Nancy Patin Falini, M.A., R.D., L.D.N., a registered dietitian, holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Dietetics and a Master of Art Degree in Nutrition Education from California State University, Chico. 

 Her formal teaching experience is diverse. After graduate school, through missionary work she developed and implemented a nutrition education curriculum for PreK through eighth grade students. She had various experiences teaching nutrition, health, and food safety classes in American and Latin American orphanages and in homeschool coopera-tives. As a clinical dietitian, she trained interns studying to become dietitians.

 Her specialty in celiac disease began in 1988 when she completed her graduate thesis on pediatric celiac disease. She is a dietitian in private practice specializing in celiac disease where she has counseled individuals and families since 1995. She has been the Nutrition Advisor for the Greater Philadelphia Celiac-Sprue Support Group since 1989.

She is a past Contributing Editor to Gluten-Free Living Magazine and currently is on the magazine’s Dietitian Advisory Board. She is a member of the American Dietetic Association, as well as its Pediatric Nutrition Practice Group, Dietitians in Gluten Intolerance Disease, and its Complementary Care Practice Group. Also, she is a member of the Pennsylvania Dietetic Association, Philadelphia Dietetic Association, and Delaware Valley Chapter Society for Nutrition Education.

 Nancy wrote “Nutrition Basics”, a chapter in Kids with Celiac Disease: A Family Guide to Raising Happy, Healthy Gluten-Free Children and “Nutritional Requirements and the Wheat-Free/Gluten-Free Diet,” a chapter in Wheat-Free Worry-Free, both by Danna Korn. She also served on the Advisory Board for both of these books. Nancy co-authored the Greater Philadelphia Celiac Sprue Support Group’s Pharmacy Card and other literature published as a result of this card. She has published numerous articles and literature on celiac disease.

She lectures nationally on the topic of celiac disease to medical professionals and support groups. Some of her lectures have been presented for major organizations, such as Stanford University Medical Center, John Hopkins Hospital, the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the Ninth International Symposium on Celiac Disease.

 Nancy’s personal and professional lives complement each other and have further qualified her as an author. Since she homeschools her children––some with educational challenges––she has acquired more knowledge and skill in educating others with a wide variety of learning styles. Furthermore, some of her children have medical conditions. Consequently, this has helped her become more sensitive to the implications of coping with children who have these challenges and teaching the entire family how to accept them peacefully.

A native of California, Nancy lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with her husband Tullio and their four internationally adopted children.