Vanessa Atyabi is a Duke Doctorally prepared Registered Nurse, International Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), and Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP-BC). She is passionate about providing accessible, comprehensive preventative primary care to all. She has a background as a District School nurse in Los Angeles, CA and worked for almost a decade in a FQHC in Santa Barbara. She now works as an Assistant Professor of Nursing at CSU Channel Islands. She now focuses on women’s health/pediatrics and owns a local lactation practice. Through her tenure, she identified the radical changes that lifestyle medicine made in her patients with chronic illness. She is on the Board of Directors of Rooted Santa Barbara County, focusing on educating providers on the power of lifestyle medicine. 

Dr. George Ayoub is a health scientist with research in three areas: glaucoma, where he identified herbal medicines that help protect vision; cancer, where he has identified foods that stop the growth of cancer cells; and mental health, where he seeks to reduce symptoms of autism and mood disorders related to nutritional deficits. He is a popular professor at public and private universities, having taught 10,000 students over the past 25 years in biological, psychological and medical disciplines. He regularly speaks on contemporary issues regarding body, health and nutrition and is the author of 8 books on health and nutrition, including the health guides for community clinic patients: Yo Saludable and To Your Health, published in 2020.

Daniela Cadavid, D.D.S. is a local general dentist serving Santa Barbara and its surrounding cities. Dr. Cadavid completed her dental training at University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry in San Francisco in 2016, where she graduated with honors. Previously she worked as a dentist in her home country of Colombia, before she decided to move to the United States. She is fluent in English and Spanish, and has experience treating patients of all ages. Dr. Cadavid has also been an author on two scientific research articles published in the top peer-reviewed dental journals in the world. She is an active member in the Santa Barbara Women in Dentistry Group as well as local study clubs.

Dr. Cadavid lives in Goleta, with her husband, John Feusier, a local orthodontist, They both enjoy an active and healthful lifestyle that includes exercise, spending time in nature, and a whole food plant-based diet. Dr. Cadavid and her family transitioned to a whole food plant-based diet in 2015, and have loved every second of it. One of her favorite things is traveling, seeing different cities around the world, and exploring all the tasty plant options! She truly enjoys the freedom private practice has given her, and with that, she is able to devote time to Rooted, which ties perfectly into many of her passions: educating her patients and the local community, especially the LatinX community, on the importance of a plant-based diet and all the benefits that come along with it, individually, as a community, and globally.

Emma Malina is a whole food plant-based nutrition educator with a background in hospitality, entertainment, and real estate. Certified in Plant-Based Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies at Cornell, Emma is also a Licensed Food for Life Instructor through the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, DC, and a certified Health Coach through the Institute of Integrative Nutrition. Emma is a founding steering committee member of Rooted Santa Barbara, a community-centered plant-based lifestyle initiative, and also runs her own health coaching practice & food skills training program through her business Basking in Goodness.

Raised in England, Emma is thrilled to be back in her birthplace of Santa Barbara, with her Swiss husband and daughter in tow, after successful careers on the East Coast. Emma trained hundreds of employees while running multiple successful restaurants and bars, worked for one of the centuries greatest and most prolific film directors, and sold over $200 million dollars of prime NYC real estate, where her focus, as an Eco-Broker, was in sustainable and LEED-certified developments. Now she has combined all of her interests and passions into one and empowers people around the globe and within her community to optimize their health and prevent chronic disease through cooking classes, coaching, online resources and one-on-one consultations. An avid bike rider, devout foodie and walker of Otis, the 90 pound plant-based chocolate Lab.

