Meet the Latina Nutritionists at the Top of Their Game

a collage showing photos of nutritionists and health experts christy wilson, hortencia jimenez, krystle zuñiga, nicole rodriguez, krista linares and gladys saucedo over a yellow and orange background

Navigating the health and nutrition landscape can often feel overwhelming, with so many diets, health tips, and fitness regimens to choose from. Fortunately, some experts have dedicated their careers to helping people understand these sometimes complicated topics, and teach their audiences how to spot misinformation and common myths, in addition to dismantling false ideas about traditional Latino foods and problematic body image beliefs.

With a fresh perspective on wellness, these nutritionists and health experts are delivering their expert advice in easy-to-understand ways:


Christy Wilson, RDN

Portrait of the Latina Nutritionists Christy Wilson

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As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) of Mexican descent, Christy Wilson believes in the transformative power of food and nutrition. She’s most passionate about guiding her clients to better health through wholesome and nourishing foods. Christy's ability to turn complicated nutritional science into understandable language and useful tips sets her apart in the field.

Christy's impactful career has enabled her to serve clients in Arizona, Texas, and New York since 1997. She’s widely known for her nutrition-focused bilingual cooking classes and her consulting work with community organizations. Christy's approach always leads to informed and health-conscious choices, be it at the grocery store, a restaurant, or your home kitchen.

You can catch Christy on Instagram, where she shares delicious recipes and helpful tips that will change the way you approach your diet!

Hortencia Jimenez, Ph.D

Portrait of the Latina Nutritionists Hortencia Jimenez

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Dr. Hortencia Jiménez is the first in her family to earn a doctorate degree and she approaches her work with “an Indigenous, intersectional, social and racial justice lens.” Born in Mexico and raised in California, Dr. Jiménez's roots have shaped her passion for public service and her commitment to community development. She carries a rich experience of working in the fields during her early years, alongside her grandmother, which lent her a deep understanding of the agricultural roots of nutrition.

Her extensive work in the non-profit immigrant rights sector in the Bay Area, California, and Austin, Texas, significantly contributed to her holistic approach towards nutrition, focusing on food and the social and cultural aspects that influence our diet. As a Sociology professor at Hartnell College, Dr. Jiménez leverages her background to educate about the importance of food, its cultural significance, and its role in overall health and wellbeing.

In addition to her work in academia, Dr. Hortencia Jiménez is a certified Holistic Health Coach from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, New York City, a certified Personal Trainer through the American Council on Exercise, and an author. Taking a holistic approach to wellness, she tailors individualized programs for her clients, integrating aspects such as relationships, exercise, career, and spirituality.

If you’re ready to embark on a wellness journey with a supportive and expert guide, you can connect with Dr. Jiménez via her website or Instagram.

Gladys Saucedo, RDN

Portrait of the Latina Nutritionists Gladys Saucedo

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Las Vegas-based registered dietitian, Gladys Saucedo, offers a unique blend of clinical and cultural expertise in her work. She specializes in organ transplant nutrition, guiding her patients through drastic changes in their nutrition requirements and goals pre- and post-transplant. She’s deeply committed to her patients, helping them to reclaim their quality of life.

As a proud Latina and first-generation Mexican-American, Gladys works with Latinas outside of her clinical setting, helping them reconnect with their cultural foods. Her work is about much more than just food; it's about helping people find a balance between their nutritional needs and their cultural heritage.

Follow Gladys on Instagram for all things nutrition, culture, and community!

Nicole Rodriguez RDN, NASM-CPT

Portrait of the Latina Nutritionists Nicole Rodriguez

Image Credit: Enjoy Food Enjoy Life

New York Metro-based Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN, NASM-CPT) Nicole Rodriguez is more than just an award-winning dietitian nutritionist; she's a co-founder of Step Bite Step and an advocate for food choice empowerment. Her practice served via telehealth, is a testament to her commitment to making health and nutrition accessible to a diverse clientele. Nicole is Italian with a mix of Greek and Argentinian roots. Having spent many years in the Bronx and raising a Puerto Rican and Cuban child means that Nicole has developed a unique multi--cultural understanding of how to approach nutrition with a strong cultural lens.

Nicole's dedication goes beyond her practice, as she also co-hosts the Food Bullying podcast to further promote positive messages about food. She also recently did a 30-day McDonald’s challenge experiment to see if the health outcomes could disprove common misconceptions about what it means to eat “healthy.” Turns out that fast food can actually fit in a healthy diet, and she shared her experience and the results with the Luz Community.

The reality is that you can be healthy and also not buy into the misconception you have to restrict food labeled as “bad” foods from your life forever. Rodriguez educates her audience to encourage unlearning, re-learning, de-stigmatizing, and de-shaming when it comes to our food choices.

She offers an array of services, including grocery store tours, meal planning, one-on-one nutrition coaching, and even personal fitness training, all tailored specifically to individual needs, lifestyles, and budgets.

Stay updated with insightful and relatable food advice by connecting with Nicole on Instagram or Twitter.

