About The Spruce

IN THIS ARTICLE

Who We Are

At The Spruce, we offer practical, real-life tips and inspiration to help you make your best home. From decorating and gardening advice, to entertaining and home repair how-tos, The Spruce can show you how.

We help more than 32 million users each month find the information they need to retile their bathroom, update their decor, grow their garden, or simply tackle a to-do list. Our 20-year-strong library of more than 14,000 pieces of content helps you spruce up your space, spruce up your yard, and spruce up your home.

The Spruce is part of The Spruce family of sites, including The Spruce Eats, The Spruce Pets, and The Spruce Crafts, covering home decor, home repair, recipes, cooking techniques, pets, and crafts. The Spruce brand is one of the top 3 largest lifestyle properties online according to comScore, a leading Internet measurement company.

Our 45+ expert writers—including professional contractors, landscapers, chefs, cookbook authors, registered vet technicians, and well known crafting bloggers—have extensive backgrounds and expertise in their topics. We are also wholly committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Review Boards

We know that finding trustworthy advice online can be difficult—the internet is full of misinformation or personal opinion masquerading as fact. To make caring for your home and garden easier, we launched The Spruce Gardening and Plant Care Review Board, The Spruce Home Improvement Board, and The Spruce Cleaning Review Board, comprised of licensed and certified field experts. Our goal is to provide you with well-researched, fact-checked information so you can keep your home and garden in its best possible shape.

The Review Process

You may notice a badge appearing in some of our content. The badge signifies that a board member has reviewed and edited the article, taking special care to confirm that the information presented is both accurate and up-to-date. Click the links below to learn more about our process.

The Spruce Gardening and Plant Care Review Board
The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board
The Spruce’s Cleaning and Organizing Review Board

Gardening and Plant Care Review Board

Meet some of our Gardening and Plant Care Review Board members below.

Barbara Gillette

Master Gardener

Barbara Gillette is a Master Gardener, Herbalist, beekeeper, and journalist with three decades of experience propagating and growing fruits, vegetables, herbs, and ornamentals. From sowing seed to harvest, from heirloom tomatoes to wild orchids, her gardening experience encompasses first hand knowledge of best practices for success. 

She has worked with the University of Kentucky Department of Agricultural Communications and with several commercial greenhouse operations and was past president of the Anderson County Farmer’s Market Cooperative. She has cultivated and planted more than 150 shrubs and trees on her eight acre property over the past 23 years.

Sonya Harris

Master Gardener

Sonya Harris is an award-winning gardening expert with two decades of experience teaching and sharing her extensive knowledge about small space gardening. She is a Master Gardener with experience in low-income gardening and growing foods and plants in poor soil conditions. Sonya has written for Martha Stewart Living, won South Jersey Magazine’s One to Watch Award, and is also a member of The Spruce Gardening and Plant Care Review Board.

Sonya established the nonprofit The Bullock Garden Project, Inc. to assist schools and community organizations serving large populations of children/youth who are at-risk, receiving special education services, and/or low-income and food insecurity with establishing and implementing gardens to not only teach across the curriculum but to also inspire careers as future green industry leaders.

Julie Thompson-Adolf

Master Gardener

Julie Thompson-Adolf is a Master Gardener and author with over 30 years of experience with year-round organic gardening, seed starting and saving, growing heirloom plants, perennials, and annuals, and sustainable and urban farming.

She’s a Master Gardener, served on the National Garden Bureau’s Plant Nerds team, and joined with television host P. Allen Smith for Garden2Blog. Julie is a member of Garden Comm: Garden Communicators International, Slow Food, Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and many other environmental and gardening groups. 

Catherine Askia

Master Gardener

Cathy is a Master Gardener who received her certification in 2019. She has over three decades as a home gardener designing, planting, and maintaining ornamental flower, vegetable, and herb gardens.

She previously volunteered at Central Texas College, providing fresh produce, edible flowers and herbs for students participating in the Culinary Arts Program.

