Spotlight

Julianna Crider

Metabolic Nutritionist, Weisskopf Center

How long have you worked in Pediatrics?   3 years

What is your favorite thing about your job? 

As a metabolic nutritionist, I’m in communication monthly, weekly, and sometimes daily with a number of my patients. As a result, I experience life with my patients as they tell me what is going on that affects their food plan, and I get the privilege of joining them in their journey of health with all the added challenges of having a metabolic disorder. Watching my patients grow up, witnessing the devotion of their parents, celebrating families who achieve health in spite of incredible odds, and getting to be a part of that success is my favorite thing.

What is your hometown? Santa Barbara, California

What is your favorite movie? Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy based on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, which I love.

Tell us about your family: It’s new! I recently got married to Kevin Edman. I have three siblings, and Kevin has six siblings, and they’re all in our wedding.

Do you have pets?  I don’t have pets now, but I love dogs, and I had Cocker Spaniels growing up. To entertain my siblings, I would put the dogs on my lap, wave their paws around and narrate in a funny voice whatever was going on from the dog’s point of view. I don’t think the Cockers enjoyed the experience, but it was a great distraction for the siblings.

What are you doing, where are you going, for your next vacation? Kevin and I are going hiking in Glacier National Park for our honeymoon.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? I wanted to be a missionary and tell people in other countries about Jesus.

What is one of your proudest accomplishments? Surviving organic chemistry.

What is your favorite quote? My current favorite is a line from a poem by William Blake: “Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a heaven in hell's despair.”

What was your first job? I was the dietitian for Our Lady of Peace psychiatric hospital. I was required to take self-defense training in case I was ever attacked by a patient and needed to break free without hurting the patient.

What is your favorite ice cream? Double dark chocolate from Homestead Creamery, a dairy farm near my former home in Virginia that churns their own ice cream on site. Fortunately for my career, I didn’t live there long.