ABOUT

Moderation…
NOT Deprivation!

Orange vegetables

Meet the CEO

Brooke Douglas, RDN, CD

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Brooke Douglas is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist with over 35 years of nutrition education and coaching experience. Brooke began her career in 1987, working as a clinical dietitian at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills, California. In 1989, she moved to the Pacific Northwest and for 22 years served as a clinical nutrition specialist at Auburn Regional Medical Center, St. Joseph Medical Center and Tacoma General Hospital. During this time Brooke also maintained a thriving consulting business as a writer, nutrition motivational speaker and consulting nutritionist to corporations such as Boeing, REI and the FAA.

In 1990, Brooke created ‘Cart Smart Tours’, an aisle-by-aisle nutrition education program in local supermarkets throughout the Puget Sound area. This small business allowed her to visit 22 countries, fulfilling her passion to see the world.

Brooke’s ability to coach her patients toward “practicing progress and not perfection” &  “moderation not deprivation” along with her unique and humor filled ability to motivate clients made her the leading go-to nutritionist in the Washington State media in the 1990’s. Brooke’s success on television was attributed to her unique way of delivering real life, relevant and credible nutrition information in a clever and entertaining manner.

Born and raised in the heart of America, Brooke earned her Bachelor of Science degree in 1986, from Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Oklahoma. In 2008 and 2012, she completed the Commission on Dietetic Registration Certificate of Training in Adult Weight Management.

Brooke is passionate in her ability to tell the “nutrition story” in an easy-to-understand, educational and enthusiastic format. Her two-decade history as a clinical dietitian in the hospital setting gives her a depth and insight to medical nutrition therapy and disease management in relation to health and wellness that is unmatched.

As a resident of South Hill Puyallup in Washington state, Brooke started “Nutrition Authority” in 2007. With much focus and determination, Brooke successfully incorporated her successful Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) practice with a health care chain in Western Washington (50+ locations).

Renea Smith

photo-of-renea

Patient Care Coordinator

Renea moved to the Pacific Northwest from California in 1982. Ready for a new start in life, she bundled up her two children, packed up all of their belongings and headed North for a new life adventure. Renea has held a variety of titles including secretary, receptionist, and dispatcher – among others. In addition, she spent over 20 years holding various positions in the title and escrow industry. In January of 2013 she retired. Retirement for Renea is wonderful, but being the type of individual she is, she needs to keep active.

One of those ways of staying active is being the proud grandmother of four awesome grandsons. Each of them are truly the apple of her eye. ‘Grandma Renea’ spends as much time with each of the boys as possible. Watching them grow and become their own person is an unmatched joy in her life.

Another way Renea likes to beat retirement boredom is by enjoying the outdoors in Western Washington. Any chance she gets, you can rest assured Renea is camping, hiking or traveling. However, her biggest outdoor passion is caring for and trail riding her two horses, ‘Danny Boy’ and ‘Nakota’.  Annually, Renea rides in support of the Washington State University Veterinary School. Whenever possible Renea likes to ‘do her part’ by assisting in fund raising. The WSU College of Veterinary Medicine is one of the nation’s top veterinary schools in equine medicine and surgery. Renea is very proud that WSU has been recognized as one of the best-equipped veterinary teaching hospitals in the country, devoted to providing exceptional veterinary care for horses in the Pacific Northwest.

Meet the Dietitians

Adam Pazder, RDN, CD, Executive Chef

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Adam Pazder is a graduate of Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI where he earned Bachelor of Science degrees in Culinary Arts and Nutrition.

His experiences as a Chef have taken him all over the world and granted him a unique understanding of food, its culture, and its affect on the body. Adam received his formal dietetics education from the University of Washington where he pursued advanced clinical rotations. Topics of interest include weight management, nutrition for healthy aging, and all aspects of cooking, menu planning and the appreciation of good food.

Adam is passionate about providing nutrition education that is approachable and easy to incorporate into your busy life. Together you will work together to identify the obstacles that are preventing you from reaching your nutritional goals, and build an easy-to-follow plan to help make those changes permanent.

When Adam is not in the office making food recommendations, he is probably at home cooking for his family, spending time with his wife, or exploring Washington State.

Breanna Baildon, MS, RDN, CDCES, CD

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Breanna holds a Master of Science in Health and Wellness Coaching from Creighton University and a Bachelor of Art in Food Nutrition and Dietetics from Concordia College. Breanna has over 7 years of experience in a variety of nutrition and wellness capacities. Her career started with outpatient nutrition counseling and diabetes education in the Pacific Northwest, took a fun twist to consulting for gyms, schools, and sustainable food companies in Asia, and then back to nutrition and health coaching as an entrepreneurial telehealth dietitian.

Breanna (or Bre) is enthusiastic about providing her patients with the knowledge, tools, and support to make healthy eating habits feel easy and stress-free. She takes a whole-person, holistic approach to health by integrating multiple elements of wellness, addressing the root cause, and applying behavior change science to treat and empower her patients in an accessible and positive way. 

Through traveling and living abroad, Bre also has an extensive knowledge of and appreciation for traditional cultural foods. She loves teaching how to improve your health through eating habits that respect and include your favorite meals and ingredients.