Kathleen Miller

Master Gardener & Horticulturist

Kathleen Miller is a highly-regarded Master Gardener and horticulturist with over 30 years of experience in organic gardening, farming, and landscape design. She founded Gaia’s Farm and Gardens, a working sustainable permaculture farm, and writes for Gaia Grows, a local newspaper column. She has taught people from all over the world how to garden, and she appears as a regular guest on radio shows, films, and at other events around the country. Her passion is sharing her expansive knowledge and experience in horticulture, agriculture, sustainable farming systems, and organic gardening.

Debra LaGattuta

Master Gardener

Debra is a Master Gardener who received her official title in 2015. She has over 30+ years of experience as a home gardener experienced in designing, planting, and maintaining cottage-style perennial, vegetable, and four-season container gardens.

She is the lead gardener in a Plant-A-Row, which is a program that offers thousands of pounds of organically-grown vegetables to local food banks. She is also the author of several gardening presentations on topics including perennial plant primers, hardy perennials for different zones, and vegetable gardening.

Home Improvement Review Board

Meet some of our Home Improvement Review Board members below.

Deane Biermeier

Contractor

Deane Biermeier is a contractor with nearly 30 years experience in home repair, maintenance, remodeling, and carpentry. Deane’s career in remodeling began in the early ’90s when he started a residential siding company along with two partners.  Deane has acquired vast knowledge and skills in the areas of electrical installation and repair, HVAC repair, plumbing, and appliance repair under the tutelage of industry experts. Deane worked for several investors on house-flipping projects, and he currently runs a small home repair service along with a consulting service which empowers his customers to tackle their DIY projects.

Johnathan Brewer

Licensed contractor

Johnathan C. Brewer II is a licensed General Contractor specializing in kitchen, bath remodels, and general construction. With over two decades of professional experience, his current business, Brewer Builds, specializes in residential and light commercial renovations and remodels.

Kelly Bacon

Licensed Contractor

Kelly Bacon is a licensed general contractor with over 40 years experience in construction, home building and remodeling, and commercial building. 

He has commercially installed custom wall panels in healthcare, education, government, and commercial office projects in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Idaho and Utah.

Richard Epstein

Licensed Master Plumber

Richard Epstein has been a licensed master plumber for over 30 years and specializes in estimating as well as design and engineering for plumbing systems. In 1988, Richard became New York City’s youngest licensed plumber at 25 years old.

He currently works for Par Plumbing & Heating, one of New York’s largest union plumbing construction companies.

Larry Campbell

Licensed Master Electrician

Larry Campbell is an electrical contractor with 36 years of experience in residential and light commercial electrical wiring. He worked as an electronic technician and later as an engineer for the IBM Corp.

His residential projects include wiring homes, electrical repairs and maintenance, electrical renovation projects, and home inspection corrections. His commercial projects include store build-outs, commercial bath projects, and automotive dealership projects.

He is currently a member of The Spruce Home Improvement Review Board.

Cleaning Review Board

Meet some of our Cleaning Review Board members below.

Rhea Mehta

Environmental Toxicologist

Rhea Mehta, PhD, is an award-winning toxicologist and healthcare innovator who for the past decade has worked to empower people to lead healthier lives, starting in their homes. Rhea holds a PhD in Toxicology, with over 15 scientific publications, and a certificate in integrative health coaching. 

Rhea is a current practitioner at the Center for Advanced Medicine and the Canadian Center for Integrative Health in Toronto, where she works with patients as part of an integrative care system to identify and eliminate toxins within their homes and lives.

Amanda Rose Newton

Board Certified Entomologist

Amanda Rose Newton is a pest specialist, reviewing pest control content for The Spruce’s Cleaning Review Board. She is a board-certified entomologist and volunteers for USAIDs Farmer to Farmer program. Currently, she is a professor of Horticulture, an Education Specialist, and pest specialist.She has a decade’s worth of experience in both the academic and professional sides of horticulture and entomology. Her focus is on educating gardeners to use sustainable practices that will lead to improved food security and quality for the next generation.

Katie Berry

Internationally Recognized Cleaning Expert

Katie Berry is a cleaning expert with 30 years of household management experience and 12 years of writing about cleaning methods and routines for Housewife How-Tos. She is the author of several books about homemaking, including 30 Days to a Clean and Organized House.She shares her experienced cleaning methods and systems on her website and in her popular books. Katie’s focus is on helping people develop routines that use their time efficiently to clean their homes.

