Advisory Board

Marcella Raimondo, PhD, MPH, is a passionate and spirited clinical trainer speaking from her heart on social justice and eating disorders since 1995. Dr. Raimondo is a psychologist in Kaiser Permanente's eating disorder clinic in Oakland and runs a private practice. In 1997, Dr. Raimondo worked with About-Face, a nonprofit organization that addresses media impact on body image, serving as the Director of Media Literacy until 2005. Today she is on the About-Face Board of Founders and a consultant. Dr. Raimondo is on the Advisory Board for the Association of Size Health and Diversity (ASDAH), on the Advisory Board of Eating Disorder Recovery Support (ERDS) as Past President and serves as Co-Chair of the Academy of Eating Disorders Diversity Equity and Inclusion committee. Dr. Raimondo recovered from anorexia nervosa over 20 years ago. Her recovery and her martial arts training inspire her dedication to multicultural body nurturance and community celebration.

Christina Reese, PhD, LCPC is a licensed clinical professional counselor in Maryland and Pennsylvania as well as a licensed clinical supervisor. She received her Master’s Degree in community counseling from McDaniel College in Westminster, MD and her Ph.D. in counselor education from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Past work experiences include being director of a mental health clinic and the case manager of the Howard County Cold Weather Shelter, working with homeless individuals and families.

Additionally, Dr. Reese is very passionate about her work focusing on attachment and has extensive experience with adoptive families and children in foster care.Dr. Reese, a recognized attachment and trauma professional, has created a comprehensive guide that explains attachment over a lifetime. Her book, Attachment: 60 Trauma-Informed Assessment and Treatment Interventions Across the Lifespan (PESI, 2018), offers trauma-informed strategies to facilitate connection, rebuild trust and restore positive emotions.

Elana Rosenbaum, MS, LICSW, has been integrating mindfulness with psychotherapy for over 30 years. She is a leader in the clinical application of mindfulness meditation to cancer care and is a pioneering teacher of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction at the Center for Mindfulness, the University of Massachusetts Medical School. She has authored, Here for Now: Living Well with Cancer through Mindfulness and Being Well (even when you’re sick): Mindfulness Practices for People Living with Cancer and Other Serious Illness. Elana has a private practice in psychotherapy in Worcester, Massachusetts and is a sought-after mindfulness coach, teacher, speaker, Course leader and research consultant. She has been featured in “Chronicle” on CBS and mentioned in many magazine articles including Yoga Journal, Health, Coping, and the PBS audio series, “Walking through the Storm”. She is currently working on her third book, a workbook of mindfulness exercises for optimal living.

Vanessa Ruiz, ND, RN-BSN, is a Naturopathic physician and registered nurse. She utilizes natural therapies such as biofeedback, nutrition and botanical medicines in an integrative setting for both behavioral health and medical conditions at Integrative Mental Health Center in Scottsdale, Arizona. She earned her doctorate of naturopathic medicine at Southwest College in Tempe, Arizona, and her nursing degree from Stony Brook University, New York.

She has been featured in the "Dig Deep Documentary" and “Voyage Phoenix” for her work with trauma and natural mental health. She has also been a practicing nurse for over 10 years, in the areas of pediatrics, geriatrics and global health. She is the founder of Nurses for Natural Health, an organization dedicated to educating and empowering nurses in natural health. In her spare time, she volunteers for the Medical Reserve Corps of New York, Naturopaths without Borders and Homeopaths without Borders.