Who we are

Our leadership

The Ellyn Satter Institute (ESI) is a 501c3 not-for-profit with Board oversight. The organizations daily operations, program coordination, and decision-making functions are carried-out by a 10-member Faculty.

ESI Faculty members are highly experienced professionals with a passion for carrying on the feeding dynamics and eating competence work. Each brings particular expertise in the areas of clinical medical nutrition therapy, WIC, Head Start, public health, mental health, education, child care, extension, and school nutrition. They have made themselves expert in fdSatter and ecSatter by studying and consulting with Ellyn Satter and following the concepts outlined in her professional articles, books, and teaching materials. Each has taken a leadership role in teaching the principles and practice of ecSatter and fdSatter to others within specific agencies and practice settings. ESI faculty members do training and consultation with professionals and parents and with local, state, and regional organizations and agencies.

Ellyn Satter, Creative Director, Programming Consultant

Ellyn Satter, MS, MSSW, is a dietitian, family therapist, and internationally recognized authority on eating and feeding. Research on Satter’s evidence based and clinically tested models shows that people who take the guilt and anxiety out of eating and put the joy back in are healthier in all ways. Satter’s research demonstrates that our eating, and feeding our children, becomes positive, orderly, and healthful when we feed ourselves faithfully with rewarding meals and, while we are there, eat as much as we want of food we enjoy. Satter pioneered the Satter Eating Competence Model (ecSatter) and the Satter Feeding Dynamics Model (fdSatter) and created the Division of Responsibility in Feeding (sDOR), which is the gold standard for feeding children. She is the  Founder and Developmental editor for the Ellyn Satter Institute.

Anne Blocker, Executive Director

Anne Blocker, MS, RDN, CSSD, LD, CD, CDCES, is a dietitian, diabetes educator, consultant, professional speaker, author, nutrition therapist and health coach.  For the past 26 years she has been helping people live healthier and happier lives by breaking free of rigid dieting and developing a trusting relationship with food and their bodies.  Seeing first hand the end result of the distortions caused by poor feeding practices and restrictions led Anne to incorporate Satter’s feeding models into the heart of her counseling and nutrition programming work.  Anne works with the Wellness Program at Luther College in and sees patients in her private practice.  As we are bombarded daily to slim down, eat less, and eat right, Anne is passionate about helping people bring joy back into eating.

Alexia Beauregard, MS, RDN, CSP, LD

Alexia is a registered dietitian with a Master’s degree in human nutrition from Winthrop University. She now based in Savannah, Georgia where she serves as the Chief of Clinical Dietetics at Winn Army Community Hospital where her and her staff work with people across the lifespan. Alexia’s work with food allergies, restricted diets, and eating and feeding disturbances is informed by the Satter eating competence and feeding dynamics models. To help clients find joy in eating and thereby improve their quality of life is her main goal. She firmly believes that food should not hurt or generate anxiety and that mealtimes can be a relaxing part of the day.  After completing the Ellyn Satter Institute affiliate program, Alexia became an ESI faculty member in 2017, and now serves as facilitator for Ellyn Satter’s Vision Workshop, Feeding with Love and Good Sense.

Anne Buffington, MA, RDN, CSSD, CEDRD

​Anne Buffington is the nutrition program coordinator in the health promotion department at Michigan State University. She provides nutrition counseling, educational programs, and develops resources using a weight-neutral approach centered on Eating Competence. In her specialty areas of eating disorder recovery, sports nutrition, and health communication, Annie regularly applies ecSatter to promote positive eating behaviors and support optimal health. Annie mentors and consults with outside agencies to help them develop curriculum and programs consistent with the Satter models.

Peggy Crum, MA, RDN

Peggy Crum is a registered dietitian nutritionist. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Purdue University and a master’s degree from Michigan State University. Her early career focused on pediatrics, first at St. Paul Children’s Hospital, then with the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. For the past 14 years, she worked in employee health promotion at MSU retiring in 2020. All along, she applied Ellyn Satter’s feeding dynamics and eating competence models to her writing, program development and counseling. She joined the Ellyn Satter Institute as faculty member in 2015 and continues to serve as webinar coordinator and speaker for workshops and trainings.