Our Writers

All of our writers were carefully chosen for their extensive experience in their subject areas.

Meet Some of Our Writers

Lee Wallender

Home Improvement Expert (Contributing Writer)

Lee Wallender has been remodeling homes since 2000 and has been writing for The Spruce since its inception in 2017.Before the debut of The Spruce, Lee provided home improvement advice for About.com readers and do-it-yourselfers for more than twelve years. Lee has been cited in People, Toolmonger, Chicago Tribune, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Huffington Post, and The Day. His articles have appeared on ABC News, New Orleans Advocate, Cape Cod, The Good Men Project, Sweeten, and Fix.com.Lee earned a B.A. in English language and literature from California Lutheran University and a M.A. in creative writing from the University of Southern Mississippi.

Anjie Cho

Licensed Architect

Since 1999, Anjie has been designing beautiful, nourishing indoor and outdoor spaces informed by the ancient practice of feng shui. Her focus is to create nurturing and supportive environments, tailoring her practice to each client’s specific needs.

She is the co-founder of the Mindful Design Feng Shui School and a certified feng shui consultant for the BTB Feng Shui Masters Training Program. She’s also a practicing New York State-registered architect and LEED accredited professional. Her work and writing have been featured in dozens of publications including the New York Times, Elle Decor, Buzzfeed, and more.

Anjie graduated with a degree in architecture from the College of Environmental Design at the University of California at Berkeley.

David Beaulieu

David Beaulieu has been writing for The Spruce since its launch in 2017 and spent 10 years working in nurseries before he started writing about gardening full time. 

Prior to joining The Spruce, David spent more than 15 years writing about landscaping and gardening for About.com. He has been interviewed by numerous publications such as Woman’s World and American Way and was a regular contributor to Do!, the home and garden magazine published by Highbury House. David has also appeared on “Ask Andrea,” the nationally syndicated radio show targeted to do-it-yourself home and garden enthusiasts.

David earned his B.A. and Masters in classics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Editorial Guidelines

At The Spruce, we take great pride in the integrity of our content. We uphold the Dotdash Meredith Content Integrity Promise and our own editorial policy that guides us in creating original, accurate, and informative content free of ethical concerns or conflicts. We aspire to provide the highest quality content produced by humans, for humans. It is against our guidelines to publish automatically generated content using AI (artificial intelligence) writing tools such as ChatGPT.

If you ever come across an article that you think needs to be improved, please reach out by emailing contact@thespruce.com.

To learn more, please see our full Editorial Policy and Standards page.

 

 

Fact Checking

The Spruce’s team of experienced fact checkers provides a critical layer of review to ensure content integrity. This group of professionals is selected and vetted for journalistic and subject matter expertise. They are tasked with researching all statements of fact to ensure that news and information presented in our articles is accurate and comprehensive and statistics are properly sourced and up to date. Articles that have been officially fact checked will display a “fact check” badge, as well as the name of the fact checker at the top of the page near the author.

Product Reviews

Our product reviews are independent and based on research and product testing — if you visit links within our content, we may receive commissions from your purchases, but we never receive any compensation or consideration for the content of our recommendations. Learn more about our review process below.

How We Pick Products and Services

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Diversity & Inclusion

At The Spruce, our mission is to help everyone make their best home. We cannot stay silent about the injustices, discrimination, hate, and fear that many in our community are facing. We need to do our part to fight systemic racism and oppression; things need to change.

We can do more. We are responsible for using our platform to spread the message of inclusivity, equality, and human rights. We are listening, and we are learning. We will do better. Black lives matter. Read more about our pledge to make our site more inclusive and promote diversity.

Our Team

Our editorial team has extensive category experience and is comprised of members who have worked at leading publications and websites in their field.

Mélanie Berliet

Senior Vice President & Group General Manager

Mélanie Berliet is SVP and Group General Manager of the Home & Design team at Dotdash Meredith, overseeing Better Homes & Gardens, Real Simple, Southern Living, the Spruce (Home, Pets, and Crafts), MyDomaine, Martha Stewart Living, and DailyPaws.Prior to joining Dotdash in 2018, Mélanie was the Chief Editorial Director of Thought Catalog, where she led all content initiatives and managed strategic partnerships.Mélanie has 15 years of experience creating, managing, and publishing lifestyle content across platforms. She has worked as a producer and writer for brands including MTV, Vanity Fair, Elle, New York Magazine, The Atlantic, Cosmopolitan, Salon, Esquire, and iHeartRadio.She earned a B.A. in Political Economy from Georgetown University.

