Muriel Almeida
Muriel Almeida decided that she wanted to become a dietitian shortly after she graduated from high school, in 2010. Growing up in Brazil, her close-knit family regularly communed in the kitchen, enjoying meals together that set the stage for moments of true connection. As a result, she learned early on that food can provide so much more than just bodily nourishment. She comes to Your Life Nutrition (YLN) with a passion for providing culturally sensitive, family-centered care and expertise in working with clients navigating neurodevelopmental disabilities.
Muriel earned a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics and a Master of Science in Biological Chemistry from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Her graduate program was laboratory-based and included such projects as a study of insects that transmit Chagas disease, which is common in Central and South America. Muriel shares that her graduate studies expanded her knowledge of lipid metabolism, in particular, and deepened her understanding of how this biological process varies among individuals and can impact their health outcomes.
Her first rotation as a dietitian was in the Clinical Nutrition Care Supervised Practice at Clementino Fraga Filho University Hospital, which provided Muriel with one of the most formative experiences of her career – her work with an 18-year-old patient who had contracted HIV from her mother, in utero. The patient weighed only 72 pounds and struggled with her mental health, advanced candida, and difficulty eating due to pain. As Muriel established trust with her patient, she helped her find the motivation to eat by exploring food textures and temperatures that mitigated any discomfort she felt when swallowing.
Muriel had moved on to another rotation when she ran into that patient again. They sat down to catch up with one another, and in the course of that conversation, Muriel realized the positive impact she’d had on her patient’s life. That awareness filled Muriel with joy and solidified her commitment to the profession.
A long-distance relationship with her future husband in California ultimately led her to Pepperdine University, where she completed the school’s Didactic Program Dietetics Course. Soon afterward, she was awarded an internship at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) that helped Muriel discover her love for working with children. While there, her patients ran the gamut from healthy children with oral aversions to medically complex children who required g-tubes for their nutrition intake. She says that her time at CHLA informed how she approached her work by introducing her to doctors and nurses who understood the importance of nutrition for their patients and were eager to collaborate with her.
Muriel also participated in the California Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (CA-LEND) Training Program. In this interdisciplinary learning community, leaders in maternal and child health prepare to serve children with (or at risk for) neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as autism. Muriel especially values the neurodiversity-affirming environment at YLN, where her colleagues support one another in creating personalized care plans for neuro-diverse patients and their families.