About

Kelly Issokson, MS, RD, LDN, specializes in treating patients with IBD, small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), and IBS.  She also helps patients with other GI conditions, such as celiac disease, diverticulosis, and short gut.

For telehealth, professional consulting, mentoring, public speaking, professional writing, and more, contact gidietitianassistant@gmail.com

Education

  • B.S. Culinary Nutrition, Johnson & Wales University, RI 2006
  • M.S. Nutrition, California State University Northridge, CA 2010

Certifications/Registration

  • Registered Dietitian, 2009
  • Licensed Dietitian, Nutritionist, PA

Work Experience

  • University of California, San Francisco, 2025-present
    • Senior RD, Outpatient Nutrition Services
  • Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 2009-2025
    • Clinical Nutrition Coordinator, Digestive Diseases
    • Course Director, Apprenticeship Director, Cedars-Sinai Advanced Dietary IBD Education and Training (DIET) Program

Speaking Engagements

Allegheny Health Network Annual IBD Summit

  • 2021 Speaker: Can diet influence IBD?
  • 2019 Speaker:
    • Diet and IBD. What we need to know?
    • Pitfalls in Gluten free diet for Celiac disease.

American Society for Colon & Rectal Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting

  • 2021 Speaker at Annual Conference: Perioperative Nutrition Needs in IBD

Advances in IBD Annual Scientific Conference

  • 2022 Panelist: “Diet as Therapy” and “Managing Mild Crohn’s” sessions
  • 2020 Panelist:
    • Talking Nutrition With Your Patients
    • Perianal Crohn’s Disease: When to Treat and When to Refer

American College of Gastroenterology

  • 2020 Virtual Annual Scientific Meeting and Postgraduate Course: The Emerging Role of Diet in IBD Management: Physician and Nutritionist Perspectives, with co-speaker Dr. Jonathan Leighton

American Gastroenterology Association

  • 2023 Co-Course Director (with Dr. Oriana Damas) – for AGA’s educational series “Expert Exchange: Nutrition in IBD”
  • 2020: RD Expert for Roundtable Meeting on Defining High Value Care in IBD

American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) and the Institute for Medical and Nursing Education (IMNE)

  • 2020 Faculty for Virtual Program: Taking the Path to Improved Care for Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: The IBD Masters Series.

Academy of Nutrition & Dietetics                                

  • 2022  Food and Nutrition Conference & Expo: Speaker and Panelist for session on “Nutrition Complications of Gastrointestinal Disorders: An Integrative and Multimodal Approach to Treatment”
  • 2020 Virtual Conference Food and Nutrition Conference & Expo, Digestive Diseases Nutrition Series: Using Diet as Therapy for IBD with co-speaker Dr. Eric Vasiliauskas
  • 2019 Washington, D.C.: Lead for development of IBD Nutrition Workshop
  • 2019 California Orange District Meeting: Speaker on Perioperative Nutrition Needs for the Colectomy Patient
  • 2018 California Orange District Annual Meeting: Speaker on Use of Enteral Nutrition and Real Foods to Achieve & Maintain Remission in IBD
  • 2016 California Annual Meeting: Speaker on the topic of Nutritional Management of IBD
  • 2016 Nebraska Member Meeting: Speaker on the topic of Nutritional Management of SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth)
  • 2015 California Orange District Annual Conference: Led roundtable discussion on low FODMAP diet for treatment of IBS

California State University, Northridge: Annual Dietetic Internship Bootcamp

  • 2021 Speaker for session on “IBD Diet and Nutrition Therapy”
  • 2020 Speaker for session on “IBD Diet and Nutrition Therapy”
  • 2019 Speaker for session on “IBD Diet and Nutrition Therapy”

Crohn’s & Colitis Congress

  • 2022 5th Annual Meeting: “IBD A to Z” Panelist
  • 2021 4th Annual Meeting (virtual): Co-Moderator for Holistic View of IBD Session; Panelist for Case Discussions on Surgery and Medical Management of IBD
  • 2020 3rd Annual Meeting: Speaker for session on IBD Beyond the Gut: What You Need to Know From Other Specialists; Moderator for IBD Patient Quality of Life: Pain, Fatigue and Nutrition
  • 2019 2nd Annual Meeting: Co-Lead with James Lewis for Nutrition Workshop; Panelist for Multidisciplinary Review of Cases
  • 2018 Inaugural Meeting: Speaker on the Nutrition Care Pathway for Adult IBD; Panelist for Multidisciplinary Review of Cases

Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation 2015 to present

  • Nutrition expert/consultant for the development of CCF’s GutFriendlyRecipes.org website
  • IBD RD faculty for webinars: Special Considerations for Malnutrition in IBD Patients, and IBD, Diet, and Nutrition
  • Nutrition expert/consultant for the development of CCF’s Nutrition Care Pathway for adult IBD patients
  • RD speaker at Patient Education Conferences (Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Santa Ana) as well as Support Group meetings (Tarzana)

Cedars-Sinai GI Conference, California –Annual Scientific Meeting                              

  • 2022 Speaker for Breakout Session on Perioperative Nutrition in IBD with Dr. Eric Vasiliauskas
  • 2021 Speaker for Breakout Session on ERAS (enhanced recovery after surgery) in IBD with Dr. Karen Zaghiyan
  • 2019 Speaker at Breakout Session Complete IBD Care: Utilizing Your Dietary and Psychosocial Resources
  • 2017 Speaker on the topic of Integrative Nutritional Therapy for IBD

Cedars-Sinai Department of Medicine’s GI Grand Rounds

  • 2019 Speaker on “Perioperative Nutrition for IBD”
  • 2015 Co-speaker (with Dr. Vasiliauskas) on the topic of Diet Therapy for IBD

