Essential Health is the most up-to-date skills-based text available for high school health and wellness classes. With its engaging writing and numerous supporting activities, this text presents the study of health and wellness as a dynamic discussion, relevant to students' lives. The second edition contains new information about current topics such as nutrition, opioid abuse, and human trafficking. It also gives in-depth coverage of sleep, body image, and health across the lifespan. Content and skills are aligned to the National Health Education Standards.
Catherine Sanderson - specializes in health and positive psychology. She is the James E. Ostendarp Professor of Psychology at Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. She earned a bachelor's degree in psychology, with a specialization in health and development, from Stanford University, and earned her master's and a doctoral degree in psychology from Princeton University. Dr. Sanderson's research has received grant funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health. She has published over 25 journal articles and book chapters in addition to three college textbooks and a popular-press book on parenting.
Mark Zelman - specializes in biology, microbiology, and human diseases. He is an Associate Professor of Biology at Aurora University, Aurora, Illinois. Dr. Zelman received a bachelor's degree in biology at Rockford College, with minors in chemistry and psychology. He received a PhD in microbiology and immunology at Loyola University of Chicago. He has published articles on microbiology, infectious disease, autoimmune disease, and biotechnology, and he has written two college texts on human diseases and infection control.
Melanie Lynch - is a teacher at North Allegheny Intermediate High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Melanie served as vice president of Pennsylvania's AHPERD (PSAHPERD) Association. For more than 20 years, she was a health education specialist at State College Area High School in State College, Pennsylvania. Melanie has trained hundreds of teachers as a Health Education Assessment Project (HEAP) trainer for the state of Pennsylvania and regularly speaks to educators about Health Education. Melanie has also co-authored the high school health textbooks Comprehensive Health and Essential Health, published by Goodheart-Willcox. In 2016, SHAPE America named Melanie their National Health Teacher of the Year.
Melissa Munsell - is an instructional specialist in the Physical Education and Health Department at North East Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas. Melissa serves as the K-12 Health Education Lead for the district. She has also served as vice president of the Health Division of the Texas's AHPERD (TAHPERD) Association.