Outside of work and learning about health and wellness, you might find Breanna teaching or practicing yoga, traveling around the world with her middle school teacher husband, scuba diving, skiing, walking her rescue pups, or cozying up on the couch with a good book.

Brittany Hendrickson, RDN, CD, MPH

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Brittany graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from Messiah University. Brittany also holds a Master of Public Health with an emphasis on nutrition through Samford University.

While working towards her Master’s, Brittany completed her 1200-hour internship through a distance training program. During rotations, she gravitated toward outpatient nutrition/counseling after spending time at Valley Medical Center in Diabetes education.

Before becoming a Registered Dietitian, Brittany worked as a water aerobics instructor at the YMCA, helping those with chronic pain. After becoming a Registered Dietitian, Arcadia Medical Resorts hired Brittany to work as a clinical dietitian in a Skilled Nursing Facility for long-term and acute care. Through this, she was able to hone her skills as related to kidney disease, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic nutrition-related conditions.

Brittany occasionally volunteered with a local foodbank to design meal plans for individuals requiring therapeutic diets due to chronic health concerns and food insecurities.

Brittany developed her love of nutrition after working as a medic in the military. During this time, she was able to develop her basic medical knowledge/skills in triage in the military for three years. She worked with many injured service members who were having a hard time recovering and maintaining strict weight standards required by the military. It was during this time Brittany saw a gap in care the Army provided to these service members who received little nutrition advice or care beyond the very basic from a primary care physician.
With this experience as a guiding factor in her career Brittany became interested in nutrition as it pertains to chronic disease. This became her passion, there was no looking back.

Brittany lives in Puyallup with her husband and cat, Puddy, where she enjoys hiking, swimming, and gaming with her closest friends.

Christa Fonda, RDN, CD

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Christa graduated from Washington State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition in 2001. She successfully completed her internship at Madigan Hospital in both clinical and food service management. Christa was hired as the Food Services Director at the Seattle SeaMar Community Care Clinic and maintained food service oversight of the assisted living facility and child care development center. After five years at SeaMar, Christa worked in a double capacity as the Clinical Dietitian Manager at Park Rose long term care facility in Tacoma and as a Clinical Dietitian at the Franciscan Medical Center in Federal Way for another five years.

After a career break caring for her children Christa was hired as an Out Patient Dietitian at ATI Physical Therapy in Bonney Lake where she enjoyed working with children and assisting patients with implementing customized nutrition plans to meet their disease management/prevention and weight loss/maintenance goals. Christa lives in Buckley with her husband, twin boys, and a labradoodle gunner. She loves to hike and spend time with family and friends.

Madison Service, RDN, CD

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Madison Service, RDN, CD is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who graduated from Colorado State University with honors and a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition. After completing her education, she attended Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA to complete her +1,200 hours of supervised practice required of the Dietetic Internship. She believes the right kind of foods can be the most powerful form of medicine. Madison is committed to the success of her patients and strives to implement sustainable, realistic, and enjoyable dietary changes to enhance their quality of life.

After her Dietetic Internship, Madison enhanced her counseling and education skills while providing nutritional guidance at the IBS Treatment Center in Seattle, WA. As someone who has personally experienced the debilitating effects of IBS, Madison particularly enjoys working with people who have digestive disorders and embraces the challenge of navigating restricted diets.  Working in partnership with the patient, she develops custom nutrition plans and menus tailored to meet individual needs of the client.

Inspired by her own personal journey, she enjoys supporting peoples’ health goals in a judgement-free, sensitive, and supportive environment through motivational coaching as a Diabetes Prevention Program Health Coach and User Support Expert for Brook Health, Inc. In this position, Madison supports those implementing lifestyle behavior changes for a number of health conditions including diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and more. She emphasizes mindful eating and working in partnership with each individual so they can best achieve their unique health goals. Nourishing not only patients’ physical bodies, but their minds as well, makes her job extremely rewarding.

In her free time, she is an adventure enthusiast and loves anything involving the outdoors including mountain biking, summiting peaks, and rock climbing. When not in the mountains, Madison enjoys experimenting in the kitchen, painting, and dancing to live music.

Mariah Lenker, RDN, CD

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Mariah graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a bachelor in Food and Nutrition Science with an emphasis in dietetics and sports and exercise science. She completed a distance internship in the greater Seattle area through Keith & Associates that focused on business and entrepreneuring. Eager to apply her dietetic education and knowledge, she started counseling individuals in nutrition and healthy eating at Nutrition Authority.

Mariah’s interest in nutrition began in high school when she started to eat healthier to improve her overall health and performance in sports. Experiencing the power of nutrition and exercise in promoting her own weight loss and body transformation, she continued training on her own and pursued her education in dietetics. Her weight and health journey has not been without challenges, but this is a valuable asset to her rigorous dietetic education and understanding the struggles individuals face when trying to improve their health and bodies through changing how they eat. Mariah is passionate about nutrition combined with exercise and seeks to empower people to transform their health through balanced, sustainable nutrition that promotes lifelong wellness, energy, body confidence, and optimal performance; and that’s tasty too!