Courtney Mason

General Manager & Vice President

Courtney Mason is the General Manager and Vice President of The Spruce, overseeing all content initiatives and business strategies. She has 15+ years of experience in growth strategy, direct-to-consumer marketing, and business development & partnerships, and she applies this experience to make The Spruce the most visited and relied-upon source for practical, real-life tips and inspiration to help anyone make their best home. Courtney earned her MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, and completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia. She regularly appears in print, on television, and on the radio, and teaches publishing at NYU.

 

Caroline Utz

Editorial & Strategy Director

Caroline (she/her) is the Editorial & Strategy Director for The Spruce, The Spruce Crafts, and MyDomaine and has been with Dotdash since 2019.Caroline got her start in editorial working for the home departments of Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day, and Redbook magazines on both print and digital content, covering everything from the latest decor trends to the best cleaning hacks. In her current role as Editorial & Strategy Director, Caroline oversees content and strategy for the brand and acts as the creative lead for digital issues. She also contributes to news and trending content franchises — catch her interviews with celebrities like Drew Barrymore and Tamera Mowry-Housley for “The Spruce Up” series which detail celebrity spaces. Caroline has been quoted for her expertise in The Washington Post and the Associated Press. She also appears on television sharing cleaning hacks and gardening tips on shows like Weekend TODAY and GMA Weekend.

Jamie Abarca

Senior Editorial Project Manager

Jamie is the Senior Editorial Project Manager for The Spruce, The Spruce Pets, The Spruce Crafts, and MyDomaine. Jamie is an organization pro, having worked in higher education for seven years.

 

Before joining The Spruce team, Jamie worked as a consultant with individuals and nonprofit organizations. Her work consisted of helping immigrants and first-generation high school students pursue higher education. As a multilingual writer and translator, she continues to aid underserved communities. At The Spruce, Jamie manages our Diversity and Anti-Bias initiatives, as well as works to help make sure all of our content is accurate through Fact-Checking.

Amy Sheehan

Design Director

Amy joined the Dotdash team as Design Director for The Spruce, The Spruce Pets, The Spruce Crafts, and MyDomaine in March 2021. She leads the design of both sites and develops brand visuals of digital and physical products. She is an avid DIYer and home decor enthusiast.

Prior to joining Dotdash Amy was the Art Director for Insider Studios, the branded content team for Business Insider and Insider where she designed for numerous legacy brands such as Cartier, Chase, Lincoln, and United.

 

Candace Madonna

Senior Visual Editor

Candace (she/her) is the Senior Visual Editor for The Spruce Home and Crafts. She joined the team in June 2019. Candace is a photographer and photo art director with over six years of experience in the visual world. As Senior Visual Editor, Candace manages a community of freelance photographers who contribute beautiful, original, and on-brand imagery to aid in The Spruce’s aesthetic vision and storytelling. Candace oversees and contributes to the creation of all editorial brand visuals, including illustrations.She’s a published photographer, and you can find her work in several of The Spruce’s print issues.  

Brynn Baker

Senior Editor, Newsletters

Brynn is the Senior Editor, Newsletters for The Spruce. She writes and curates all of our email newsletters, including The Spruce Daily, The Spruce Gardens, and The Spruce Evergreen. She has six years of experience writing newsletters for home brands, including Better Homes & Gardens and Martha Stewart. Brynn has a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from University of Minnesota and has been writing, editing, and publishing for over a decade.

Kate McKenna

Senior Editor

Kate (she/her) is a Senior Editor for The Spruce, The Spruce Crafts, and MyDomaine and has been at Dotdash (now Dotdash Meredith) since July 2019. As Senior Editor, Kate currently oversees content focused around remodeling, home how-tos, cleaning, design, and gardening. She assigns, publishes, and updates articles, and manages The Spruce’s Home Improvement Review Board, a team of licensed contractors and other industry professionals who review The Spruce’s home improvement content for accuracy. Kate also manages The Spruce’s news and trending content, and contributes the occasional social media video to The Spruce’s official accounts.She previously worked as a contributing writer for POPSUGAR and as a digital content marketer for small businesses. Kate studied art history at the University of Guelph and got her Master of Arts in Journalism at the University of Western Ontario. 

