).
I've co-authored other books with doctors at Harvard, Duke, UCLA, and Arizona State. Among my collaborations: NYT bestseller The Happiest Toddler on the Block (with Harvey Karp, MD), The V Book (with ob-gyn Elizabeth Stewart, MD), Consciously Female and Body, Soul, and Baby (both with Tracy Gaudet, MD, then head of Duke Integrative Medicine), Bright From the Start (with Jill Stamm, PhD), a series for Parenting Magazine, and the one with my favorite cover design ever, Like Mother, Like Daughter (with my daughter Page).
OTHER WRITING
[For sample articles, just go to the topic pages.]
I've been a contributing editor to Woman's Day, Caring.com, WebMD, Parenting, and BabyTalk, and the content chief of Kinstantly.
For nearly a decade, I was the "Momfidence" columnist in every issue of Woman's Day. I also wrote a "Relationships" column for Parenting.
My work has also appeared in Parade, AARP Bulletin, Newsweek, PBS Next Avenue, BabyCenter, Health, Berkeley Wellness, Body & Soul, Real Simple, MaryJane's Farm, Glamour, Reader's Digest, USA Weekend, and many other media, old & new, and in several anthologies, among them The Experts' Guide to the Baby Years and Guideposts for the Spirit: Stories for Sisters.
Writing awards from: the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Arthritis Foundation, National Political Women's Caucus, Western Publishing Association.
PRESENTING/TEACHING
I love to lead workshops and give talks on brain health and on managing the stress of dementia care, whether at caregiving conferences (Aging in America, Area Agencies on Aging, Aging Services Collaborative), to businesses, or to smaller groups. I've also spoken on wellness, parenting, and writing for many organizations, from the Southern Women's Show to the American Library Association, and the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill Science Journalism Program (I'm a former board member).
I've addressed groups from 12 to 1200, including keynote speeches.
I've been also been interviewed as a family expert by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, "The Oprah Winfrey Show," "The CBS Early Show," Fit Pregnancy, WebMD, American Baby, Real Simple, NPR, and local TV/radio, among other outlets.
I teach a course on brain health at the Colorado State University Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
CONSULTING
When the fit is good and appropriate, I work with companies on health and life-stage product ideation, marketing, and content development and creation.
Partial client list: Rodale Grow/Johns Hopkins Medicine, Weill-Cornell Medicine's Alzheimer's Universe, The Center for Environmental Health, American Baby, Nickelodeon, Gerber, The Parenting Group (Time Inc.), Time Inc. Custom Publishing, and BabyCenter, including writing its original iconic "Your Baby/Child This Week" newsletters from pregnancy to age 8. (Yes, I helped a generation first envision our growing fetuses as blueberries, kumquats, and kiwis.)
AND RELEVANT EVERYDAY LIFE...
Well, there are the four kids and two stepkids. Five of my immediate family members have had dementia, including my live-in father-in-law. I'm divorced. And happily remarried. I've kept a journal since I was 9 chronicling related maternal guilt, caregiving stress, depression, body dysmorphia -- and healthier interests in Jane Austen, Boleslawiec Polish pottery, and the art of salad making.