Meet Our Experts

    

 

Meet our team of Else experts who stand with us on our journey to revolutionize baby nutrition and meet the gold standard for nutrition in everything we do. 

   

Else Pediatricians and Nutritionists

Dr. Jennifer Trachtenberg

Pediatrician Jen Trachtenberg, M.D., F.A.A.P.  – known to her patients as Dr. Jen – is a nationally renowned parenting expert, board-certified pediatrician, and has maintained a successful private pediatric practice in New York City for over 20 years.  She is also an Assistant Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and a mother of three children.  Dr. Jen has appeared numerous times on NBC's TODAY show, CNN, and Fox News, contributes regularly with health and parenting topics, including child development, newborn care, nutrition, childhood obesity, and sleep issues to Parents Magazine, Romper.com, Today.com  First for Women Magazine, NY Times, Fatherly, The Bump, Your Teen Magazine, USWeekly (Celebrity Baby Expert), Care.com and Good Housekeeping  She has published two parenting books, The Smart Parent's Guide to Getting Your Kids through Check Ups, Illnesses and Accidents , and Good Kids, Bad Habits: The RealAge Guide to Raising Healthy Children and now is creator of her one of a kind, video parenting manual Pediatrician in Your Pocket.

 

Dr. Leah Alexander

Dr. Leah Alexander, M.D., F.A.A.P. begDr. Alexander began her pediatric career at Elizabeth Pediatric Group of New Jersey in 2000, and has practiced at Pediatricare Associates of New Jersey since 2005. After graduating from Kalamazoo College and Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, she completed her pediatric training at Overlook and Morristown Memorial Hospitals. She is board certified in General Pediatrics. In addition to pediatrics, Dr. Alexander pursued her interest the culinary arts with study at the French Culinary Institute. In 2007, she opened Global Palate, LLC, catering small group events for six years.

 

Nicole Silber

Nicole Silber, RD, CSP, CLC & mom is a registered dietitian, board certified specialist in Pediatric nutrition, and certified lactation counselor. Nicole has worked with hundreds of children and families with chronic medical conditions, food allergies, and picky eating. Prior to her current roles she was a clinical nutritionist at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia.

 

Robin Kaiden

Robin Barrie Kaiden, MS, RD, CDN is renowned for helping people of all ages embrace a healthier lifestyle through nutrition and fitness counseling.  As a Licensed Registered Dietitian and Personal Trainer, her smart and sensible approach to pediatrics, weight loss, sports nutrition, allergies, cardiovascular health, pre/post natal, and other areas of clinical and lifestyle nutrition has resonated with hundreds of people across the United States. Robin received her B.S. and M.S. degrees in Nutrition and Exercise Science from Cornell and Columbia Universities.  

 

 

Ana Reisdorf

Ana Reisdorf, MS, RD is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and freelance writer with 13-years of experience in the field of nutrition and dietetics. She is the author of three books, including the Anti-Inflammatory Diet One Pot Cookbook. Through her writing she demonstrates her passion for helping people achieve ideal health and make transformational changes in their lives.  

 

Lauren Panoff

Lauren specializes in plant-based living and vegan and vegetarian diets for all ages. She specializes in writing about parenting and a wide variety of health, environmental, and nutrition topics. 

 

Markita Lewis

 

Markita is a clinical dietitian with a passion for the biological, social, and cultural aspects of eating. She enjoys writing about nutrition and wellness, food justice and policy, cultural food ways, and the psychology of nutrition.

 

Shelley Maniscalco

 

Shelley Maniscalco, MPH, RD is a Washington-DC based dietitian specializing in nutrition policy and communications.  Prior to consulting, Shelley led up the communications for the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and MyPlate.  As a consultant, Shelley helps individuals, families, and organizations navigate the road to good nutrition—starting at home with her own picky eaters!


Melissa Mitri

 

Melissa is a health writer with over 12 years of experience in the field of nutrition.  She specializes in helping women move away from restrictive habits that lead to vicious yo-yo weight cycles.  Melissa enjoys writing about health, nutrition, and fitness with the goal of simplifying complex health topics for the reader.


Else Advisory Board

 

Prof. Jon Vanderhoof

Former Vice President, Global Medical Affairs at Mead Johnson Nutrition. Pediatric gastroenterologist at Boston Children's Hospital, Senior Lecturer in Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. 
Prof. Vanderhoof is a Pediatric Gastroenterologist in Boston, at Boston Children's Hospital, a Senior Lecturer in Pediatrics at the Harvard Medical School, and Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine. He was Vice President, Global Medical Affairs and Chief Medical Officer, for Mead Johnson Nutrition, published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, reviews and chapters in books in various areas of Pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition, served as President of the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition and on the Editorial Boards of numerous scientific and clinical journals.  
 

