DIRECTOR OF DIETARY SERVICES - ADULT ED RTC

Jamie Atkins, RD, CEDRD

Jamie Atkins RD, CEDRD, is the Director of Dietary Services for the Adult RTC at Center for Discovery.  She has a passion for helping people meet their nutritional needs without losing sight of the social and emotional value of food. With a non-judgmental approach, Jamie helps people create a healthy relationship among food, mind, & body.  She believes in helping her clients to find their own path, thus allowing them to take ownership of their recovery, and at times does so utilizing a DBT informed approach she developed for Dietitians.  She has worked in the field for over a decade, and has experience working in all levels of care; hospitalization, residential treatment, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient, and outpatient.

Jamie is a Licensed Body Positive Facilitator and is an advocate for putting an end to weight stigma while spreading the message of size acceptance through speaking publicly on the topic across the country.  She has also spoken on various other topics related to eating disorders at the national and international level.  She is active in the community, both by raising eating disorder and weight stigma awareness and being on the board of the Los Angeles Chapter of the International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals (iaedp) serving as the Social Media Chair, and Association of Size Diversity and Health serving as a Member At Large.  Jamie believes the most important step in helping a client on the path to recovery is meeting them where they are, and helping them to build a recovery they can see for themselves, bringing together mind, body, and soul.

PROGRAM DIRECTOR, REGIONAL DIRECTOR

Diandra Medina, M.A., MFT

Diandra has a little over ten years of experience in working with co-occurring disorders. She completed her BA in Psychology at UCSD and MA in Marriage and Family Therapy through Alliant International University. She has remained in the San Diego area since her time in undergraduate school and has various experiences in multiple treatment settings throughout the community. Diandra incorporates a systemic dynamic in her therapeutic work. Throughout her experience, she started to gain a deeper appreciation for the significant role the physical body and awareness of the body plays in an individual’s recovery process.

Following this insight, Diandra completed additional trainings, including 200 hour yoga teacher and Reiki level 2, in order to be able to offer a more holistic approach for her clients. Aside from her work as Program Director for Center for Discovery, she has a private practice in the central San Diego area and is beginning to provide trainings for professionals on how yoga and mindfulness can positively impact the nervous system and overall therapeutic process.

REGISTERED DIETITAN

Ian Cohen, RD

Ian Cohen is a Registered Dietitian that passionately believes in eating disorder recovery as a renewal of emotional, physical and mental health. Ian earned his Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and completed his Didactic Program in Dietetics at California State University at Northridge, during which he spent three years as a dietetic technician working in eating disorder treatment. He then completed his Dietetic Internship through a dual program at the University of Kentucky and Lexington Veterans Affairs Hospital.

While Ian is devoted to exemplary and empathetic treatment on an individual level at Center for Discovery, he also seeks to apply his principles to a societal platform that will increase body acceptance and deconstruct false narratives about public health. He is currently a member of International Association of Eating Disorder Professionals and International Federation of Eating Disorder Dietitians and engaged on a local level with the San Diego Food Bank, the San Diego Food System Alliance and the San Diego Hunger Coalition.

PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES

Dr. Nicole Posner, MD

Nicole Posner, M.D. is a board-certified psychiatrist in private practice in San Diego. A graduate of the University of Vermont with a degree in psychology, she received her medical degree from The Sackler School of Medicine. Dr. Posner trained in psychiatry at The Mount Sinai School of Medicine and also obtained post-graduate training in psychotherapy at the San Diego Psychoanalytic Institute and at Columbia University Psychoanalytic Training and Research. She has extensive experience in working with people who are struggling with eating disorders.

PHYSICIAN

Martin Schulman

A native of Long Beach, California, Dr. Schulman majored in biochemistry at UC Berkeley in 1981. He graduated from the UC San Diego School of Medicine in 1985 then completed the Memorial Family Medicine Residency Program in Long Beach in 1988. After spending a year working in a small group practice, he joined the clinical faculty at UC San Diego, where he spent the next 15 years splitting his time between administrative, clinical, and teaching duties.

In 2005 Dr. Schulman opened a solo family medicine practice in nearby Encinitas but he maintains his ties to the UC San Diego School of Medicine as a part-time faculty member with the PACE Program and as a small group facilitator in the Practice of Medicine course for first and second year students. Prior to joining Center for Discovery, he spent four years as the medical director of an eating disorder residential treatment center for adolescents and adults.

FACILITY MANAGER/NURSE ADMINISTRATOR

Cacao Buck, BA

Cacao oversees the treatment and management of the Center for Discovery house in Del Mar. She graduated from The University of Iowa with her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology (Criminology). She plans to pursue her Masters degree in Criminology. Before coming to Center for Discovery, Cacao worked as a facility manager/supervisor at New Alternatives. New Alternatives is a short term residential treatment program that houses teenagers. She has worked with teens in this group home setting for 3 years. She also has previous work experience in the health care setting. Cacao strives to help those in need, which is why she accepted a position here at Center for Discovery.