We recently kicked off the Health Leadership Awards with mother and school food champion Allison Carmen.

At IIN we are blessed to have a community filled with exceptional mothers who are dedicated to changing the lives of their family and the world.

That’s why this week, we honor and celebrate Smokin’ Hot Mom Nina Manolson, whose outstanding work as a Health Coach empowers all of us to “feel good in our skin.”

Turning Risk into Reward

I enrolled at IIN after a genetic test determined I was at high risk for Breast Cancer. After a lifetime of struggling with my weight and criticizing myself in the mirror, I was faced with the preciousness of my body and how I could no longer afford to be at war with myself. I stepped up my self-care and, in the process, realized that my passion lay in helping women reclaim their body and ending the struggle between food and self-image for future generations.

It takes a lot of guts to leave a secure, full-time job, but Nicole Culver, a 2011 graduate of the Health Coach Training Program from South Hempstead, NY, said she would have been crazy to stay. Her dream was to help people have a healthier life, and now she’s living it – watching not one, but two businesses grow.

In addition to health coaching, Nicole has launched Pure Bliss Eats, a healthy online bakery loaded with delicious treats. (The pictures alone are enough to make your mouth water!) The mission behind tasty sweets like organic granola and gluten free chocolate balls is to make healthy snacks easy and delicious for everyone. Read on to learn more about how Nicole got started and what inspired her unique online bakery!

What led you to enroll at Integrative Nutrition?

I was no longer feeling fulfilled and happy from my work as a teacher. I wanted to follow my dream of helping people live a healthier life. After careful planning, I started taking on health coaching clients over the spring. I also opened my online bakery, Pure Bliss Eats. For years I've been sharing my healthy baked goods and I wanted to take it to another level. I worked very hard over the summer of 2011 to build my business both as a health counselor and as the head of Pure Bliss Eats. Building my businesses over the summer allowed me to leave my teaching job. Some people thought I was crazy for leaving a secure job, but I felt like I'd be crazy to stay. I found my passion and I wanted to see where it would take me!

I am thrilled, proud and honored to present the very first Health Leadership Award to an outstanding graduate who has been a leader in the school food movement, a health educator, and role model for her children and her community:  Allison Carmen.

When I first met Allison, she was a young woman in her twenties, highly educated and a successful lawyer for a large New York City firm. As one of the thirty students in Integrative Nutrition’s very first class, she demonstrated an exceptional desire to understand the transformational effects that nutrition can have on our lives.

With curiosity and intelligence, Allison has continued to analyze and put into practice the ideas and energy she gained from that program. Her most recent project, The Book of Maybe is inspired by her time at IIN, as well as her experience as a business consultant and coach.

Early Adapter

Overworked, stressed and exhausted from her successful career in corporate America, Allison was seeking a way to heal herself and others. She recognized the possibility of holistic principles long before they had entered the mainstream.

In a world where marketing is constantly all around us, Integrative Nutrition recognizes the need for students to develop the skills to make their business stand out among the rest. We believe the services and products that our graduates offer are essential to making positive change, so the Health Coach Training Program aims to help students reach their business goals.

2010 graduate Heather Dubé, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, had a previous background in marketing and branding before enrolling at IIN. During the program she was able to really build on these skills, and now she’s thriving as a business owner, a functional nutritionist, a competitive figure athlete, and a writer for On Fitness Magazine and Livestrong.com. Read on to hear about the successful business skills Heather has developed, and for her tips on getting published!

What were you doing before Integrative Nutrition?

With jobs in human resources that have taken them around the world, Nicole van Hattem and Lauren Penny know what keeps a corporation running. Out of all the strategies they’ve learned and implemented, they’ve found one that’s proven to be most effective, and that’s a team of healthy employees.

