Sylvia Meléndez-Klinger, registered dietitian and certified personal trainer, is founder of Hispanic Food Communications, a food communications and culinary consulting company.
A leading expert in cross-cultural Hispanic cuisine as it relates to nutrition and health, Ms. Klinger speaks both English and Spanish fluently. She has an impressive knowledge of Hispanic foods and culture and uses her deep culinary and cultural expertise to introduce new strategies that maximize exposure among an increasing health-conscious Hispanic population. Ms. Klinger leverages the tasteful Latin cuisine and lifestyle of health-conscious Hispanics with the increasing health problems fast approaching this population today.
Ms. Klinger is also a culinary consultant to food and beverage companies such as The Coca-Cola, Hormel Foods, Ross Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Dannon, AztraZeneca, and Weight Watchers International where she has completed numerous administrative and communications projects.
Ms. Klinger has appeared on
NBC, ABC, Fox News, CNN Spanish, Univision, Telemundo, America Teve, TV Azteca, Telefutura. She has made many guest appearances on popular shows such as
Despierta America (where she is a regular guest),
Hispanics Today, 4 San Antonio Living, and
Cada Día con Maria Antonieta, as well as numerous appearances on local Hispanic cable stations. She has been a guest nutritionist on many local Hispanic radio talk shows and currently writes for popular magazines such as
Latina Magazine and
Hispanic Business South Florida.
Prior to establishing her consulting firm, Ms. Klinger served as senior culinary development specialist and supervisor of consumer test kitchens at the Quaker Oats Company. She has solid clinical and public health nutrition experience, serving as a research dietitian at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago and the University of California Irvine Medical Center, as well as a supervising nutritionist for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) supplemental feeding program. She began her career as an administrative dietitian at New England Memorial Hospital in Boston.
Ms. Klinger earned a Bachelor of Science degree in dietetics and nutrition from Loma Linda University in Loma Linda, California in 1984 and her Master of Science in public administration from DePaul University in Chicago in 1993. She is a registered dietitian of the American Dietetic Association and a licensed dietitian in the State of Illinois. In 1994, the Chicago Dietetic Association named her
Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year.
In her spare time, Ms. Klinger trains for and runs marathons.