Our Mission
Bites of Hope’s mission is to improve the health and well-being of all individuals living with cancer, by providing holistic health coaching services, nutrition information and wellness guidance.
We provide nutrition counseling and consulting to community organizations, care providers and the medical community.
Our Services
- Holistic Health Coaching: It’s often hard to make the transition from a diet lacking in whole foods to a healthy, cancer-fighting strategic health plan! Our volunteers help our clients make this transition, by providing a positive presence and guidance regarding which foods to keep and which to toss. Our coaching plans, designed for the newly diagnosed patient, involve bi-monthly individual phone or Skype consultations, educational ebooks, recipes and teleseminars.
- Cooking for Caregivers Classes: The folks caring for cancer patients don’t often get a lot of support, particularly when it comes to nutrition information, yet they’re the ones who are often cooking for the patient in their life. Our classes are designed to meet this need, by providing web-based presentations and cooking demonstrations that teach the basics of nutrition and cooking skills. After our classes, participants leave with lots of useful information and delicious, healthy, cancer-fighting recipes.
- Consulting: We provide nutrition consulting services to care providers, community organizations and the medical community to increase the awareness of the link between nutrition and cancer recovery.
- Client Advocacy: We help our clients access a broad range of cancer support services by referring them to other agencies in their geographic area that can potentially meet their specific needs.
Our Leadership Team
Christa Cordova, Founder
Christa founded Bites of Hope in 2010 after several close personal experiences with cancer led her to the realization that there wasn’t adequate, consumer-oriented information about the links between cancer and nutrition available to patients and their families. Prior to forming Bites of Hope, Christa operated a successful marketing consulting firm, C Cordova Consulting, to help small and midsize businesses develop business plans, go-to-market strategies, new product/service launches, better understand their customers through segmentation/research studies and plan successful marketing campaigns. Prior to starting CCC, Christa worked in various marketing, communications and public relations roles for General Electric, Ace Hardware Corporation and ThermoSpas. Christa received her undergraduate degree in journalism from the University of Kansas, is a certified holistic health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is currently pursuing her master’s certificate in the foundations of public health through the University of Michigan. In Fall of 2011, Christa will begin working on her master’s in nutrition. She has lived and worked in three countries and eight states. Christa can be reached directly at ccordova@bitesofhope.org.
Christa has received generous mentoring and support from:
Joe Cordova
Joe brings more than 30 years of experience in non-profit leadership to Bites of Hope. While working with the Boys and Girls Clubs, Joe served as Chief Principal Officer of the Farmington, Waco, Fort Worth and Scottsdale clubs and was nationally recognized for his outstanding leadership qualities and multiple successful initiatives. He currently works with FirstPic, Inc as a non-profit industry consultant and resides in Albuquerque, NM. He earned his bachelors degree from the University of New Mexico.
Ali Shapiro
Ali combines her education in nutrition, mindfulness-based stress reduction and coaching with her passion for wellness and experience as an 18-year cancer survivor to support clients in making lasting wellness changes by addressing the mind, body, and spirit connection. She is a Certified Health Coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and Columbia University. Ali has a background in coaching and sustainablity from her Masters at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a regular health contributor on the NBC Philadelphia 10! Show and has also been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Delicious Living, Daily Candy and The Philadelphia Women’s Journal.
Allison Eckelkamp
Allison is President and Owner of AME Communications, LLC, an Atlanta-based strategic communications business, helping companies deliver the right message, to the right audience, in the most effective way. While AME focuses primarily on the energy industry, Allison has spent years in business-to-business and business-to-consumer corporate communications roles, beginning her career in GE’s Communications Leadership Development Program and completing rotations at GE Advanced Materials, GE Consumer & Industrial and GE Energy. In addition to her corporate experience, Allison has worked in sales, as well as non-profit fundraising and development. While in college, she contributed to several chapters of the Webster’s New World Grant Writing Handbook by Sara Wilson. Allison graduated from Syracuse University with a double major in Public Relations and Policy Studies. She currently resides in Atlanta, GA with her dog “Breezy.”
Kaajal Singh
Kaajal, an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, brings significant health care consulting, financial and management experience to the Bites of Hope team. She has extensive experience in consulting to hospitals, health systems and payers, as well as significant financial management, merger and acquisition, and quality improvement experience, including Six Sigma Black Belt training. Kaajal has worked extensively with public and private health systems in the United States, Europe and Asia. She has conducted international public health care research and worked with numerous NGOs and on private and public sector partnership work. Kaajal earned her Bachelor’s degree in Corporate Finance from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management and her Masters in Healthcare Administration from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities. Kaajal resides in Washington, DC, where she is active in the health policy and management community.
Chris Gibson
Chris, a Director of Strategic Marketing at GE, is responsible for the implementation of strategic marketing initiatives across the company, focused on pricing, value proposition development and commercial execution. Prior to his current role, Chris held a variety of positions with GE Consumer & Industrial and graduated from the company’s Experienced Commercial Leadership Program. Following Hurricane Katrina, Chris led a substantial GE donation program to aid New Orleans schools and has worked with Habitat for Humanity in New Orleans and New Jersey. He also served as the community service leader for ECLP while he was completing the program. Chris holds a Bachelor of Industrial Design from Auburn University and an MBA from Louisiana State University. He currently resides in Stamford, Connecticut.
Additional supporters:
Kurt Lobaugh, US Armed Services Liasion
Mark Lobaugh, MD FACOG, Interim Medical Director