FOOD: The Main Course to Digestive Health Annual Conference

  • 2021: Speaker, “Dietary treatments for IBD: What the dietitian needs to know”

Kasr Al-Aini Endoscopy, Hepatology and Gastroenterology 17th Annual Congress

  • 2022 Speaker: How To Utilize a Dietitian in Your GI Practice

The MILESTONE initiative (Merging IBD Leaders Education to Standardize Training, Organize Networks, and Implement EPAs): Education Innovation for Advanced IBD Fellows in the USA

  • 2024 Faculty: Managing Diet and Nutritional Health in the IBD Patient
  • 2023 Faculty: Managing Diet and Nutritional Health in the IBD Patient
  • 2022 Faculty: Managing Diet and Nutritional Health in the IBD Patient

University of Chicago IBD Center, Section of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition

  • 2019 Visiting Professor: Speaker on Perioperative Nutrition Needs in IBD

University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

  • 2020 Virtual Conference: UCSF Updates in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Served as RD faculty, speaking on “Diet and IBD: What Every GI Should Know”

USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology & USC Keck School of Medicine

  • 2020 Supervised Practice Lecture for MS degree students, “Nutrition Therapy in IBD”

United Ostomy Association of America, California                               

  • 2017 Annual Meeting. Speaker on the topic of Nutritional Therapy for the Ostomate

 

Publications

Research Papers – Peer-Reviewed (Published) 

1. Tinsley, Andrew; Ehrlich, Orna; Hwang, Caroline; Issokson, Kelly; Zapala, Sophia; Weaver, Alandra; Siegel, Corey A; Melmed, Gil. Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs Regarding the Role of Nutrition in IBD Among Patients and Providers. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, 2016 Oct;22(10):2474–2481. doi:10.1097/mib.0000000000000901. 

2. Issokson Kelly. Living on Liquids: Surviving and Thriving on Exclusive Enteral Nutrition. Am J Gastroenterol. 2017 Oct;112(10):1491-1492. doi: 10.1038/ajg.2017.269. 

3. Hwang, Caroline; Issokson, Kelly; Giguere-Rich, Catherine; Reddy, Swapna; Tinsley, Andrew; Van Been, Welmoed K; Bray, Harry; Lum, Donald; Aguilar, Humberto; Zisman, Timothy L, Younes, Ziad; Crate, Damara; Oberai, Ridhima; Weaver, Alandra; Melmed, Gil; Siegel, Corey; Hou, Jason K. Development and Pilot Testing of the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Nutrition Care Pathway. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2020 Jun 26;S1542-3565(20)30902-2. doi: 10.1016/j.cgh.2020.06.039. 

4. Issokson, Kelly, Vasiliauskas, Eric. Exclusive Enteral Nutrition in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: An Under-Appreciated Therapeutic Gem. Practical Gastro. 2023 Jan 47(1): 25-41. 

5. Weissman, Simcha, Fung, Brian. M., Bangolo, Ayrton, Rashid, Atif, Khan, Badar F., Tirumala, Aditya. K. G., Nagpaul, Sneha, Cornwell, Samuel, Karamthoti, Praveena, Murugan, Vignesh, Taranichi, Ihsan. S., Kalinin, Maksim, Wishart, Annetta, Khalaf, Ibtihal, Kodali, Naga A., Aluri, Pruthvi S. C., Kejela, Yabets, Abdul, Rub, Jacob, Feba M., Manoharasetty, Advaith, Sethi, Aparna, Nadimpalli, Preethi, Ballestas, Natalia, Venkatraman, Aarushi, Chirumamilla, Avinash, Nagesh, Vignesh, Gangwani, Manesh, Issokson, Kelly, Aziz, Muhammad, Swaminath, Arun, Feuerstein, Joseph. D. The overall quality of evidence of recommendations surrounding nutrition and diet in inflammatory bowel disease. International Journal of Colorectal Disease, 2023 Apr 38(1); 98. doi: 10.1007/s00384-023-04404-x. PMID: 37061646. 

6. Issokson K, Lee DY, Yarur AJ, Lewis JD, Suskind DL. The Role of Diet in Inflammatory Bowel Disease Onset, Disease Management, and Surgical 

Optimization. Am J Gastroenterol. 2024 Sep 19. doi: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000003085. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39298569. 

7. Samaan JS, Issokson K, Feldman E, Fasulo C, Rajeev N, Ng WH, Hollander B, Yeo YH, Vasiliauskas E. Examining the Accuracy and Reproducibility of Responses to Nutrition Questions Related to Inflammatory Bowel Disease by Generative Pre-trained Transformer-4. Crohns Colitis 360. 2025 Feb 19;7(1):otae077. doi: 10.1093/crocol/otae077. PMID: 40078587; PMCID: PMC11897593. 

8. Simons M, Issokson K, From Food Fears to Food Freedom: How Do We Best Manage Restrictive Eating in IBD?, Crohn’s & Colitis 360, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/crocol/otaf019 

Letters to the Editor: 

1. Issokson, Kelly. Diet in the Etiopathogenesis of IBD: Is there a Culinary Culprit? Crohn’s & Colitis 360, 2020 Jan;2(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/crocol/otz055 

2. Abreu, Maria T, Devkota, Suzanne, Issokson, Kelly. A Mediterranean Diet for Crohn’s Disease: Embracing Colorful Diversity to Improve the Microbiome. Gastroenterology. 2025 Feb 14:S0016-5085(25)00366-X. doi: 10.1053/j.gastro.2025.02.003. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 39956335.