Krista Linares, MPH, RD

Portrait of the Latina Nutritionists Krista Linares

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Krista Linares is quite a transformative figure in nutrition, bridging the gap between health and cultural heritage for the Latina community. After her personal journey with PCOS and food allergies led her to confront the cultural disconnect within standard nutrition guidelines, she decided to return to school and become a Registered Dietitian. She aspired to guide Latinos in their health journey while preserving their ties to their culture, emphasizing PCOS management. Krista proudly dedicates her practice to the unique nutritional benefits intrinsic to Latin American heritage foods.

Through her private practice and her initiative, "Nutrition con Sabor," Krista primarily assists Latina women grappling with PCOS. She offers a specialized "PCOS for Latinas" program and creates nutritional guides spotlighting Latin American heritage foods. Her mission pushes the boundaries of traditional nutrition perspectives, advocating for recognition and respect for cultural foods. By challenging the outdated idea of cultural foods as problems to solve, Krista encourages an inclusive approach that values the unique nourishment Latin American food culture has to offer.

To keep up with Krista's insightful nutrition advice and her ongoing work, you can follow her on Instagram or dive into the Nutrition con Sabor website!

Dalina Soto, MA, RD, LDN

Portrait of the Latina Nutritionists Dalina Soto

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Dalina Soto is a registered dietitian and advocate of positive health. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Nutritional Sciences from Penn State University, completed her Dietetic Internship, and got her Master's Degree in Nutrition Education at Immaculata University. She calls herself a Latina anti-diet dietitian because her focus is on helping Latinas reclaim “the joy of diet-free living.” She’s a food lover and understands that people’s relationships to food can be complex and nuanced.

Dalina is the founder of Your Latina Nutritionist, where she helps Latinas ditch the narratives of restriction and denial that are keeping them from their food heritage and from achieving true well-being. Her work is focused on building new, healthier narratives about the foods Latinas grew up eating and reclaiming their enjoyment of them. To do that, she works with a team of other Latina dietitians, nutritionists, and health experts.

If you want to start embracing your culture, health your relationship with food, and eat without guilt, follow Dalina on Instagram or work with her.

Zariel Grullón, RDN, CDN

Portrait of the Latina Nutritionists Zariel Grull\u00f3n

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Zariel Grullón is a first-generation Dominican American dietitian who pursued this career to learn more about Latino cultural foods and how they can impact our well-being. She graduated from Ramapo College of New Jersey and Montclair State University and completed her Dietetic Internship at the CUNY School of Public Health. She explored nutrition deeply and learned to think about the Latino cultural foods she loved so much as something to be celebrated rather than avoided.

Today, she’s part of the Your Latina Nutrition team, founded by Dalina Soto. Her approach as a dietitian is based on a desire to help Latinas reclaim the foods they love and leave diets behind. Zariel is weight-neutral about her work because she believes there’s more to health and well-being than the numbers on the scale. Her main focus with clients is to help them reconnect with their bodies and learn to trust them so they can adopt more realistic and sustainable eating habits outside of diets. Zariel is also very open with her experience with endometriosis, providing visibility and raising awareness for it.

Follow Zariel on Instagram to get useful insights, tips, and advice, and stay up-to-date with her workshops and services.

Isabel Vasquez, RD, LDN

Portrait of the Latina Nutritionists Isabel Vasquez

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Isabel Vasquez is a second-generation American of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent. Having been influenced by American, Puerto Rican, and Dominican cultures, she has a multi-cultural approach to nutrition. She got a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition at La Salle University and completed her Dietetic Internship, making her a Registered Dietitian.

Isabel is no stranger to healing from food and body struggles, so her approach is informed by her own personal experience as well as her education. One of her main focuses is to help clients make empowered decisions by teaching them how to break away from diet culture and become more in tune with their bodies. She understands how central food is to everyone’s lives, especially Latinas, and is committed to helping people improve their relationship with food.

She’s part of the Your Latina Nutritionist team as well and she’s known for her weekly blogs on health and nutrition. Her articles are very insightful and helpful, so it’s no surprise she has been featured in publications like Health.com, Well+Good, Self, EatingWell, and more.

Follow her on Instagram to stay up-to-date with her and keep an eye on the Your Latina Nutritionist blog to catch her articles.

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Image by Sayuri Jimenez.

Nathalie Molina Niño has never been one to shy away from breaking barriers, and now, she’s focusing her attention on a new mission: demystifying corporate boardrooms for women, especially Latinas. Molina Niño is the President of Known, an asset management and financial services firm, a veteran tech entrepreneur and builder capitalist, and a board member at the iconic lingerie Brand, Hanky Panky, and others.

Like many corporate boards, Hanky Panky hadn’t publicly disclosed its board composition until recently. After the brand survived the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Molina Niño decided it was time for more women, specifically more Latinas, to know what it means to be on corporate boards.

Coincidentally, the decision to finally be more vocal about this topic aligned with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, which served as the perfect kick-off to the work.