She is a self-proclaimed gym-nut as an avid weightlifter who loves lifting iron to test her strength. She continues to learn and apply proper biomechanics to her training and does various forms of exercise to balance hard training with functional movement and promote longevity. As a Washingtonian she loves the outdoors, hiking, snowshoeing, camping, kayaking on occasions, swimming and simple walks with her dog. She also loves cooking, experimenting with recipes, DIY’ing everything and hanging out with her family.

Marissa Miles, RDN, CD

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Marissa graduated from Central Washington University in June 2020 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Food Science and Nutrition with a Dietetics Specialization and interest in Adult and Sports Nutrition.

In addition, Marissa completed a minor in psychology to better assist her future patients with nutrition struggles and lifestyle challenges. Marissa completed her dietetic internship in June 2021 at Oregon State University. Marissa currently is pursuing her Master of Science degree in Nutrition at Central Washington University.

Marissa also is a graduate assistant (nutrition educator) at Central Washington University. She teaches ‘Nutrition 101’ labs and is THE go-to sports dietitian for the CWU athletics program. Marissa’s passion for nutrition started when she was a junior in high school and was referred to a Registered Dietitian- Nutritionist (RDN) who helped better her athletic performance in basketball and soccer. Since then, Marissa fell in love with all things related to nutrition.

Marissa’s career goal is to help individuals with disease management/prevention and personal
nutritional goals to have more energy, better performance, and improved health. Marissa has an
interested focus on adult nutrition for the ’typical’ American today. Meaning, with 42% of Americans
being clinically obese and with the estimate of 50% of Americans (adults, children/teens) being clinically
obese by 2030 this has become a passion for Marissa in her hopes of affecting the health and outcomes of this population.

In her free time, Marissa enjoys being active whether that be working out in the gym or going hiking.
Marissa also enjoys cooking and baking for her family and friends and enjoying country concerts.

Meghan Jones, RDN, CD

meghan-jones

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Meghan graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Nutrition from Central Washington University. She then went on to complete her dietetic internship at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. One goal Meghan has is to earn a Master’s degree in nutrition.

Meghan’s interest and passion for food and nutrition began before high school when she witnessed several family members going through different health challenges including severe food allergies, hypertension, and obesity. Meghan’s interest spiked when she saw how food can affect the body. Her interest continued when her mother and grandmother were diagnosed with Celiac Disease; within the following year, Meghan was also diagnosed. Witnessing the positive, and negative, effects of food on the body has given Meghan an insight that can be shared with clients. Meghan is a member of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Washington State Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and the Weight Management Dietetic Practice Group.

The Pacific Northwest has always been considered home for Meghan. In her spare time, Meghan enjoys trying new recipes, working in her garden, and volunteering. She has a long standing history of serving and helping others in her community.

Melissa Davis RDN, CD

Melissa graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition from Kansas State University. She then completed a distance internship through Iowa State University with rotations in Anchorage, Alaska.

Melissa started her career as a dietitian working with acute care in-patients at a regional hospital where she was able to learn about nutrition throughout the lifecycle. Working with the neonatal population all the way to the geriatric population.

After a cross-country move, Melissa began working in public health for the WIC (Women Infants and Children) program. She enjoyed several years helping young children grow and families learn healthy eating habits through good nutrition. Another cross-country move inspired another opportunity for career growth, as Melissa began working in the out-patient setting via Medical Nutrition Therapy (MNT) at Nutrition Authority.

Melissa’s interest in nutrition started when she became a mother. She was excited to make positive changes to help get her daughters’ lives start on the right foot. She spent many years cooking and talking about food with her family to help nurture their love and understanding of nutrition. Melissa discovered she has a passion and a calling to help others associate how food can make positive changes in health and living.

Melissa enjoys spending her time with her family, outside whenever possible whether in the mountains or the forest. Melissa adores animals, especially her dogs who accompany her on every outing possible. She also likes baking and reading.

Ruth Vailencour, RDN, CDE, CD

ruth

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist

Ruth has been practicing nutrition for many years in the Pacific Northwest, graduating magna cum laude from the University of Washington in 1984, with a Bachelor’s degree in Food and Nutritional Sciences.

Her love for nutrition and healthy living began as a teenager, when she ran track as a long distance runner through high school. This, along with family genetics for multiple food allergies, fueled her interest in the field of Dietetics. Once graduated, she has worked in a variety of in-patient and out-patient settings, giving her well-rounded experience counseling people of all ages, stages and walks of life.

Ruth is well-versed in food allergies, gluten intolerance, weight control, diabetes, cardiovascular concerns, gut disorders and wound healing, to name a few. You will find she is a warm and compassionate provider with a wealth of knowledge and wisdom in helping you move toward a healthier life, no matter what your starting point or concerns may be. Ruth has a relaxed, practical approach in counseling her clients, often along with a daily dose of inspiration and encouragement.

When she is not busy helping you live and eat better, she is home feeding and caring for her own family. Ruth also enjoys yoga, walking, birdwatching and reading in her spare time.