Melanie Potock & Nimali Fernando
Melanie Potock MA, CCC-SLP
Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP, treats children birth to teens who have difficulty eating. Melanie’s advice has been shared in a variety of television and print media, including The New York Times, CNN.com, Huffington Post and Parents Magazineand The ASHA Leader and ASHA Leader Blog. She is the co-author of the award-winning Raising a Healthy Happy Eater: A Stage-by-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating (2015) and Baby Self-Feeding: Solutions for Introducing Purees and Solids to Create Lifelong Healthy Eating Habits (2016). Melanie is the author of Happy Mealtimes with Happy Kids (2010) and the producer of the award-winning kids’ CD Dancing in the Kitchen: Songs that Celebrate the Joy of Food! The tips in her latest book, Adventures in Veggieland: Help Your Kids Learn to Love Vegetables with 100 Easy Activities and Recipes (2018) are based on the research and Melanie’s 20 years of success as a pediatric feeding therapist. Melanie is an active volunteer and co-writer of The Doctor Yum Preschool Food Curriculum bringing food education to hundreds of preschoolers in the United States. Melanie’s live and online courses for parents and professionals, along with her contact information, can be found at www.MelaniePotock.com.
Nimali Fernando MD, MPH
Pediatrician Nimali Fernando, MD, MPH is the founder of the nonprofit organization. The Dr. Project, featured in the New York Times, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, and Voice of America. She graduated from University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and School of Public Health with an MD and MPH and pediatrics residency at UT Houston Health Sciences Center Houston. She is the co-author of Raising a Healthy Happy Eater: A Stage-by-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating (2015)and “Doctor Yum’s Preschool Food Adventure” Curriculumwith Melanie Potock, MA, CCC-SLP. Yum Pediatric practice in Virginia includes an instructional garden and 600 square foot teaching kitchen, where she and the Dr. Yum Project team teach cooking to hundreds of kids and families each year in addition to thousands more through community outreach. Her website and contact info can be found at www.doctoryum.org.