Speakers | The Believe In Better Project

Talk Title: How Making Peace with Food Changes the World

Dr. Lampert brings a level of passionate commitment matched only by her experience and dedication to the field of eating disorders. Her degrees and accreditations—PhD, MPH, RD, LD, FAED—only tell part of the story. She serves as Chief Strategy Officer at The Emily Program, a national leader in fostering eating disorder awareness, treatment and lifetime recovery. Dr. Lampert co-founded and serves as president of the Residential Eating Disorders Consortium, an organization that aims to ensure access to care and elevate standards of practice across treatment programs by working collaboratively to address issues that impact the eating disorder treatment community.

She is also treasurer of the Eating Disorders Coalition, a Washington DC-based national organization for eating disorders policy and advocacy. She is a past president and current board member of With All (formerly The Emily Program Foundation), a Minnesota based organization promoting eating disorder education and advocacy. She holds an adjunct graduate faculty position in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Lampert completed her doctorate degree in Nutrition and Epidemiology and Master of Public Health degree in Public Health Nutrition at the University of Minnesota. She earned a Master of Science degree in Nutrition at the University of Vermont and completed her dietetic internship at the University of Minnesota Hospital and Clinics. She has an expansive range of policy, clinical, research, education, teaching and program development experience in the area of eating disorders.

She has served on the board of directors of the Academy for Eating Disorders as the Electronic Media Portfolio Director and co-chair of the Academy for Eating Disorders Nutrition Special Interest Group. She is a Fellow of the Academy for Eating Disorders (FAED) and a member of the Academy for Nutrition and Dietetics (formerly the American Dietetic Association), and BHN (Behavioral Health Nutrition) dietetic practice group. Dr. Lampert is the author of numerous book chapters and articles addressing nutritional treatment of eating disorders, body image, sports participation, adolescent health and disordered eating. She regularly speaks regionally and nationally on numerous eating disorder related topics.

One of her primary goals in life is to have her fourteen-year-old daughter grow up loving her body and herself.

Talk Title: Addressing Emotions in the Healing Journey

Dr. A. Leslie Gomez Martínez believes that healing can come in many forms and that in order to heal a disease, we have to address the person as a whole being by treating the emotional, mental and physical body—all connected to the spiritual. Because the emotional trauma of our ancestors and our own families has an impact on our health, it is crucial to address the past to release the body from biological conflict so it can heal.

Leslie is from Mexico City, where she received her medical degree from Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico in 2000 and a pediatric degree from Hospital Español/Universidad La Salle in 2003. In 2006, she became head of the pediatric department of Hospiten Cancun Hospital. But Leslie’s spiritual journey began in 2003 with her partner who was a medical acupuncturist and who became her teacher. Leslie learned the connection between the organs and emotion, energy medicine and integrative medicine. It was during this training that Leslie discovered a surprising tool for healing children: by also healing their mothers’ minds and hearts. Leslie understood the incredible connection between mothers and their children, especially the first seven years of their lives and how the negative emotions affect the health of the child. She began helping the mothers of sick children with homeopathy, Bach flower remedies, acupuncture and other forms of energy medicine to release pain and past trauma. The result: mothers would become well, and their children would also heal.

Several years ago, Leslie joined Hope4cancer in Cancun, a worldwide leader in holistic and integrative oncology. She runs the BEST program (Behavior Emotional Spiritual Therapy) for the institute’s patients, providing emotional healing techniques using energy medicine and Recall Healing therapy. Leslie believes that cancer is often a messenger to resolve an unresolved conflict and can be passed along through ancestry.

For physicians, who have the highest rate of suicide of any profession in the United States, self care is vital to the work. Leslie practices emotional healing therapy for herself so that she is able to maintain such close bonds with her patients and can continue to serve, as she puts it, “as a little instrument in God’s orchestra.” With an open heart and trusting that God is the one that placed her where she is now, Leslie wants to share how crucial it is to address the emotional healing needed when one experiences a physical challenge. Leslie still works as a pediatrician, is a mother to a wonderful 5-year-old girl and, along with her husband, rescues street dogs and cats.

Speakers from previous Believe in Better Project Workshops