Dr. Beth Prinz is currently Lead Clinician at non-profit Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics, Goleta – providing high-quality healthcare to all people regardless of ability to pay. She also serves as a founding steering committee member of plant-based initiative Rooted Santa Barbara. She volunteered for Doctors Without Walls, aka Santa Barbara Street Medicine, an outreach program providing free medical care to Santa Barbara’s most vulnerable living on the streets. Having been strongly influenced by the research and writings of Ornish, Greger and other MD leaders in the field of plant-based medicine, she discovered the benefits for her own health, and advocates this for her patients. She writes a regular column “Ask Dr. Beth” for OQ Magazine. Her articles focus on the health benefits of a plant-based lifestyle. She previously lived and practiced in London UK as an HIV specialist. She completed residency training in Internal Medicine in New York City, earned her MD degree at VCU in Richmond Virginia, and graduated from UCSD with a degree in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. She currently lives in Montecito CA. She enjoys spending time with her three children, practicing yoga, and trying out new plant-based recipes.

Beth Skidmore, MSACN is a whole food plant-based nutritionist and nonprofit fundraising professional with a masters degree in Applied Clinical Nutrition and certified in Plant Based Nutrition by the T. Colin Campbell Foundation/eCornell. She currently serves as board chair of community-centered plant-based lifestyle initiative Rooted Santa Barbara County and is a fundraising consultant specializing in plant-based nutrition, healthcare and arts organizations. Beth has been a mother of a plant-based family for ten years and founded a community-minded wellness and lifestyle resource, Plant Based Santa Barbara in 2017. She holds a B.A. in Communications and a minor in Global Peace and Security from the University of California, Santa Barbara and has additionally completed masters level coursework in public policy and administration; earned professional certificates in fundraising and marketing for nonprofits, grant-writing, and graphic design; and has served as a professional fundraiser for 20 years, helping to build community around shared missions and raise more than $30 million for local and national nonprofits.

Read about Beth’s plant-based story that sparked Rooted here.

Jenifer is a California native with a passion for helping community members boost their vitality and wellbeing through the shared journey of learning, accessing and increasing their intake of plant-based foods.

Jenifer holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Nutrition from Pepperdine University and a Master of Science degree from California State University Northridge. She has extensive experience in developing curricula, personalized meal plans, medical nutrition therapy, maternal/child health, pediatrics and type 2 diabetes. She is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN), Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE) and CAPACITAR practitioner. She resided in Central America for years providing her with a bicultural experience and fluency in Spanish.

Jenifer was the Director of Diabetes Education and Outreach at the William Sansum Diabetes Center for over 9 years. During her tenure she developed a comprehensive diabetes education program and educational materials in English and Spanish that have been implemented both nationally and internationally. She enjoys spending time and being active outdoors and traveling with her husband and their young daughter.

Lori Tremer-Huey has over 40 years of executive finance experience, with particular expertise in the consumer electronics industry.  Working in both the public and private sector, she has held a variety of corporate finance and operations roles of global companies. Lori spent most of her corporate career on the East Coast, receiving her MBA in Finance from Fordham University. Lori began her career in the start-up world taking the company to an IPO and an ultimate merger with a much larger global company. She then served as Corporate Controller and Treasurer of an $80 million global consumer electronics firm. After that, Lori joined the private investment banking firm Penn Hudson Financial Group specializing in corporate restructuring and crisis management. Here she advised companies on cash management, cost containment, forecasting and debt restructuring as well as holding interim CFO and finance roles. In early 2000, she returned to the consumer electronics world helping sell a company where she remained to lead the finance team of the newly acquired division. In 2008, she became CFO of De’Longhi America a subsidiary of De’Longhi Italy, a 1.5-billion-euro public company. She moved to Santa Barbara in 2012 to work for Sonos, Inc. as VP of Global Finance Operations where she was instrumental in developing global accounting and tax teams in the Netherlands, China and the US as the company experienced rapid revenue growth.

After retiring, Lori and her husband became active in the Santa Barbara Newcomers club, chairing several committees and serving on the Board. Lori has served on multiple non-profit boards both in Santa Barbara and on the East Coast. She and her husband recently transitioned to a plant-based diet and are enjoying all that has to offer, trying new recipes and helping educate others of those benefits.