John W. Travis, MD, MPH, is the creator of the Wellness Inventory and its parent, the Wellness Index. He is the founder and co-director of Wellness Associates, sponsor of The WellSpring Online, and a consulting and publishing group whose mission is to transform the culture from its current focus on authoritarianism/domination into one of partnership/cooperation.

He completed his medical degree at Tufts University and his preventive medicine residency at Johns Hopkins University. He began his career in wellness by developing one of the first computerized health risk appraisals while serving with the U.S. Public Health Service's Division of Health Services Research.

In 1975, he gave up the practice of sick-care to open the world's first wellness center (Wellness Resource Center, Mill Valley, CA). This work attracted national attention culminating in an appearance on "60 Minutes" with Dan Rather in 1979. In 1979 the center was transformed into a non-profit educational corporation that enabled Dr. Travis to lecture and give workshops around the world in order to facilitate other helping professionals in the techniques and processes pioneered by his staff.

His publications include the "Wellness Inventory" (Wellness Assoc. Publications, 1975, 1981, 1988); the Wellness Workbook, coauthored with Regina Ryan (Ten Speed Press, 1981, 1988, 2004); Simply Well: Choices for a Healthy Life, coauthored with Regina Ryan (Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, 1990, 2001); Wellness For Helping Professionals, Creating Compassionate Cultures, coauthored with Meryn Callander (Wellness Assoc. Publications, 1990); A Change of Heart: The Global Wellness Inventory, coauthored with Meryn Callander (Arcus Press, 1993); and the Society of Prospective Medicine's SPM Handbook of Health Assessment Tools, with 5 co-editors (SPM Press, 1999).

He and his wife are currently writing a book Why Men Leave: The Epidemic if Disappearing Dads, a wakeup call to the culture to focus on fostering individual and planetary wellness through changing the norms of how babies are born and treated in their early years—the cause of why so many boys are unable to be good fathers. He is also a co-founder of the Alliance for Transforming the Lives of Children.

The online Wellness Inventory program, developed by HealthWorld Online and Dr. Travis www.WellPeople.com is available direct to consumer, and may also be licensed to health and wellness professionals and organizations.