About us
Leadership & staff
Chief Executive Officer
Corinne Bush, MS, CNS
As CEO of the American Nutrition Association (ANA), Corinne and the ANA team are advancing a bold vision: making personalized nutrition a cornerstone of healthcare and empowering people to live healthier lives through the science of personalized nutrition.
A co-founder of ANA, Corinne has been instrumental in shaping the modern personalized nutrition profession. She helped bring together complementary organizations to create a unified ecosystem that educates practitioners, advances nutrition science, certifies professionals, advocates for evidence-based nutrition, and connects leaders across healthcare. Under her leadership, ANA continues to expand the role of personalized nutrition in preventing, treating, and even reversing complex chronic disease.
As a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS), Corinne combines clinical expertise with a deep understanding of the evolving healthcare landscape. Before co-founding ANA, she maintained a private nutrition practice and led nutrition operations for a large compounding pharmacy and wellness center, where she worked closely with patients facing complex health challenges.
Today, Corinne is a recognized leader in personalized nutrition, bringing together clinicians, researchers, educators, policymakers, and industry partners to accelerate the integration of nutrition into mainstream healthcare. Her work reflects her belief that nutrition is foundational to health, longevity, and an effective healthcare system.
Chief Operating Officer
Dave Klink
Dave Klink joined the American Nutrition Association as Chief Operating Officer in 2022. Prior to coming to the ANA, Dave spent his entire career in healthcare including 20+ years scaling private equity backed healthcare service companies including time as the COO for Elite Dental Partners (115 locations), the President and COO Family Behavioral Resources, and the Vice President of Operations for MedExpress Urgent Care. Dave is a native of western Pennsylvania and graduated from Bowling Green State University.
Senior Director of Nutrition Programs & Advocacy
Amy Smith, MS, CNS, LDN
Amy Smith, MS, CNS, LDN, is a Certified Nutrition Specialist and Senior Director of Nutrition Programs & Advocacy at the American Nutrition Association. She is passionate about empowering others to cultivate a healthy relationship with food, movement, and their bodies. Her approach integrates nourishment, herbal support, and intuitive eating to promote healing and long-term well-being.
She holds a Master of Science in Nutrition and Integrative Health from the Maryland University of Integrative Health (MUIH) and is currently a PhD candidate in Mind-Body Medicine at Saybrook University, where she specializes in mindful leadership in healthcare. In her leadership role, she advocates for the growth of the nutrition profession and works to expand the reach of personalized, evidence-informed care.
Strategic Partnerships
Lis Schmelzer, MSCN
Lis is the Strategic Partnerships Manager at the American Nutrition Association, leading national collaborations that advance integration of nutrition science into healthcare, education, and workforce benefits. She works with health tech innovators, clinical societies, academic institutions, CBOs, and mission-aligned nonprofits to drive measurable impact. With over 20 years of experience engaging healthcare providers and patients, Lis translates clinical innovation into growth strategies that enhance scientific credibility, expand reach, and promote equitable access to nutrition education. She holds a Masters Degree in Clinical Nutrition from Sonoran University of Health Sciences and is dedicated to advancing the role of nutrition in healthcare. Beyond the ANA, Lis can be found exploring the outdoors with her family or creating meals made with love in her kitchen.
Director of Marketing
Christine Mortensen
Christine is Director of Marketing at the American Nutrition Association, where she leads the rebuild of theana.org and the content systems behind it. Her focus is making the ANA’s work easier to find, follow, and act on, whether the reader is a CNS candidate, a practitioner, policymaker, or the public.
She brings a decade of agency experience building digital programs for large corporate brands. As former CMO of Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit supporting veteran and military-spouse entrepreneurs, she helped the organization grow to 18 chapters in nearly as many months. She also founded Sprk’d, a Chicago-based strategy company for women business owners. The thread through all of it is an eye for patterns and for how information is designed, so people actually use it.
Outside the ANA, Christine is in yoga teacher training and lives in Chicago with her dog, Cassius.
Managing Editor, JANA
Greg Reed
I have 40+ years’ experience in various editorial and publishing roles from entry level through management and director positions. It is an honor to work with the esteemed editorial team on the Journal of the American Nutrition Association (formerly Journal of the American College of Nutrition), the JANA Publications Committee, and the ANA staff who all share a passion for changing human life through nutrition. On a personal level I enjoy daily exercise such as yoga, swimming, biking, and softball powered by healthy and nutritious meals.
Nutrition Programs
Cassidy Axelrod, MS, CNS
Cassidy Axelrod earned her Master of Science in Nutrition and Integrative Health from the Maryland University of Integrative Health and is a Certified Nutrition Specialist®. With a background in psychology, she is especially interested in the connection between mental health and nutrition, with a focus on supporting overall wellbeing through a personalized, root-cause approach. Her work centers on gut health, hormone balance, metabolic function, and sustainable lifestyle changes that support lasting health, empowering clients to take an active role in their health.
In her role with the American Nutrition Association, Cassidy is passionate about supporting accessible, evidence-based nutrition education and advancing the organization’s mission. She is based in San Diego, California, and in her free time enjoys being outdoors, traveling, reading, listening to music, and finding a great cup of coffee.
Nutrition Programs
Julie O’Connor, MS, CN
Julie O’Connor, MS, CN, is a freelance nutrition writer and metabolic health coach specializing in nutrition for metabolic function, cognitive health, and chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease and digestive disorders. She writes for digital publications and sees clients through her private telehealth practice, 1Eighty Wellbeing. Julie also serves as an advisor and coach for MetPsy, a metabolic mental health company that incorporates wearable biometric data with personalized nutrition and lifestyle coaching to help clients transform their lives. Her work has been featured in Thrive Global, LinkedIn Pulse, Oregon Kid, and Revolution Gray.
She holds a Master of Science in Human Nutrition from the National University of Natural Medicine, a BA in Psychology from UNC Charlotte, and completed post-graduate training in Nutrition Communication at the Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition. Julie has trained with esteemed clinicians including Dr. Georgia Ede, Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, and Christina Veselak, LMFT. She is a Certified Health and Wellness Coach and a CNS candidate, having passed the Board exam for Certified Nutrition Specialists® in 2021. A 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher, she is pursuing a 300-hour RYT certification to integrate yoga philosophy, pranayama, and movement anatomy into her practice. Before entering the nutrition field, Julie spent over two decades in computer hardware and corporate venture capital with tech startups. She is based in Portland, Oregon.
Certification Programs
Brittany Fuquea
Currently, I am working on my master’s in Mental Health Counseling at Antioch University New England with a focus on trauma work and queer-affirming practice. I firmly believe in the importance of approaching all avenues of care from a holistic and interconnected perspective, whether that is mental health or nutrition. In my role as Nutrition Programs Customer Service Coordinator, my goal is to help ANA further its mission and advocate for equitable nutrition education and access. When I’m not studying or working, I love to read, write children’s books, and enjoy a good cup of coffee. I am a mother of 2 kiddos, a rescue kitty named Marshmallow, and a miniature dachshund.
Certification Programs
Tyler Wolsten
Tyler Wolsten has his background in Vocal Performance with a Masters in Music from California State University Fullerton. With over 10 years of performance and teaching experience at Chapman University, Tyler uses his skills and passion for higher education to further aid and enrich the development of the CNS Credential.
As the Nutrition Programs Customer Service Coordinator his focus and goal is continue the work paved out by the BCNS to advocate and assist current CNS’s and candidates alike. In Tyler’s spare time he enjoys watching and playing basketball, hiking with his 14 year old rescue dog Jasper, and watching movies with his wife.
