I received my training as Nutrition and Health Counselor from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition/Columbia University. I am certified to practice through the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.

I have long had a fascination with health and nutrition, developed during my earliest years growing up on an organic family farm in rural Massachusetts. I grew up at a time when an understanding of the benefits of eating locally grown, organic food had not yet reached the mainstream. I found myself being an advocate for this alternative form of lifestyle as early as elementary school, trying to explain to my peers at the lunch table why my homemade sandwiches looked so different than theirs.

My interest in understanding why my parents made the lifestyle choices they did, grew and developed as I grew older. During my undergraduate education at Oberlin College I had the good fortune to learn from a number of different alternative health-care practitioners.

Post-college I worked for a national non-profit, the Center for Food Safety, as the Outreach Director. In this position I was responsible for educating about the health and environmental harms caused by conventional agriculture, factory farming, genetically modified organisms, irradiation, and a host of other issues tied to our current destructive industrial agriculture policies. This education gave me a very broad perspective on the health crisis in this country today as I was able to draw direct links between harmful food production technologies and the rise in food-related chronic diseases.

I left this job to more directly pursue my passion for good health and nutrition by working as a Clinical Assistant for a Holistic Medical Doctor, Dr. Bruce Rind, based in Washington, DC. Under Dr. Rind's tutelage I gained considerable hands-on experience in working with alternative methods of treating common medical disorders.

This knowledge base, combined with my education from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition/Columbia University, has given me the tools to be an effective Nutrition and Health Counselor. However, what has perhaps been my most important training-ground has not been in school or in work, but in life. I spent two and half years as a caregiver for my husband as he struggled to battle leukemia, and that experience, more than any other, gave me a very real understanding of the significant impact chronic illness can have on not only the physical body, but also the psyche. This life experience both deepened my compassion, and gave me a strong desire to help alleviate the suffering of others.

Now, as a health-care professional, I find great joy in sharing what I have learned with my clients. I help them overcome their specific health issues and guide them to enact the positive changes that will allow them to start living at 100% again.

See below for a partial list of teachers with whom I have studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Annemarie Colbin, PhD - Founder and CEO of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts in New York City An authority on whole food cooking and eating, and author of many books including Food and Healing, Food and Our Bones and The Book of Whole Meals.

Deepak Chopra - World leader in the field of mind-body medicine, Founder of the Chopra Center for Wellbeing, which integrates the best of Western medicine with natural healing traditions. Author of over 45 books.

John Douillard, PhD - Expert in ayurvedic medicine and author of The 3-Season Diet and The Encyclopedia of Ayurvedic Massage.

Sally Fallon - Founding president of the Weston A. Price Foundation for wise traditions in food, farming and the healing arts. Author of Nourishing Traditions: The Cookbook that Challenges Politically Correct Nutrition and the Diet Dictocrats.

Mark Hyman, MD - Editor-in-Chief of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine with a medical practice in MA. Author of number of books including Ultrametabolism: The Simple Plan for Automatic Weight Loss.

David Katz, MD - Founder and Director of the Yale Prevention Research Center, author of the Flavor Point Diet and renowned expert on weight control, nutrition and preventative medicine.

Mehmet Oz, MD - Professor and vice-chairman of surgery at Columbia University, medical director of the Integrated Medicine Center, and Director of the Heart Institute at New York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical School. Author of You: The Owner's Manual. Frequent guest on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN, Dateline, and Discovery Health.

Paul Pitchford, MS - Highly acclaimed author of Healing with Whole Foods: Oriental Traditions and Modern Nutrition.

Geneen Roth - An expert in the field of emotional eating and author of seven books, including When Food is Love and Breaking Free from Emotional Eating. She has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show, NBC Nightly News and 20/20.

Barry Sears, PhD - Founder of the Zone Diet and author of many books about the Zone Diet. Former MIT researcher holding 12 patents for cancer treatment and dietary control of hormones.

Andrew Weil, MD - Founder and Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona and a world-renowned expert on medicinal herbs, mind-body interactions and healing systems. Best-selling author whose books include Spontaneous Healing and 8 Weeks to Optimal Health.

Walter Willet, MD - Chairman of Nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Author of Eat, Drink, and Weigh Less and Eat, Drink and Be Healthy.

For more information about my education, please go to www.integrativenutrition.com.