Food Studies Institute is a small group of experienced professionals doing BIG things!
We are dedicated to helping our school and community partners develop world class food literacy education programs at home and abroad. We have over 25 years of experience and we’d love to work with your community. Contact us!
Staff
Antonia Demas, PhD
Founder and President
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Antonia Demas is the author of Food is Elementary (FIE), an interdisciplinary curriculum for people of all ages. FIE is a hands-on curriculum that teaches students and their families about food, nutrition, cooking, gardening, and ecology through multicultural lesson plans integrated with the academic disciplines. Food is used as a sensory-based vehicle to teach these disciplines in a way that is fun and hands-on. FIE engages a variety of learning styles. Students who often do not perform well in the conventional academic setting excel with FIE because their creativity and special talents are given a venue to shine within the classroom. FIE has been successfully implemented in schools in the U.S., from Hawaii to Vermont as well as abroad.
Antonia believes that it is crucial that we educate children beginning at an early age about how to prevent the development of many chronic diseases and what we can do to mitigate climate change. Food Studies Institute (FSI) works with schools and communities to develop research plans to document the effect FIE has on academic performance, the health of people and the planet, and behavior. FSI’s goal is to have food literacy education in all schools so students will have access to information that will benefit individuals and the planet
Antonia holds a Bachelor’s degree from Goddard College and a Master’s degree and Ph.D. from Cornell University.
Ariel Demas, MA
Vice President
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Ariel grew up near Ithaca, New York where she learned cooking and gardening at a young age. In elementary school, she participated in her mother Antonia’s pioneering food education lessons in the classroom and after school program. After graduating from Cornell University with a BS in Sociology, Ariel began teaching at Hampstead Hill Academy in Baltimore, Maryland where she developed an experiential food literacy education program based on the Food is Elementary curriculum. After three years of grant funding, the program became a permanent part of the school curriculum and culture and continues to thrive almost 20 years later. The program includes nutrition and multicultural cooking classes for students in Pre-K through Grade 8, after school gardening and culinary arts clubs, community dinners, international nights, school wellness activities, and more. In 2021, Ariel returned to New York to work for the Food Studies Institute. She is a licensed K-6 teacher and holds a Master’s in Education from Goddard College in addition to certificates in Montessori Education, Culinary Arts, Plant-Based Nutrition, and is a Master Gardener.
Board of Directors
Food Studies Institute Board of Directors is a group of distinguished professionals who are pioneers in the fields of nutrition, medicine and education.
Mary Bouchard, MBA, CPA
T. Colin Campbell, PhD
Antonia Demas, PhD
Ariel Demas, MA
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., MD
Carolyn Landis
Michelle Heller
Barbara Orlando
Michael Ronemus
Joan Peven Smith
Harvey Zarren, M.D., F.A.C.C.
Mary Bouchard, MBA, CPA - Treasurer
Mary Bouchard is a self-employed CPA licensed in New York. She has taught at Elmira College and Ithaca College, and has worked in a number of financial capacities including small business development, accounting and auditing. She has also served on the boards of a number of nonprofit organizations and is active in local government. She holds an MBA from the University of Chicago and got her undergraduate degree from Alfred University. She has been a backyard beekeeper for over a decade and is an avid cyclist.
T. Colin Campbell, PhD
For decades T. Colin Campbell, PhD has been at the forefront of nutrition education and research. Dr. Campbell’s expertise and scientific interests encompass relationships between diet and disease, particularly the causation of cancer. His legacy, the China Project, is one of the most comprehensive studies of health and nutrition ever conducted. The New York Times has recognized the study as the “Grand Prix of epidemiology”. Dr. Campbell is the coauthor of the bestselling book The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health, and author of the New York Times bestseller Whole, and The Low-Carb Fraud. He is featured in several documentaries including: the blockbuster Forks Over Knives, Eating You Alive, Food Matters, PlantPure Nation and others. He is the founder of the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and the online Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate in partnership with eCornell. Dr. Campbell has conducted original research both in laboratory experiments and in large-scale human studies; received over 70 grant-years of peer-reviewed research funding (mostly with NIH), served on grant review panels of multiple funding agencies, actively participated in the development of national and international nutrition policy, authored over 300 research papers and given hundreds of lectures around the world. He was trained at Cornell University (M.S., Ph.D.) and MIT (Research Associate) innutrition, biochemistry and toxicology. Dr. Campbell spent 10 years on the faculty of Virginia Tech’s Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition before returning to Cornell in 1975 where he presently holds his Endowed Chair as the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry in the Division of Nutritional Sciences.
