Donna Fish

Donna Fish is a licensed clinical social worker with a private practice in Manhattan, where she lives with her husband and three daughters. She graduated summa cum laude from McGill University in Montreal, and with honors from Columbia University. She has been an adjunct faculty member at the Columbia University School of Social Work and is an affiliate staff member at the Center for Study of Anorexia and Bulimia. Ms. Fish is a guest lecturer for the departments of social work and psychiatry at Mount Sinai Hospital and Bellevue Hospital in New York City. She is a frequent consultant to the private and public schools, and to New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services, Head Start, and Child Advocacy Services of Manhattan, and a presenter at the Renfrew Center’s Annual Conference on Eating Disorders.  Ms. Fish co-wrote the script and was the on-camera spokesperson for a show on anxiety disorders produced for LIFETIME TELEVISION. She was also the expert for a show on body image on National Public Radio’s ‘The Infinite Mind’, has been interviewed for the parenting column of the CBC Radio, Canada.

With the publication of her book: Take the Fight out of Food: How to Prevent and Solve Your Child’s Eating Problems, Ms. Fish has been interviewed for many publications, including Better Homes and Gardens, Parenting, In Touch Weekly, ParentGuide News, First for Women, Today’s Parent, USA Today, USA Weekend. Interviews on multiple radio shows include NPR’s show ‘A Chef’s Table’ on WHYY, NYC’s 1010 WINS, NYC’s 106.7 lite FM’s current affairs show, as well as many national newspapers. She has presented her lecture “Creating Effective Eating Habits in Children and Teens” to the Tenafly School District in New Jersey, the Parent Action Committee of Long Island, Wellesley College Early Childhood Center and Dept. of Education, Sarah Lawrence College Early Childhood Center, Georgetown University, and she has trained the Head Start Staff of NYC in her “Take the Fight out of Food” program.  Television appearances have included the WEEKEND TODAY SHOW, FOX NEWS CHANNEL, AND MSNBC.

A former dancer, Ms. Fish has served as a consultant for the staff at the School of American Ballet and the professional training program of the Steps Dance School in NYC.   She is available for lectures on eating issues to audiences that include schools, (teachers, students, and parent associations.) college campuses, medical facilities, and community centers.

MOST REQUESTED TOPICS:
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Your Child and Their Food, But Didn’t Know Who to Ask
Giving our kids healthy eating habits is something all parents want.  How to do this in a realistic way that empowers them, is what this talk will focus on.  Whether it be your elementary school child or your teenager about to set off to college, this talk will give you the tools to motivate and inspire your child to know how to feed themselves, and how to take the pressure and struggle out of mealtimes.

Navigating any issues regarding kids and food; from the old:  “Mom, am I fat?”  to “I want to be a vegetarian”, to the ‘Picky” and “Beige Food Eaters” are just a few of the questions that can be discussed in a way that will be informative and something all can relate to.  In this day and age of supersize portions, junk food, rising rates of obesity and pressures to be thin, you will leave this lecture feeling reassured that you can have the tools to help your child have healthy eating habits that can last them a lifetime. 

Thin After 30'
This lecture will focus on the specific needs the 30 and beyond set face:  The slowing down of your metabolism, the changes in your lifestyle, and How to Deal with the Extra 10, 20 lbs. that just won’t budge after child bearing?

Armed with cutting edge nutrition, and exercise physiology information, this lecture will focus on providing you with the tools to integrate ways that fit for your lifestyle and your personality.  You may not be failing your diet in fact, your diet could be failing you.  All will come away with tips to make the kinds of changes that not only work and are effective, but that fit for your unique ‘food personality’, and lifestyle. 

Creating Effective Partnership with Families and Giving Our Kids Healthy Eating Habits That Last a Lifetime
We are a nation of expert dieters.  Yet, we are a nation that is plagued with rising rates of obesity, and disordered eating.  Giving our kids the tools to eat rationally when they are faced with supersized portions, despite the push to remove sodas and vending machines filled with junk food from school cafeterias, continues to be a challenge.

This lecture focuses on ways your organization can create programs to interface with families in a realistic way, so that we work together to empower our children to have not only healthy eating habits, but the tools to eat in a rational way for the rest of their lives.  Whether it is helping your teachers work with children in the classroom, developing health programs in your community, or simply working with families and with your own family, you will come away from this lecture with strategies, tips and tools that work toward the goal of giving our children a rational approach to food that lasts them a lifetime.

Preventing the Freshmen 15
Do you have a highschooler about to set off to college?  Are you the high schooler about to head off to school?  Food can weight issues, are often a source of stress, and can become a source of tension between parents and kids.

This lecture will have a dual focus:  Helping you as the soon to be, or already freshman,  focus on the realities you will face at college and give you strategies to help offset and prevent the Freshman 15, without being held hostage to ‘perfectly healthy’ eating.  For the parents, we will target the issues that will arise that you can focus on as you help your high schooler prepare to be in charge of their own food, and the issues that you will both navigate when your college freshman, sophomore, junior and senior, return home for visits.  Nutritional needs of college athletes, dancers, as well as preventing eating disorders from developing, will also be focused on.