Cristen Harris, PhD, RDN, CD, CEDS, CSSD, ACSM-CEP, FAND

Dr. Cristen Harris is a certified eating disorder specialist, sports dietitian, and exercise physiologist with over three decades of experience in a wide variety of settings including clinical care, fitness and rehabilitation, community health, higher education, research, and private practice. Her approach to education, research, parenting, and practice is grounded in Satter’s feeding dynamics and eating competence models. Dr. Harris is a Teaching Professor in the Food Systems, Nutrition and Health Program in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington where she is also the principal investigator and advisor for a federal Maternal and Child Health training grant. She maintains a small but robust private practice, specializing in the treatment of disordered eating behaviors, child feeding issues, and eating incompetence. Dr. Harris is passionate about facilitating a paradigm shift in how people, professionals, and policymakers interpret challenges with eating, feeding, and moving; and offering access to the Satter models as part of the solution to such challenges. When not working, she enjoys hiking in the mountains and forests with friends and her dog; and spending time and adventures with her three children (ages 14, 18, 22); and devoted husband.

Jennifer Harris, RDN, LD, CEDS-C

Jennifer Harris is a registered and licensed dietitian nutritionist.  She is also credentialed through the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals as a Certified Eating Disorder Registered Dietitian and Consultant. In that role, she offers training and consultation to registered dietitians wishing to specialize in the field of eating disorders utilizing the Satter eating competence models for adults and children.  She has a varied work background which includes working at a WIC clinic, in an acute care hospital setting as a clinical dietitian, and as part of a student health service/wellness promotions clinic at an all-female college.   For 29+ years Jennifer worked in a large regional health system in MN specializing in the treatment of eating disorders and especially enjoys working with family systems.  She understands that to help those who struggle with disorders, treatment providers need to have a solid foundation in effective and functional eating and feeding.  Her work in eating disorders and passion for working with family systems, led her to the conclusion that the Satter eating competence and feeding dynamics models are the ultimate prevention and treatment modality for childhood feeding and eating issues, including dysfunctional and disordered eating and weight divergence.  Since her first exposure to the Satter feeding dynamics model in 1996, she has incorporated it into her practice to support patients and family members during treatment. She has been working with The Ellyn Satter Institute, both in volunteer and honoraria capacity since 2014 offering public and professional training, and corporate and professional consultations around the globe. 

Keira Oseroff, MSW, LCSW, CEDS 

Keira Oseroff is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She received her Bachelor’s degree from The George Washington University and her Master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Georgia. Since 1999, Keira has worked in a variety of clinical settings including residential treatment and private practice. Working with individuals, couples, families and groups, she specializes in the treatment of those struggling with disordered eating (Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating Disorder), including childhood feeding issues and dual diagnosis.  Since being introduced to the Satter Feeding Dynamics and Eating Competence Models in 2002, she has utilized them in the assessment and treatment of the individuals and families with whom she has worked. Keira serves on the Board of Directors of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (IAEDP), Atlanta Chapter, and is a Clinical Supervisor for the Atlanta staff at Hope Homes Recovery. She is passionate about the important distinction between treating people, not disorders, and guiding people of all ages toward a healthy relationship with food. 

Eve Reed, Paediatric Dietitian

Eve Reed is a paediatric dietitian based in Sydney. After working for many years in early childhood education, she went back to study Nutrition and Dietetics. For 14 years, Eve worked at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead Sydney, and then moved into private practice. Having been introduced to Ellyn Satter’s work, she wanted to learn more; and went on to train with Ellyn which changed her whole approach to working with parents and training health professionals.  Eve says “I had often felt that telling parents what to feed their children, rather than how to feed them just didn’t work. It doesn’t respect or honor the child as a person and often ends in conflict. I work with parents to help them take the stress out of feeding their child/ren, to trust their child’s appetite, and to let them grow in the way that nature meant them to.”  Eve is a mother and grandmother and is passionate about family nutrition and helping parents to enjoy feeding their family.

