Team
Delivering On Our Promise
We're moms helping moms, neighbor serving neighbor, companies giving back. Led by a team of dedicated professionals, together we strive toward one goal: strong moms with healthy babies.
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Heidi Murkoff
President/Co-Founder
Heidi Murkoff is the author of the world’s best-selling pregnancy and parenting series, What to Expect, that began with What to Expect When You’re Expecting. She is also the creator of WhatToExpect.com and founder of the What to Expect Foundation. TIME Magazine named Heidi one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2011. Most recently, Murkoff was honored by the Smithsonian Associates with the prestigious John P. McGovern Award which recognizes an individual for their contribution to the understanding of the family in America.
Heidi Murkoff conceived the idea for What to Expect When You’re Expecting during her first pregnancy, when she couldn’t find answers to her questions or reassurance for her worries in the books she’d turned to for much-needed advice. Determined to write a guide that would help other expectant parents sleep better at night, Heidi delivered the proposal for What to Expect When You’re Expecting just hours before delivering her daughter, Emma. On February 12, 2013, Emma, the inspiration who started it all, gave birth to the newest member of the What To Expect family, son Lennox Page Ali.
Dubbed the ‘pregnancy bible, What To Expect When You’re Expecting, has spent 600 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and is now in its fourth edition, with more than 17 million copies in print. Furthermore, USA Today named it one of the most influential books of the last 25 years and also determined that it is read by 93 percent of women who read a pregnancy book.
The sequel, What to Expect the First Year, has sold over 10 million copies internationally and is in its 2nd edition. Other titles in the series include, Eating Well When You’re Expecting, What to Expect Before You’re Expecting (a complete preconception plan), and the newest member of the What to Expect family: What to Expect the Second Year, the must-have guide for parents of toddlers. The What to Expect books have sold more than 35 million copies internationally, and are published in more than 30 languages. In 2005, she was inducted into the Books For A Better Life Hall of Fame.
Heidi’s What to Expect Kids picture-book series for preschoolers includes What to Expect When Having a Baby, What to Expect When the New Baby Comes Home, What to Expect When You Use the Potty, and What to Expect at Preschool.
In 2005, Heidi expanded the What to Expect (WTE) brand online with www.whattoexpect.com – the interactive, state-of-the-Internet companion to WTE books, and home to vibrant, vast, yet close-knit community of 3 millions parents. In 2009, WTE went mobile with the WTE Pregnancy Tracker (the most popular pregnancy app in the world), the WTE Fertility Tracker, the WTE Baby Name Finder, and the WTE First Year Tracker.
Heidi’s passionate commitment to moms and babies led to the creation of the What to Expect Foundation (whattoexpect.org), a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping underserved families have healthy pregnancies, safe deliveries, and healthy, happy babies. With a beautiful, culturally appropriate low literacy pregnancy guide (provided at no cost) and comprehensive prenatal health literacy support, the WTE Foundation’s groundbreaking Baby Basics program-available in English, Spanish, and Chinese – has helped over 500,000 expectant moms-to-be in need and their babies. The foundation is currently preparing a global initiative in an effort to help moms in need around the world.
Heidi has appeared on hundreds of television and radio shows, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, the CBS Early Show, Oprah, BBC Breakfast, and Good Morning Australia. She connects daily with her WTE family online at WhatToExpect .com, as well as on Twitter (http://twitter.com/#!/HeidiMurkoff) and Facebook.
In 2012, Lionsgate released “What to Expect When You’re Expecting,” a film inspired by the spirit of the book. The romantic comedy all star cast included Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Chris Rock, Matthew Morrison, and Elizabeth Banks. Heidi and her husband Erik served as executive producers on the film.[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_original","fid":"54","attributes":{"border":"0","class":"media-image","height":"138","id":"2","style":"border: 0;","typeof":"foaf:Image","width":"577"}}]]
Our Team
Ruth Turoff
Managing Director
Ruth is an organizing force of the Foundation. Working for the Foundation for over 13 years, she has helped to develop our signature program from the beginning. Her path to arriving at the Foundation, however, was not a typical one. Her first career was in the music industry where she scouted out new musicians and managed them for various recording companies including Sony and Virgin. As the internet grew, Ruth's great ear (and eye) for talent, coupled with unparalleled organizational skills, brought her into website project management for a variety of start-up firms. Her leap into non-profit began as a project manager for The What to Expect Foundation, and for other agencies including Childbirth Connection and Forty Weeks PR. As the Foundation grew, Ruth took over the daily management of our publishing agenda and training program. Today she oversees the management of the entire organization, and is the person most likely to identify, break down, and then fix problems as they arise.
Interested in joining our team, volunteering or interning?