Antonia Demas, PhD - Founder and President
Antonia D’Amico Demas has a Ph.D. in education, nutrition, and anthropology from Cornell University. Antonia has worked in various capacities for over 50 years developing food-based curricula and teaching food-studies in a variety of educational settings with people of diverse ages, as well as ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Because of her excitement about the learning and health improvements that occurs among children when they have positive, sensory-based, hands-on experience with food, she has devoted herself to engaging in research to document this observation scientifically. Her dissertation won two national awards for Excellence and Creativity. Antonia has been a Visiting Scholar at Tufts University, Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, the University of Kentucky School of Public Health, Florida International University, and at the University of Illinois Medical School, Rockford.
Ariel Demas, MA
Ariel Demas is an experienced food educator. She began working with the Food Studies Institute in 2004, when she was hired to initiate a food education program at a Baltimore City Public School serving students in Pre-K – 8th grade. After teaching for nearly two decades, Ariel joined the Food Studies Institute on a full-time basis in June 2021. She has experience with teacher training, program development, grant writing and management, farm to school initiatives, school gardening, and health education. Ariel is a licensed K-6 teacher and holds certificates in Food Education, Montessori Elementary Education, Diabetes Education, Plant-Based Nutrition, Culinary Arts, Master Gardener, along with a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a Master’s degree in Education from Goddard College.
Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr., MD
Dr. Caldwell B. Esselstyn, Jr. was a researcher and clinician at the Cleveland Clinic for more than thirty-five years. In 1991, he served as the president of the American Association of Endocrine Surgeons and organized the first National Conference on the Elimination of Heart Disease. In 2005, he became the first recipient of the Benjamin Spock Award for Compassion in Medicine. He is the author of “Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease“, backed by the irrefutable results from his 20-year study proving changes in diet and nutrition can actually cure heart disease. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University and an M.D. from Western Reserve University.
Carolyn Landis - Secretary
Carolyn is a successful entrepreneur who advises executives on developing business plans and raising private placement capital. For nonprofit clients, she guides the strategic planning process and advises on organizational issues. Based in Princeton, NJ, Carolyn provides strategic services through Catalyst Partners, LLC where she is a Managing Member. Prior to becoming a consultant, she served as CEO of a NY-based computer refurbishing-training firm and a NJ-based restaurant holding company. Earlier, she directed consulting, member services, and financial affairs as an officer of a non-profit consortium of 500 universities dealing with technology. Carolyn has served on boards of several corporations, universities, and nonprofit organizations. She currently serves as a director of nonprofit corporations including: HERSnetwork.org, the premier professional development organization for women in higher education administration; PerScholas.org, a nonprofit corporation which launches talented individuals in tech careers through tuition-free training; the President’s Council of Cornell Women, professional alumnae who work to advance women at the university; and McDaniel College, an outstanding private liberal arts college in Westminster, MD. Carolyn sings with Princeton Pro Musica, an auditioned chorus and orchestra which performs choral masterworks and new choral compositions by American composers. Carolyn has edited six books and given numerous conference presentations primarily on the application of computing in higher education.
Carolyn earned her bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at Cornell University, an MA in Latin American Studies at Rutgers University, and an MPA in public policy at the Princeton University School of Public & International affairs. Carolyn has served as a Director and Secretary of the Food Studies Institute since its founding in 1999. She also served as Treasurer from 1999 to 2002.
