About Leona

Over the last fifteen years, Leona has helped thousands of people regain their health and wellbeing while meeting their goals through food first. Leona works with clients all over the country, and all over the world over virtual appointments. She has been the go-to nutritionist in Los Angeles for locals and families as well as Southern California industry leaders and other practitioners and doctors who seek her unique and thoughtful food as medicine approach for themselves and their patients.

Leona favors traditional modalities that honor the whole person and combines this approach with cutting edge functional and nutritional lab testing for the most individualized approach.

She has observed that even the simplest of food and lifestyle changes can have a significant and positive effect on how a person feels in their body and mind and how it reflects in their entire lives.

Leona is a family practitioner trained as an Integrative Functional Nutritionist. She completed her training and certification in Nutritional Medicine and in Herbal Medicine through The American University of Complementary Medicine located in Los Angeles, where she studied in part, under the tutelage of Diana Noland, MPH, RD, CCN, DIFM and IFM faculty member. For almost a decade Leona has trained in and been part of the evolution of Functional Medicine. Leona has trained through the Institute of Functional Medicine and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine with additional certification in functional endocrinology and functional lab analysis through the University of Bridgeport and taught by Dr. Datis Kharrazian of the Kharrazian Institute. Leona is a Certified Functional Medicine Coach, trained and certified through The Functional Medicine Coaching Academy in partnership with The Institute of Functional Medicine.

Leona is also trained and certified in Culinary Nutrition through the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. She is also certified in Nutrigenomic Medicine through Dietitians of Canada. Leona is certified as a Personal Trainer through the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America. She is also a DONA certified Birth Doula and also certified as a First Line Therapy Practitioner, a personalized lifestyle medicine model certification through Metagenetics. Endlessly fascinated by the power of food and the human body’s capacity to heal, Leona continues to study the latest research in Nutrition Science and Functional Medicine while spending equal time in the kitchen and her local Farmers Markets. Leona helps her clients cut through the many conflicting trends and get to the heart of what is key for their own health in a practical, positive, and supportive space.

In addition to Leona’s virtual sessions she also collaborates with Lotus Integrative Medicine Santa Monica and Southern California Integrative Wellness Center.

At sixteen years old I had a severe case of the viral infection mononucleosis like many teenagers. After weeks my symptoms were not getting better, instead I was getting worse.

A few months in I had significant weight gain, skin rashes and acne, IBS, extreme exhaustion, brain fog, full body pain and a menstrual cycle that had become irregular. I had been diagnosed with an ovarian cyst the size of a grapefruit, the doctor advised me to get surgery immediately to remove it. I was also diagnosed by doctors with chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia.

I was given pain medications, antidepressants and birth control as a solution to my issues. I felt very lost. I filled the prescriptions and took about two days worth and then stopped.

For the first time I started examining my health from what I could say now looking back was a more holistic perspective, I realized that my diet was absolutely horrible and had been for years, I was living off of cheese, bread, candy and soda. I was desperate to feel better. I decided to start learning about nutrition and try changing my diet, I read every book and resource I could get my hands on related to nutrition, natural health and even mind body medicine.

I started changing my diet and eventually, I went all in. I changed to a 100% organic diet and made homemade fermented foods like Kombucha in my family kitchen well over a decade before these things would even become more common health trends. I starting eating for my health.

I started examining my emotions and observing how they impacted my pain levels. I began applying mind body practices. I also started taking herbal remedies for my hormonal health.

One by one the symptoms I had been lugging around for over a year at that point had begun to fall away, the pain, the exhaustion, the weight gain, every last symptom including my doctor calling off the ovarian cyst removal surgery, because there was no cyst left to remove. It was gone.

From that point moving forward my life, my health and my mindset had totally been changed. I had discovered the power of food and natural living, it changed my life all before the age of eighteen. I never looked back. My adult life personally and professionally has always been rooted in and informed by natural living, natural healing and the power of food.