Laura Lagano, MS, RD, CDN, is a nutritionist and health educator who integrates her classic allopathic background as a registered dietitian (RD) with cutting-edge training in functional medicine. Laura brings a range of experience in the food and nutrition world to the table. Early in her career she worked in the trenches for the New York City school system, for public relations agencies, and for a settlement house in the South Bronx. (Do you remember when it was called Fort Apache?) While those experiences educated Laura about the politics of food (long before Omnivore’s Dilemma was published) and polished her communications skills, her employment in school foodservice, food marketing, and community nutrition provided her with the drive to forge ahead – and become American’s nutrition healer.™

Laura entered the field of functional medicine and nutrition organically -- she followed the path set by her children. The experience of raising a child with a seizure disorder (knock on wood: no seizures since age three!) and apraxia (from two word sentences at age four to chatterbox) has provided her with deep insight into life as both a parent and a nutritionist. Having other family members with dyslexia, ADHD, and sensory integration and executive functioning disorders, Laura has garnered real life experience treating a myriad of nutrition-related neurodevelopmental issues. The phrase “I understand” is not just lip service.

In addition to her clinical experience, Laura has produced continuing medical education programs, school-age curricula, and patient materials. She has consulted with trade groups such as the California Fig Advisory Board and the Vitamin Nutrition Information Service; with professional organizations such as the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation and the American Board of Family Practice; with health and academic institutions such as the Joslin Diabetes Center and Brooklyn College; and with brands such as Odwalla™ and speak.™ Working with these businesses, Laura has had the opportunity to positively impact their nutrition communications practices.

Recognized as a nutrition expert, Laura has written for periodicals as diverse as Cooking Light, Environmental Nutrition, and The American Nurse and been quoted in The New York Times, Child, and Food Arts. Equally competent on-camera, Laura was a former New Jersey Dietetic Association spokesperson, appearing on CNN, NJN, and the Food Network. She is a seasoned speaker who has presented to families, chefs, educators, and health professionals.

Laura holds a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics from SUNY Oneonta and Master of Science in Nutrition Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she is currently a doctoral candidate in Health Education. As a board member of both Nutrition in Complementary Care and of Developmental Delay Resources and member of the Institute of Functional Medicine, which represent forward-thinking nutrition ideology, Laura practices what she preaches and follows Ghandi’s advice to “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Laura was dragged across the Hudson River from her beloved Brooklyn (where one in seven Americans can trace their roots), becoming a Jersey girl the day she literally collided with Bruce Springsteen on the Asbury Park boardwalk. When not nutritionally healing America, Laura can be found swimming, skating, sewing, and screenwriting. Most days, she basks in her role as mother to one teenager and a set of almost teen twins and wife to her soccer-obsessed husband!