Growing up in an Italian-American Family in Portland, Maine I spent a lot of time in the kitchen and at the beach. If I wasnt exploring tide pools and staring out at the waves, I was in my grandparents kitchen. As a scientist, I am still exploring habitats but instead of the tidal pool community, I study the community of bacteria residing in our gut. And nutrition plays a big role in shaping this community.

Over the years I have used my education and my faculty positions to research the role of the gut microbiome in a number of diseases and have made significant contributions to human health. But I always wanted to do more, but the pace of academic science is slow and for all the money that NIH gives researchers how many significant cures and or treatments have actually materialized? After losing my mother and my aunt to cancer within 6 months of each other and seeing how precious life actually is, I realized that there is more to life than chasing grant money. I left academia and a year later I discovered energy work and became a certified Reiki practitioner. It was through this energy healing and my Reiki training that I was able to finally move past the unbearable grief and face some hard truths about myself. Meanwhile, working on the business side of science has given me a fresh perspective of the microbiome from a consumer’s viewpoint and allowed me the opportunity to focus on human health and interact with real patients to help them understand their gut microbiome. I want to take this interaction to the next level and use my unique multi-discipline scientific background, my nutritional and lifestyle knowledge and my work as an energy healer to help you understand your gut, your body and to live a happy, healthy and well-balanced life.