Joe Kelly Executive Director Dads and Daughters "The beauty of my daughters' inner talents, values and dreams will last much longer and take them much farther in life than any diet or bra ever can. Advertisers and others who tell our daughters that 'inner beauty only goes so far' -- to quote one ad slogan -- are simply lying. It's a dangerous lie, and as fathers, I don't think we should let anyone sell it to our daughters anymore" Photo: Joe Kelly

Joe Kelly is executive director of Dads and Daughters, the national membership organization of fathers with daughters. Dads and Daughters provides tools to strengthen dads’ relationships with their daughters and to transform the pervasive messages that value our daughters more for how they look than who they are.

The father of twin daughters, he has personal experience and a big stake in those issues. Kelly's work puts him in contact with fathers, girls, families, and professionals who work with girls.

In 1993, Kelly and his wife, Nancy Gruver, founded the groundbreaking international publications, New Moon: The Magazine for Girls and Their Dreams and New Moon Network: For Adults Who Care About Girls.

The editor of four non-fiction books for girls (published by Crown/Random House in 1999 and 2000), Kelly is currently writing a book about father-daughter relationships based on more than 120 in-depth interviews he conducted with fathers across the United States.

Since early 1999, Kelly has continued his leadership on girls' issues with Dads and Daughters. He is a frequent speaker on fathering, girls' adolescence, the girls movement, and successful strategies for raising girls. He has been featured on National Public Radio, ABC-TV, Voice of America, and dozens of other media outlets as an expert on how to father healthy daughters. His opinion pieces have appeared in newspapers around the country.

Kelly was featured as iParenting.com’s Dedicated Dad of the month in May, 2000.