Kerry Regnier, MPH, RDN, LDN

Kerry Regnier says that the division of responsibility in feeding is the one thing that helped her make sense of becomng a dietitian. She is a registered and licensed dietitian/nutritionist. She has a master’s degree in public health and has spent the majority of her career helping families do their best with feeding. She has done medical nutrition therapy in a tertiary care center, taught educators and child care providers the ins and outs of feeding, done advocacy work for dietitians, and served as university adjunct nutrition faculty. She currently is an administrator for a pediatric medical practice and is integrated into that primary care setting as a consulting dietitian. There, she has the privilege of working with families on a daily basis, helping them navigate the feeding process from birth to and through the teen years. She knew from early on in her career that the eating and feeding models of the Ellyn Satter Institute help guide people to a healthy relationship with food and feeding, helping return joy to meals.

Kristen Schweers, MS, RD

Kristen Schweers is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist who runs a private nutrition counseling practice in Tacoma, Washington. Her passion for nutrition counseling comes from a genuine love of food and people. Kristen’s expertise in the field has developed over the last decade working in mental health and various wellness settings. Over the years she has worked in every level of care and with all ages for eating disorder treatment, but most recently has focused her work on adolescents and their families. Kristen’s work is focused through the lens of weight inclusivity, social justice, and anti-discrimination. Kristen’s mission is to help others break free from diet culture, learn to love their relationship with food, and prevent eating disorders in teens and young adults.

Sandy Maxwell, Rd, BASc

Sandy is a registered dietitian licensed with the College of Dietitians of Ontario (Canada). She earned her Bachelor of Applied Science degree in applied human nutrition from the University of Guelph in 1988 and completed a clinical nutrition internship at Toronto Western Hospital in 1989. She has worked as a registered dietitian in a variety of practice settings, including as a public health dietitian for over two decades in which she advocated for integrating Ellyn Satter’s feeding dynamics and eating competence models into public health programming. In her current role at Nutrition Connections/Ontario Public Health Association, Sandy contributes to a variety of knowledge mobilization activities for professionals in public health, community health, private practice, NGOs and other sectors. Sandy is thrilled to join the ESI faculty to help expand Ellyn Satter’s eating competence and feeding dynamics models in Canada.

Candace Aqui, BSc, BASc, MPH, RD

Candace is a registered dietitian with over 15 years of experience in public health nutrition, health promotion and knowledge mobilization. She holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Toronto, BASc in Nutrition and Food from Ryerson University, and BSc in Psychology from the University of Waterloo. She was first exposed to Ellyn Satter’s work during her training and it resonated with her when she started her family. Candace has managed knowledge mobilization projects for many non-profit organizations, including public health units and academic institutions. Candace is thrilled to be working with ESI to support the mobilization of the Feeding Dynamics and Eating Competence models into practice for those working with families to build a healthy relationship with food.

Associates

Associates qualify for the ESI Associate training program by graduating from the ESI Affiliate program and being accepted by application. Building on their Affiliate mentoring in the Satter Feeding Dynamics Model, they have worked with Ellyn Satter and other ESI faculty members in a year of training, self-study, and mentoring to increase their understanding and mastery of the Satter Eating Competence Model. Associates participate actively in the the programming of ESI and act as representatives of ESI in their communities.

Affiliates

Affiliates completed a 10-session program that focused on practical application and implementation of the models in both children and adults in a variety of situations including, but not limited to, failure to thrive, picky eating, child overweight, disordered eating, diabetes, and food intolerance.  Completion of this certificate program helped ensure consistent application of the models across the continuum of nutrition care.