"Something that rarely gets talked about and I think almost gets kept opaque by design is boards,” she explains in a recent Instagram announcement. “[This Latinx Heritage Month], that’s what I’ll be talking about.” Her goal? To equip more Latinas with the knowledge they need to navigate onto for-profit boards, where they can thrive and build multi-generational wealth.

For-profit corporate boards often feel like an exclusive club. And in many ways, they are, especially for Latinas, who hold the smallest percentage of board seats in Fortune 500 companies compared to other racial groups. According to the latest report from Latino Board Monitor, while Latinos hold 4.1% of these board seats (compared to 82.5% held by white people), only 1% go to Latinas. Molina Niño, a first-generation American of Ecuadorian and Colombian descent, is part of this boardroom minority.

When asked about her experience as a Latina board member during a recent Zoom interview, she said, “It’s been lonely. There’s not a lot of Latinas on boards.” She went on to explain that even serving on boards of Latina-founded businesses gets lonely because, “A lot of the times, people who serve on their boards represent their investors and, as a result, [...] you still don’t see a lot of Latinas on those boards.”

This lack of representation drives Molina Niño’s determination to increase Latina presence in corporate boardrooms. By sharing her insights, she hopes to give Latinas a roadmap to claim their seats at the table. “If you don’t know where to go, it’s impossible to figure out how to get there,” she says.

The Road to the Boardroom

Getting onto a for-profit corporate board isn’t an overnight achievement, but it’s not an unattainable dream either. People often think you need to be a CEO or have a certain type of background, but that’s one of the biggest myths about boards in Molina Niño’s experience. What they’re really looking for is expertise — whether that’s in finance, marketing, sustainability, or even technology. If you have that expertise, you’re already an asset. It’s simply a matter of which road you should take.

Understanding what boards are and how they operate is key to unlocking opportunities. For-profit boards serve as the governing body for companies, overseeing direction and financial stability, and guiding CEOs and executives in decision-making. But Molina Niño emphasizes that not all for-profit boards are created equal.

“There are two kinds [of for-profit boards] [...]. There’s the publicly traded business board and then, on the privately held side, there are, I would argue, two types of boards [...] the traditional business board and the venture-backed business board,” explains Molina Niño. Traditional businesses are often family-owned or long-established and may only form boards to meet requirements, like securing financing or transitioning through an ESOP. Venture-backed boards, on the other hand, are typically filled by investors who hold major stakes in the company.

According to Molina Niño, understanding the difference between them is how you can create a successful strategy. With publicly traded business boards, the whole world is privy to them, so, “The way that you get in there is a little bit more transparent. Sometimes those publicly traded companies will hire a recruiter to help them find new board members,” explains Molina Niño. For private companies, on the other hand, there’s no legal requirement to make announcements. As a result, most people don’t know anything about them or their inner workings.

“Usually what happens in traditional businesses that don’t have venture-capital investments is that the Founders, Executives, or the board members, if one existed already, they usually go to their friends,” and people they deem experienced to fill board seats. In other words, it’s the founder’s decision, and that’s an entirely different approach than hiring recruiters. When it comes to venture-backed business boards, the seats on the board are filled by whichever investor writes the biggest check.

This is why an understanding of the different types of boards and acknowledgment of their own strengths is what will help Latinas define a sound strategy. Whether that’s working with a recruiter, networking and connecting with founders to build trust, or making the biggest investment.

The Path for Latinas

For Molina Niño, the key to getting more Latinas into corporate boardrooms is education. Knowing what a board looks like and how it functions is how you can position yourself to get on it. In openly talking about this, without the mystique it’s usually shrouded in, Molina Niño is providing women, especially Latinas, with invaluable insights. “If we had Latinas understanding what are the three types of for-profit boards I think that, on their own, they would be able to figure out what their best chance is and adjust their careers to make themselves more competitive,” states Molina Niño.

When asked about the impact of increased Latina representation in boardrooms, Molina Niño flips the narrative. “Boards don’t help Latinas by offering them seats; Latinas help businesses thrive by being on their boards,” she says. “The whole point of sitting on a board is that you have experience and expertise, and as Latinas, you also have some cultural experience that everyone wants. [...] At the end of the day, we [Latinas] have to realize that we have a ton to offer and we have to be selective about where we put that expertise,” she explains.

As demand for access to the Latina consumer rises, Molina Niño predicts that more Latinas will find themselves recruited into boardrooms. But she’s not content to sit back and wait for that moment. By openly sharing her journey and insights, she’s making sure other Latinas know their worth and have the tools to claim their place at the table. “I realized that quietly being on boards that helped me personally is not helping other Latinas. [...] I was lucky enough to have friends who could advise me and share their experiences, so that’s why I’m doing this,” she stated.

With Hispanic Heritage Month as the backdrop, Nathalie Molina Niño’s mission is clear: “My goal is just to give Latinas enough information so they can make a plan for how to eventually get on a board that they’re paid to be on and that will eventually help them build generational wealth.”

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