BOSTON – Michael H. Tagatac, founder and CEO of HelpHorizons.com, Inc., is pleased to announce the appointment of John M. Grohol, Psy.D. as Chief Operating Officer of HelpHorizons.com. He joined the organization on June 1, 2000.

Dr. Grohol is recognized as a specialist in online mental health services, an author, and a leading Internet consultant.

A pioneer in psychology online since 1991, Dr. Grohol was founder and Editor-in-Chief of Perspectives: A Mental Health Magazine, and Associate Editor of Behavior OnLine and the bimonthly newsletter PsychNews International. He is also an Associate Editor for the print journal, Journal of Technology in Human Services. Dr. Grohol was Senior Editor of Health Resources Online: A Guide for Mental Health and Addiction Specialists (Manisses, 1997) and published his first book in 1997, The Insider's Guide to Mental Health Resources Online (Guilford, 2000 edition).

He co-founded, designed, developed, and for nearly four years directed Mental Health Net, one of the Web's ten most-trafficked mental health portals online. He also recently oversaw mental health content and development for drkoop.com.

Dr. Grohol is on the faculty at New York’s Einstein College of Medicine and has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN & Time, The Crier Report, and local broadcasts. He is also a recognized expert on online behavior and Internet addiction, and has presented his work at nearly two-dozen professional conferences over the past five years. He was one of the founding members and the first president of the International Society for Mental Health Online, a non-profit advocacy organization.

Dr. Grohol is a lead volunteer editor for the Open Directory Project, an open source programmer, and maintains his own top-20 mental health presence at his personal Web site, Psych Central.

Dr. Grohol will lend his considerable experience and expertise to HelpHorizons as the organization introduces a range of new products and services to the online mental health professional and continues to expand its informative Web site for the general public.