Tara Bench is food/entertaining editor at Ladies' Home Journal. Prior to joining Ladies' Home Journal, Tara developed recipes and food styled for many magazines, television and cookbooks. Previously, she served as senior food editor at Martha Stewart Living and Martha Stewart Weddings for six years.

Ryan Bowling is public relations manager for Mars Snack Foods, where he manages external relations for the multi-billion dollar North American snack division that includes more than a dozen brands/partnerships including M&M'S¨, Snickers¨, Dove¨ Chocolate, NASCAR, the NFL and more. From launching new M&M'S to managing the reputation of NASCAR's top rated driver Kyle Busch, Ryan is tasked with delivering innovative integrated marketing communication programs that have resulted in delivering PR as among the highest ROI across all marketing at Mars.

Sylvia Carter writes the "a la Carter" column for Newsday and has written for national magazines including Good Housekeeping and Family Circle. While on staff at Newsday for 35 years, she was the first to write "Eats," reviews of down-to-earth restaurants on Long Island and in Manhattan, Queens and Brooklyn. She was also the founding editor of "Kidsday," Newsday's section "for kids and by kids, mostly," which was the subject of a front page feature story in The Wall Street Journal and was widely copied at other papers around the country.

Sally Falkow (APR) is a chief strategist at Expansion Plus and co-developer of PRESSfeed, a content syndication and social media too. She has lectured at the university level in communications, marketing and consumer/buyer behavior. In recent years, she has emerged as an expert in the power of online PR and social media.

Pamela Kaufman is the executive editor of Food & Wine magazine, where she edits everyone from James Beard award-winning columnist Lettie Teague to Food & Wine's junior staffers. Pam has taught food writing classes for mediabistro.com and has been a guest speaker at New York University, Hunter College in Manhattan and the Culinary Institute of America at Greystone in Napa Valley. Before joining Food & Wine in 1993, she covered health and fitness as an associate editor at Vogue.

Grace Leong is a managing partner at Hunter Public Relations, and has been dishing out public relations counsel to food and beverage brands for 20 years. In her current position, Grace leads one of the nation's most experienced and award-winning food and beverage-focused marketing communications teams servicing clients such as Diageo, E.J Gallo Winery, Kraft Foods, Campbell Soup Company and Kellogg's. Grace began her career at D-A-Y/Ogilvy & Mather Public Relations working on the agency's food and spirits accounts including General Foods and Segrams.

Sloane Miller is president of Allergic Girl Resources and her blog has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN.com, New York magazine, "Huffington Post," Allergic Living Magazine, Reader's Digest, Conde Nast's Traveler, The Boston Globe, ABCNews.com, WNBC.com, Eater.com, Health.com, MySpaceNews.com and Reuters.com. She can also be heard on Martha Stewart Living Radiovand on WFUV 90.7 FM Public Radio's "Cityscape."

Marion Nestle chaired the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health from 1988 through 2003. She earned her M.P.H. in public health nutrition and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of California, Berkeley. Her research focuses on the politics of food, with an emphasis on the role of food marketing. She is the author of "Food Politics: How the Food Industry Influences Nutrition and Health" and "Safe Food: Bacteria, Biotechnology, and Bioterrorism," and is co-editor of "Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in Food and Nutrition." Her latest book, "What to Eat," was published in 2006.

Carla Spartos is a food writer at the New York Post. Her writing on food and drink has also been featured in New York magazine, The Village Voice, The Week, Zagat and the anthology "Food & Booze: Essays and Recipes." She is a graduate of Cornell University and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

Patrice Tanaka is Co-Chair, Chief Creative Officer and whatcanbe Ambassador for CRT/tanaka, a new entity she helped co-found in September 2005 bringing together the talent and expertise of two of the PR industry’s most well-respected, independent mid-sized agencies – the New York City-based Patrice Tanaka & Company, Inc. (PT&Co.) and Richmond, Va.-based, Carter Ryley Thomas (CRT). Her current and former agencies have been recognized as the "Best Agency to Work for in America," "Most Admired Mid-Size PR Agency in the U.S.," "#1 Most Creative PR Agency in America," among other accolades by various PR organizations and trade media.

Patrice has been honored by many PR, marketing, business and civic organizations, including the Public Relations Society of America ("Paul M. Lund Award for Public Service"), The Holmes Group ("Creativity All-Star" Award) and New York Women in Communications ("Matrix" Award).

Native New Yorker Piper Weiss is the deputy lifestyle editor at the New York Daily News. She edits stories on fashion, pop culture, food and more. Prior to joining the News fulltime she was a blog editor BestWeekEver.tv and a writer for VH1 shows. Her writing has also appeared in Glamour, Radar and Radaronline.com, Time Out New York and New York Magazine’s website.