On a mission to empower global wellness and maximize potential, Nicole, a 2011 Integrative Nutrition graduate of the Health Coach Training Program, and Lauren, a current student, founded Art of Abundant Living, and have experienced growing success since day one. Even more interesting, is the fact that their business is based in Doha, Qatar, a place with health trends unfamiliar to most people. Qatar was recently named the country with the most obese population in the world. This interview highlights how Nicole and Lauren got to where they are today, and how they plan to address the increasing health concerns in Qatar.

When did you first realize there was a strong need for health coaching in the corporate world?

Ada Azarya, a 2010 graduate living in Miami Beach, Florida, has always been passionate about chocolate. A few years ago, she discovered her passion for cooking, and in her kitchen, she found much more than the great product that launched her business; she also realized that what we eat affects the way we live. Now, as a graduate of the Health Coach Training Program, a raw/vegan chef, and the owner of an organic chocolate company, Ada’s health, self-confidence, and business have all taken off!

What led you to explore Integrative Nutrition's program?

Before IIN I was in Real Estate, but always had passion for cooking, especially because I was born in a country that is known for its hospitality and delicious cuisine, Baku, Azerbijan. When I got laid off in New York City in 2008 from a large real estate development firm, I decided to take some time off and follow my heart to find my true passions. I found myself being very interested in food channels, healthy eating books and books on spirituality. I also started making my own chocolate in all the free time that I had.

Antonella Palazio, a 2010 graduate who lives in Miami, Florida, focuses on educating people and getting them motivated to experiment and eat wholesome clean foods through her practice. But more than that, she believes food is simply one layer to pull back in discovering who we are. By sharing the basics of nutrition, she helps people link the “whys” and “hows” of changing food patterns. She chooses to use the word “how” over “what” one eats, because it favors the holistic mindset – that it is not just about food. “It entails the whole dimension of who we are, why we are here, and how to enrich our journey in our spiritual evolution,” said Antonella. “Food plays one of the many layers of our lives, and this became very clear in my own life through the Health Coach Training Program.”

What led you to explore Integrative Nutrition's program?

I had a desire to learn more about food than why we just eat to live. I had only heard of the dietician profession offered by universities that required a long, extended program. For me, discovering IIN represented a learning sabbatical. The scope of information became extensive and went beyond the traditional perspective to the holistic approach.

We’re on a mission to improve health and happiness throughout the entire world and we love to hear about students who are sharing what they’ve learned with international communities.

Nicole Fox, a 2011 graduate from Doral, Florida and a member of the South Florida Health Coaches, is a bilingual Health Coach who is using her ability to speak fluent Spanish to its full potential. She identified a need for health coaching within the Spanish-speaking community and is bringing all she learned in the Health Coach Training Program to people who otherwise may never have found guidance for their health struggles. From cooking classes to corporate lectures – and even a segment on a national TV show – here is someone who is truly spreading the ripple effect!

When looking at all that Diana Herrera has achieved, most notably a position as the vice president of a photo-imaging firm, one would never assume she was struggling to find an internal balance. Though she was excelling professionally, her health was deteriorating, and she knew she needed a change.

After graduating from the Health Coach Training Program in 2010, Diana is what you could call a professional life juggler. Living in Miami, Florida, she continues to work full time at the photo lab but also maintains a part time health coaching business. She has nailed down the act of balancing her career with her personal life and health by learning to connect her emotions to her eating habits.

She now helps others do the same through her practice Embrace Balance, and is one of the founders of South Florida Health Coaches, where she collaborates on retreats and events, and supports other Coaches’ individual business growth.

The 2012 Mega Conference was a huge success, thanks to the all our amazing speakers, students, grads and staff! With each live event, we continue to be inspired by the energy and excitement our community brings. This time around was special, because we felt the Mega Conference buzz all over the world via our social networks. People who weren’t able to make it to Long Beach could tracking Facebook posts, tweets and blog updates by thousands of attendees, and feel like they were part of the crowd.

17 outstanding live bloggers took their conference participation to the next level, by sharing updates with their fans and followers along the way. From pre-trip jitters to new nutrition concepts they learned, they gave us an inside look at the Mega Conference experience.