my first food guide pyramid project in Jr. High. I instantly was captivated by food, nutrition, and how it can impact our health for the better or worse. I began my career teaching these nutrition principles to middle and high school students. I later went back to study dietetics and completed my bachelors in dietetics with a masters in mutli-disciplinary health communications to become an expert in nutrition. I am currently a certified gastrointestinal nutritionist with extensive training in gastrointestinal health as well as Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist. In addition to my traditional dietetics training, I have completed several years of integrative and functional nutrition training and hold a functional medicine nutrition specialist certification. This combination allows me to look at the whole person to provide my patients with the most complete integrative care and address root causes of their disease and health challenges. Both in my professional workplace as a dietitian and within my own family, I saw struggles with health issues depsite a good diet and active lifestyle. Labs were deemed normal by conventional standards and all other tests would come back with no clinical findings. As I came across more and more of these people, I knew there had to be more to the story and this is what motivates me everyday. Giving patients hope and a practical path forward to better health, utilizing nutrition, even when conventional medicine says everything looks normal!