An internationally published science and health writer, Dia L. Michels has written for such publications as:  People, Parenting, Family Fun, Mothering, Baby Talk, Nurturing and The Washington Post. She is also an essayist for Public Radio, International, a writing instructor for the Smithsonian Institution, has been featured on numerous television and radio shows and is a regular host on Pedschat.org and Mediaconsult.com. Her books include the award-winning, Milk, Money & Madness:  The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding and the best-selling, A Woman's Guide to Yeast Infections. Michels is a popular speaker, lecturing frequently at conferences, universities, libraries and schools around the country.

Michels founded Platypus Media in 1995 to promote breastfeeding and attachment parenting to parents and professionals. Its product line includes slides and pamphlets for lactation professionals, as well as T-shirts and notecards. She has expanded the line to include Breastfeeding Annual International, which provides timely and accurate information from the forefront of breastfeeding research. She has also turned her keen interest in children's books to a publishing program that includes books for the whole family.

In her work as the founder and director of Watkins After-School Enrichment Program in Washington's Capitol Hill, Michels cultivated a creative approach to nonfiction for children. The emphasis of the Platypus Media list is the result of years of work in the after-school program, preparing children to be health-conscious adults and effective parents by grounding them in science.

A native of Los Angeles, she is a graduate of Chadwick School. While working toward her economics degree at Brandeis University, she studied at the University of Edinburgh and the Institute de France. She lives on Capitol Hill with her husband, a physicist with NASA, their three children and three cats.