 

Jenny Hughes

Senior Editor

Jenny (she/her) joined The Spruce in early 2021 as an Editor before becoming Senior Editor in 2023. She oversees Gardening and Decor articles and works on Spruce News.Prior to The Spruce, Jenny worked for more than four years in digital media primarily as an editor and content manager with a focus on strategizing for growth.She earned a Bachelor of Arts from Bowdoin College.

 

Mia Ingui

Editor

Mia (she/her) is an Editor for The Spruce and MyDomaine, managing a large group of freelance writers and assigning monthly content. She also runs The Spruce’s Cleaning Review Board, a group of experts who review the latest cleaning content for accuracy. Mia also works on special editorial projects while editing and publishing content daily. When she’s not at her desk, Mia is likely filming a social video for The Spruce (possibly harvesting from her garden or testing out a trending TikTok find) or testing products in the testing lab for shopping stories. When she is really not at her desk, she’s likely overspending on Target’s home decor, wandering a farmer’s market, or picking up yet another houseplant that she doesn’t have room for.

 

Jane Kim

Associate Editor

Jane Kim (she/her) is an Associate Editor at The Spruce and has covered an array of topics in lifestyle.Before The Spruce, Jane was an avid writer and editor for digital publications like The Odyssey Online and Trill! Magazine. She has covered an array of topics and continues to create content that thoughtfully resonates with readers. Jane graduated magna cum laude from Stony Brook University with a bachelor of arts in English in the spring of 2021. She minored in International Studies.

 

Aliyah Rodriguez

Associate Editor

Aliyah Rodriguez is an Associate Editor at The Spruce, covering small-space living, BIPOC designer interviews, rental tours, gardening, and more. She earned a B.A. in English and Media & Strategic Communications from Iona University.Before The Spruce, Aliyah was the Features & Lifestyle editor of her college editorial, The Ionian. She is an avid writer and reader who has covered an array of topics in beauty, lifestyle, entertainment, and books and continues to create innovative and interesting content that readers will enjoy. 

 

Sara Brown

Social Media Editor

Sara Brown (she/her) is the Social Media Editor at The Spruce and MyDomaine, curating home design, DIY, cleaning & organizing, gardening, and shopping content across Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.Sara has been with Dotdash Meredith since 2019 and has been a part of the social media department for brands like Real Simple, Martha Stewart, and Martha Stewart Weddings and now as an Associate Social Media Editor for The Spruce and MyDomaine. Before working in magazine publishing she worked in the apparel and home goods industry focusing on branding and social media. Sara received a B.A. in Art and Design and a B.S. in Apparel Merchandising & Design from Iowa State University. Sara also holds a Masters in International Fashion Marketing from Glasgow Caledonian University in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

 

Awards

Contact Us

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For press inquiries, email us at press@thespruce.com.

For a list of our recent press, visit our Press & Media page.

If you would rather call us or send us a letter, you can reach us at 28 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10005, 212-204-4000.

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We’re always looking for experienced, qualified online freelance writers who share in our mission to provide practical, real-life tips and inspiration to help you create your best home.

Please note that we do not accept unsolicited guest-authored articles, blogs, infographics, or posts.

Email us here: contact@thespruce.com

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Join our crew of top-notch editors, designers, programmers, and others as we continue to make a difference everyday in the lives of our readers.

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About Dotdash Meredith

Dotdash Meredith, an operating business of IAC, is the largest digital and print publisher in America. From mobile to magazines, nearly 200 million people trust Dotdash Meredith to help them make decisions, take action, and find inspiration. Dotdash Meredith’s over 40 iconic brands include PEOPLE, Better Homes & Gardens, Verywell, FOOD & WINE, The Spruce, Allrecipes, Byrdie, REAL SIMPLE, Investopedia, Southern Living, Lifewire, The Balance, and more.

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To learn more about the Dotdash Meredith Senior Management Team, visit the Dotdash Meredith corporate site.

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