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I’m a registered nurse dedicated to bringing plant-based nutrition into my professional practice and personal life. I envision a future healthcare model in which physicians and nurses partner closely together to help guide patients towards more optimal health and well-being, with evidence-based plant-based nutritional and life-style interventions being a first-line, Medicare-billable treatment option for patients with chronic disease.

My story is a personal one. I am 62 years old, and have had my cholesterol checked annually since 2007. At that time, my TC was 300, LDL 170. My MD said “take Crestor, eat less fat, exercise more, you’ll be ok. I had no risk factors other than parents who had stroke, heart attacks and diabetes. Ive never smoked, systolic BP averaged 110, BMI 21. Three years ago, at the insistence of our son (a firefighter) my husband and I read China Study on a road trip to Las Vegas…and we never turned back! It literally changed our lives. I changed MD’s, she advised me to read “some of Dean Ornish’ stuff” so I read “Spectrum”, then “Reversing Heart Disease”, then Esselstyn’s book. Today I am off Crestor, TC 185 and dropping, LDL 107 and I’m exercising 3-4 hours per week. I’ve thrown out all my old cookbooks and have a delightful new cookbook library. I am back to my high school weight (120 to 104) I feel better than I ever have… And honestly, I know I was headed toward a heart attack or stroke!

It is our mission to help everyone build a life-long relationship with health, while promoting wellness and balance for all living systems. Our world is growing rapidly! We cannot be a “throw-away”, “quick fix” society much longer. We dream of a world where people form relationships that enable health and healing. By forming relationships with food, the environment and with other human beings we then tap into our inherent energy and ability to listen to our body. With this new found ability, we can begin to heal our bodies (from Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Heart Disease, etc), our minds (Depression, Anxiety, ADHD, etc), our spirit (Anger, Frustration, Addiction, etc), and our environment (Landfills, Toxins, Nuclear Waste, etc).

I became interested in the relationship between nutrition and health when I was 12 years old. I am more excited now then ever to see the changes in the medical community move from treating symptoms to focusing on preventive care. I followed my passion for nutrition and became a registered dietitian. I chose to specialize in diabetes education because, being a self management condition, I feel there is a great opportunity for preventive health care. My goal is to help others achieve optimal health and wellness through healthy diet and exercise. Thank you for creating this plant-based registry, I’m proud and excited to be a part of this very important movement.

Without a doubt, the data is in: there is a dose-dependent relationship between consumption of animal products and degenerative disease. Heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, dementia and even depression may all be manifestations of the same underlying problem – chronic inflammation. Switching to a whole foods, plant-based diet is the single most important intervention any of us can do to improve health, mood and mental clarity. And, quite naturally, what is good for us individually is also good for society, for the animals that are mistreated by industrial agriculture, and for the planet.

I have a special interest in the connection between plant-based nutrition and physical and emotional health. I have led clinical trials examining the effects of plant-based diets on obesity, heart disease, diabetes, migraines, rheumatoid arthritis, depression and anxiety, and published related findings, as well as a paper on iron deficiency and vegetarian children. I have expertise in leading nutrition education classes including basic nutrition, cooking demonstrations, and how to adopt a plant-based diet for health and wellness.