As a mother, cook,  artist, former social worker, and former social consciousness professor at California State University Fullerton, Anni has a strong background in her role as an activist committed to making the world a better place for families. A native of Orange County, California, Anni received a B.A. in Human Services from California State Fullerton and a Masters of Social Work from the University of Southern California. Anni seeks to help lead a consciousness shift in the areas of nutrition, pregnancy and parenting.

Anni has always been an artist of life, following her passions from one project to the next, and truly believes in the fun of creating something from nothing. All of Anni’s projects relate to conscious family living, and all support her vision of teaching and supporting families in their efforts to live more simple and sustainable lives. Anni sees the aesthetic beauty in creating a more natural backdrop to life and wants to help families tune into more connection with each other, while supporting greening up mother earth.

Anni learned how to consciously cook at a Zen Buddhist retreat called, Tassajara, in which she spent many hours learning from Buddhist monks the special quality of mindfulness in every aspect of life. Her vision of consciousness is about maintaining her spiritual quest, while balancing the complexities of parenting, working and creating.

With her knowledge and passion about child well being combined with her love of healthy but tasty cooking, Anni wrote her first book called, Organically Raised: Conscious Cooking for Babies & Toddlers (Rodale, May 2010). Anni has another project in development called Popsicle Craze (Sellers, 2011), that gives parents 50 healthy organic and delicious popsicle recipe for their little ones. Anni is also excited to announce another project, The Organic Family Cookbook; growing~greening~cooking together, which will be out in the Fall 2011 (Sellers). Anni has more projects in the works and is excited to share those as soon as she can…Stay tuned…

Anni has been a guest speaker in the kitchen at Whole Children Whole Planet, Mamafest, Holistic Moms Network, Innovative Baby, Baby Celebration, The Pump Station, several LA moms groups and has written for LA Parents , Orange County Parents, and is an expert monthly contributor to Hot Moms Club, City Mommy, Citibabes New York, Mindful Mama, Green Moms, and Macaroni Kid (Santa Monica & Beverly Hills).

Anni lives in Los Angeles with her husband Tim and her children, Zoe (12), Lotus (5), Bodhi (3) and baby boy River Love.