Michelle Heller
Michelle is co-founder of the LIFE Farm-to-School program for the Lopez Island School District, located off the coast of Washington State. Ms. Heller also serves as a member of the Chairman’s Council for Conservation International and as a Trustee for the University of Washington’s Henry Art Gallery, the regional museum for contemporary art. The University of Washington is Michelle’s alma mater, from which she graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Interior Design. Michelle is co-founder of Heller Family Foundation, whose mission is to promote health and vitality of the environment, the community and the individual by supporting initiatives in education, sustainability and the arts.
Barbara Orlando
Barbara served as communications director, presidential speechwriter and newsletter editor with MTA NYC Transit for almost 20 years. A native of Michigan, she has a BA from Cornell University, majored in English, and was elected to Mortar Board. She is a charter member of the President’s Council of Cornell Women, regularly served on its steering committee and, in 2010, planned and edited its 20th anniversary history. She is a past Cornell Council member and director of the Publicity Club of New York. Barbara lives in Manhattan, New York City.
Michael B. Ronemus
Michael B. Ronemus is an attorney in New York City who has extensive experience in litigation covering a wide range of legal areas. Because of his medical school education, he is uniquely qualified in the areas of medical malpractice and personal injury. In his more than 30 years of practice, he has achieved an impressive record of success, having tried more than a hundred cases to verdict and winning millions in compensation for his clients. He is known throughout New York for his deep knowledge of traumatic brain injury cases.
After earning a Bachelor of Science from the University of Colorado in 1977, he attended Vanderbilt University Medical School and then enrolled in the New York University School of Law where he received his J.D. in 1983.
Mr. Ronemus was an assistant district attorney in Brooklyn, New York, and he started his own practice in 1990. Mr Ronemus and Robert Vilensky have practiced as partners of their firm, Ronemus & Vilensky for 30 years.
Mr. Ronemus has lectured throughout the country on topics including motor vehicle law, traumatic brain injury, insurance law, negligent security cases, and medical malpractice. In his spare time he loves skiing, surfing, golfing and spending time with his children and his grandchildren.
Joan Peven Smith
Joan is involved in numerous communal and civic organizations and serves on a number of boards. Her interests are focused on preventive medicine, childhood education, youth at risk and the arts.
Currently she is a director emeritus of Florida International University (FIU) foundation board. At FIU’s College of Medicine, she created the Joan and Harry B. Smith lecture services that brings notable speakers on preventive medicine, especially plant based/whole foods. Joan also serves on the board of the Ear Peace Foundation that focuses on the impact and prevention of noise induced hearing loss.
Joan is a board member of Food Studies Institute, and she is a former board member of the funding arts network which supports visual and performing arts programs in Miami. She is also a member of the Coconut Grove Woman’s Club which is dedicated to the promotion of public welfare, education, civic improvement, historic preservation and the advancement of the arts and culture. Joan is a past board chair of the Children’s Home Society (SE division) that provides vital services to strengthen the family unit.
Harvey Zarren, M.D., F.A.C.C.
Dr. Zarren is the Founder and Physician Director of The Healing Connection, a hospital based program at the Union Hospital, North Shore Medical Center, in Lynn, Massachusetts. The Healing Connection is a working practice that places people and the value of human interaction back into the center of the healing process. Dr. Zarren is also the Founder and Medical Director of the Healing Your Heart Program at the Union Hospital. Healing Your Heart is a low cost program for the treatment and reversal of heart disease.
Since 1982, Dr. Zarren has been an Assistant Clinical Professor in Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Zarren is on the Boards of The Association of Healing Health Care Projects, the Integrated Medicine Alliance and The Food Studies Institute. He is a Patron of New Approaches to Cancer based in Surrey, England. He is currently President of the New England Society of Clinical Hypnosis.
A physician trained in conventional Cardiology, Dr. Zarren’s practice and approach to healing has included a focus on nutrition as a cornerstone of cardiac wellness and has emphasized hope, personal responsibility fostered by education, and the value of human relationships in the prevention and treatment of heart disease.
In his professional efforts, Dr. Zarren is focused on the prevention and aggressive treatment of atherosclerosis (the number one cause of death in the United States). Dr. Zarren is also interested and involved in changing school nutrition as a way to implement disease prevention and as a way to improve student behavior in school. Dr. Zarren speaks and presents workshops around the United States and internationally.
