Hello and welcome to my website. I am Mary Hartley, RD, MPH. That stands for registered dietitian and Master of Public Health. I have been a practicing clinical nutritionist for 60 percent of my life! To see how long that is, visit my digital office at Organized Wisdom.
I do not espouse a particular diet. I help my clients to choose the most nutritious and balanced diet for their optimal health within the dictates of their condition, preferences and lifestyle. I draw from a range of conventional and alternative nutrition, behavioral, and ancillary therapies on a case-by-case basis for each individual. The exact form my advice takes is different for everyone.
Now
As of November 2011, I am thrilled to be seeing individuals again in a clinical practice. I love one-on-one patient care best because healing and teaching is spiritually-uplifting authentic work for me. I ‘visit’ with ‘patients’ to administer medical nutrition therapy, digitally by video chat or Skype and by email and telephone, and for residents of Manhattan and the Brooklyn Heights, Cobble Hill, Prospect Heights, and Park Slope sections of Brooklyn, New York, I make ‘House Call Visits‘ mostly because they are helpful for patients and fun for me. But regardless of the method of practice, my care is always of the highest quality. In addition to my clinical practice, I work with the media and PR agencies in the role of ‘professional nutrition expert’ writing and talking about nutrition on TV and radio in an entertaining, no-nonsense way. I also do temporary nutrition ‘consulting gigs’ in various healthcare settings, especially related to integrating nutrition services into medical systems.
Most Recently
During the past decade (‘The Aughties’), I worked with applied nutrition services. Between 2000 and 2006, I worked with the health insurance companies to design and manage health promotion programs, delivered in the home and at the workplace, for members with diabetes, heart failure and obesity, and with their doctors to enhance care. In 2006, I became the Director of Nutrition for CalorieCount.com, a diet website, shortly after it was acquired by The New York Times. There, I worked with developers to create a website to help members manage their diet and weight. I worked on content, tools, features, databases, member communities, social networks, and other interactive experiences. I answered over 2,000 questions from members in my column, Ask Mary, your personal nutritionist, and I wrote hundreds of blogs for Calorie Count staring in 2009.
The Wayback Machine
When I was eleven, I received a ‘call’ to be a nutritionist, and promptly buried it for the next 12 years. I went on to study liberal arts and fine arts, gardening, cooking, and yoga, and I rode my bike for transportation and cultivated my social skills. Overall, I guess I lived in the moment, but at age 22, the time came to settle into the study of nutrition. Nutrition studies are a constant in my life. I can’t stop reading and Tweeting about nutrition and healthcare!
I had a fine public education at state universities: the University of Rhode Island for an undergraduate degree in Food and Nutritional Science and the University of Minnesota for graduate school in public health. And because I studied my buns off, I earned the honor of training at the New England Deaconess Hospital, a Harvard medical center and home of the prestigious Joslin Diabetes Center and the Lahey Clinic at the time. Ever since I was a little girl, I loved working with sick people. My mother was very sick and so that is probably why.
For the next 20 years, I worked with thousands and thousands of patients in teaching hospitals, colleges, HMOs and clinics, medical practices, ‘disease management companies’, and in their homes, at their jobs, and in various living facilities. I had a successful private practice in Providence, Rhode Island where specialized in obesity, eating disorders and chronic diseases, including diabetes, heart disease and gastrointestinal disorders for people of all ages. I have utilized the “Non-Diet Approach” for 26 years. I was the preferred nutritionist for more than100 referring physicians and other healthcare professionals. I formed a provider network to market nutrition services to managed care organizations, and that’s when I saw that the business of medicine left little time to help the patients. Unfortunately, it is often necessary to leave the system to receive – and deliver – the best care.
“Be the Change That You Want to See” ~Mahatma Gandhi
My own diet is predominantly vegetarian with milk products, eggs and fish, and occasional meat and poultry in small amounts. I rarely eat processed food and I prefer to eat organic and local food when I can. I usually cook at home or I eat communally with my daughter and my friends. For exercise, I enjoy Pilates, walking and seasonal activities, such as hiking and ice skating, but I’m afraid to ride my bike in NYC. Lately, I’ve been studying about gut microbes and fermented foods because they seem to be a major missing link.
Whether you schedule a house call or digital visit or another service, or simply read my blog, I hope that I can empower you to care for your health through food. I am honored by your visit to my site and I offer blessings for your joyous journey.
Best regards,
Mary Hartley