Born in Pittsburgh, PA, I come from two large families where food and the traditions involved were positive family experiences and were ways of loving and connecting. My grandparents owned a bakery and my grandmother would often let me help her after school. Our family still makes their famous Cinnamon Raisin Bread during the holidays. Several members of my family were struggling in some way with food and body. Looking back now, this was my introductory education to food related health and body issues. I decided to become an RD after attending a career fair for health sciences in high school. I thought that this would be a good fit for me as a way to combine something that I loved with a way to help my family and others.

I went to college at Penn State University and there I started working in restaurants learning from chefs both inside and outside of the classroom. I also had my fair share of hospital food service time on the tray lines and in the dish room to gain those experiences. It was during undergrad that I was inspired by the work of Melissa Martilotta who was my RD instructor for our nutrition counseling course. She was an incredible mentor who was also a specialist in eating disorders on campus. My formal training started here as a student of hers and as a nutrition peer educator on campus for eating disorder awareness and prevention. I was also introduced to Ellyn Satter and her “golden rule of feeding” (aka the division of responsibility in feeding) in my Nutrition Through the Life Cycle class. This was (and still is) the foundation of supporting parents and kids in their feeding relationship with each other.

I completed my internship at OSF St Francis Medical Center, home to their 127-bed children’s hospital. After completing my training, I had the privilege of working with the University of IL Chicago and their Pediatrics Genetics team, Rush Presbyterian St. Luke’s Medical Center and their worksite wellness program, Children’s Hospital of Chicago and the Davita Children’s Dialysis Center as well as Boston Children’s Hospital and their Primary Care, Neurology and Adolescent Medicine Eating Disorders Program.

These opportunities allowed me to care for children and families at all levels of care, representing diversity in race, gender, sexual orientation and socioeconomic background who required a specific nutrition therapy. This led me to an education leadership role at Boston Children’s Hospital’s Nutrition Center. I loved this role as I was able to mentor dietitians and interns, teach and still provide clinical care for children, adolescents and families. I was proud to help create a pediatric nutrition fellowship as well as develop the educational tools and standards for those learning pediatric nutrition.

Eventually, I shifted my focus to my own family and expanded my private practice. While venturing down the path of motherhood, I continued to work as an education consultant for Boston Children’s Hospital’s Leadership in Adolescent Health training program. That program continues to provide Registered Dietitians with clinical learning experiences as they support families and adolescents with eating disorders and reproductive health.

I remain dedicated to mentoring and educating healthcare providers in the areas of nutrition care for children, teens, and families as well as eating disorder recovery and prevention. I am a Nutrition Education consultant for the Justice Resource Institute. In that role, I offer nutrition clinical support as a member of their Clinical Review Team for underserved children and families impacted by trauma. I am a preceptor for the Simmons University Dietetic Internship/Masters of Science program for Dietitians in the eating disorder specialty with a focus on children and adolescents. Most recently, I returned to Boston Children’s Hospital in their Open Nutrition Clinic both in person in Waltham and remotely. I continue to see existing clients and dietitians for supervision in my private practice remotely. I welcome the opportunity to connect with those seeking mentorship, resources, and support.

I have walked my own path to surviving trauma and loss. While this is not something I typically use in my work directly, I know it is a part of what helps me to understand the recovery process both the hope and possibility as well as the painful parts. My work with children, adolescents and families serves me in having a deep understanding of the layers and stories that each body carries throughout a life.

I am kind, easy to be with, warm, honest and compassionate. I make my share of mistakes along the way and try to learn the lessons from those and do better moving forward. I like to laugh, to have fun and to be creative in this work. I love to learn and to support others in relearning information about food and bodies that promotes self-nurturing, not harming. I am also honest, firm and loving when it means advocating for someone’s care and teaching other caregivers and medical providers how to do this. I can hold a safe and brave space for the hard parts.

There is learning from 20 years of stories about how people feed and care for their own and/or their family’s bodies that transcends the work from a class or book. I learned how to support the human beings I was caring for, not the diagnosis they were referred to me for. I learned how to listen for the history of what someone’s body has survived. I have also learned about the shame and stigmatization of body size, trauma, race, gender and biologically based mental health conditions. Its’ my life’s work to help people relearn the truth about bodies and food so that they can care for themselves. Specifically, the aspects that are our biology and our birthright. For example, the changing nature of our bodies, our food needs and movement that feels good.

My philosophy is firmly rooted in Ellyn Satter’s evidence based feeding dynamics and eating competence models as well as the principles of Health At Every Size®. These are the only philosophies that offer humane, non-harming nutrition education for human beings from birth through adulthood. They are also the only philosophies where how we feed our children also reconcile with how we feed our adults of all body sizes, races and genders including those in eating disorder recovery. My relationship and connection with each person and colleague I support is the foundation for all of the work that happens. I incorporate scientific evidence-based practice where it exists for medical nutrition therapy and best practices in the nutrition field where it does not.