Prof. Raanan Shamir

Prof. Shamir is the Chairman of the Institute of Gastroenterology, Nutrition and Liver Diseases at Schneider Children’s Medical Center of Israel, and is a Professor of Pediatrics at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel-Aviv, Israel.
He is the past President of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (ESPGHAN), published more than 250 original papers, reviews and comments, book chapters and guidelines, and serves as an Editor for the pediatric section of Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism, is the Senior Associate Editor of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition (JPGN), and serves as a reviewer for journals in the field of Pediatrics, Nutrition, Gastroenterology and atherosclerosis.

Simeon Saunders

 

Simeon joined the health care industry after graduating from university, gaining 35 years of commercial experience spanning primary care and specialist pharmaceuticals, and reimbursed and out of pocket nutritional businesses (including infant formula, medical nutrition, out of pocket adult supplements, and sports nutrition). For 25 years of his career Simeon worked at Abbott Laboratories and became dedicated to the Nutritional Products Division, following the creation of Abbott Nutrition International in 2005, culminating in his final position as Divisional Vice President, Abbott Nutrition, for the Europe, Middle East, & Africa (EMEA) Area. Since 2018 he has worked as an independent consultant supporting start-up nutritional businesses, including a US company launch of a new brand in the food allergen introduction category.

 

Prof. Ron Shaoul

 
Prof. Ron Shaoul is the Director of the Pediatric Gastroenterology Unit at Ruth Rappaport Children’s Hospital, Haifa, Israel. He is a Member of the ESPGHAN Porto pediatric IBD working group and a Clinical Associate Professor in Pediatrics at the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine and a member of the European Pediatric Inflammatory Bowel Disease Working Group. He has authored about 120 peer-reviewed articles, and is a reviewer for prestigious journals in the field of pediatrics and gastroenterology.
 

Prof. Yvan Vandenplas

Baby Nutrition_ Advisor
Yvan Vandenplas did his medical studies at the ”Vrije Universiteit Brussel” and trained in pediatrics (1981‑1986) at the same University. He became Head of the Unit for Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition in 1987 and is Head of the KidZ Health Castle, at the University Hospital Brussels (UZ Brussel) and has the Chair of Pediatrics since 1994. He has more than 500 publications listed in Medline. His main interests are infant nutrition (probiotics, prebiotics, protein, cow's milk allergy), gastro-oesophageal reflux (diagnostic procedures, treatment) and functional gastro-intetsinal disorders. He is now associate editor of the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition.

Kayla Bridges, DCN

  
Dr. Kayla Bridges is an Advanced Practice Neonatal Dietitian and Milk Room Coordinator at Beaumont Children's - Royal Oak.  Her leadership experience includes President for the Michigan Chapter of the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN), which was named 2020 Chapter of the Year. She has served on the Clinical Practice Committee for ASPEN, as well as Publications Chair and newsletter Editor for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' Pediatric Nutrition Practice Group.  Dr. Bridges completed her Doctor of Clinical Nutrition degree at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and completed her MS with a focus in nutritional biochemistry from West Virginia University. She has received numerous awards and recognition for her work, including the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics' Pediatric Nutrition Published Research Award, Transformational Leadership Award - Beaumont Health National Nurses Week,  ASPEN Clinical Nutrition Team of Distinction Award (Beaumont Health), and Clinical Nutrition Ambassador - TouchPoint Support Services (Ascension Health). 

Prof. Carina Venter 

 
          Dr. Venter obtained her PhD from the University of Southampton, supervised by Prof. Stephen Holgate and Prof. Hasan Arshad in 2007. She moved from the UK in 2015 where she had been performing research into food allergies and allergy prevention as a Senior Lecturer at the University of Portsmouth at the David Hide Centre on the Isle of Wight. Dr. Venter (PhD RD) is currently an Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Allergy/Immunology at the Children's Hospital Colorado and University of Colorado Denver, where she is conducting research in allergy prevention and working with children with food allergies.  She is a member of American, European, and British Allergy Societies. She moved from the UK in 2015 where she performed research into food allergy prevalence funded by the Food Standards Agency, UK. She is a member of European and American food allergy guidelines on Allergy Prevention. She was also a member of the NICE (UK) and National Institutes for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Food Allergy guidelines.