Lee Welles

Lee Welles lives in writes in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York. Although Lee studied biology/zoology in school, worked in a zoo and as a summer camp nature director, she took a detour into the world of health and wellness. She owned her own fitness/wellness business for 15 years and it was in that capacity that she began writing a weekly wellness column, Real Wellness, for three Gannet papers.

After reading about Lovelock/Margulis "Gaia Theory" Lee was inspired to write Gaia Girls. Her husband, a third-grade teacher, encouraged her...mercilessly! She has won five awards for Gaia Girls, including the National Outdoor Book Award, Mom's Choice and Nautilus Book Award (given to books that can inspire change in the world!)

Lee took a year off of Gaia Girls to write a collabrative novel called, Legend of the Luminous Pearl (publisher TBA) She is back to work on Gaia Girls and can't wait to share the next installment with her readers.

Her column was "downsized" from the paper in '09, and Lee misses the opportunity to help people live a heathier life. And then she remembers, if we think about the health of the earth,and act accordingly, our health improves as well!

Lee calls herself and "learning junky" and is glad she stumbled into a profession that suits her nature so well!