Marcella Raimondo

Multicultural Issues in Eating Disorders

<p>Marcella&rsquo;s social justice spirit came out of her reactions to the media glorification of the impossibly and unhealthy paradigm for women. She had a 10-year battle with anorexia nervosa in her teens and early twenties. After years of therapy and becoming a complete person, seeing thin and emaciated female models in magazines shocked and angered Marcella. They had the body sizes and shapes that mimicked hers while she was in the throes of her eating disorder. She had spent so many years moving away from that unhealthy ideal, only to have it glamorized and prized in pop culture.</p> <p>As a queer woman of color, Marcella struggled in her recovery because her symptoms and causation factors did not mirror those she read in mainstream eating disorder textbooks and biographies. After reading the testimonials of a diversity of women in Becky Thompson&rsquo;s &ldquo;A Hunger so Wide and so Deep&rdquo;, however, she found voices to relate to her own life experiences, She then realized that a huge gap exists in the treatment services for multicultural populations with eating disorders.&nbsp;Her dream is to open and run a clinic for multicultural populations dealing with eating disorders.</p> <p>In 1997, Marcella&nbsp;began working &nbsp;with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.about-face.org/">About-Face</a>, a nonprofit organization that addresses media impact on body image,&nbsp;and was an&nbsp;instrumental&nbsp;part of its early years. &nbsp;She was one of the creators of the organization&rsquo;s media-literacy workshops, and served as Director of Media Literacy&nbsp;until 2005. Today she remains on the About-Face Board of Founders.</p> <p>Marcella received her B.A. from UC Berkeley, and Master&rsquo;s Degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Marcella&rsquo;s passion to diminish eating disorders and all the pain and suffering that comes with it drove her to pursue her doctorate in clinical psychology, receiving her PhD in 2012. Marcella focused her research on the impact of binge eating disorder on work productivity and motivation to change using an on-line self-help modality. &nbsp;Marcella Raimondo currently serves as the lead Project Manager for the Behavioral Health Education program in the Regional Health Education department of Kaiser Permanante for the northern California region.</p> <p>In her free time, she spends time with her partner and friends enjoying the many treasures of the Bay Area. She appreciates her healthy and strong body by training in Kajukenbo at&nbsp;<a href="http://www.handtohandkajukenbo.com/">Hand to Hand</a>&nbsp;Martial Arts center in Oakland. She was awarded her brown belt in February 2010 and enjoys the exploratory path her training gives her.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p>

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