Jennifer Ziedonis
Dr. Jennifer Ziedonis is excited to join CFP in 2023. Dr. Z was born and raised on the East Coast as a first generation American. She received her Master's degree in Human Nutrition at Columbia University in NY, and then her MD from Rutgers RWJ Medical School in NJ. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Z continued to work her way south, to her first primary care medical practice in Harlingen,Tx which included management of her patients in the office, the hospital, and in rural clinics. She then moved to Austin with her family to start work as a Hospitalist for ARC at the Seton Hospitals where she worked for 14y. Following this she worked in geriatrics, inpatient physical rehabilitation, and has done some work teaching medical residents as well. One of the things Dr. Z found both frustrating and disappointing in all of her experiences with traditional medicine was treating patients with various disease diagnoses but not being able to prevent or find actual resolutions for chronic medical problems such as diabetes, heart disease, digestive disorders, or chronic inflammation. Working to prevent disease was not emphasized, or even considered an option in some cases.
After a very full career Dr. Z discovered and fell in love with Functional Medicine. The heart of Functional Medicine is finding the root cause of disease processes and working to prevent or mitigate their progression instead of just placating them. She has since trained in and received her certification from the Institute for Functional Medicine. This was a perfect fit to balance her interests in medicine, nutrition, and healing. Dr Z has found that using an integrative approach, combining both mainstream and complementary medicine, in order to pursue long-term functional corrections to chronic disease, is a more comprehensive path to helping people make long term gains in their overall wellbeing. Working with patients to achieve optimum health through nutrition, lifestyle modifications, exercise, and all modalities of healing, is deeply rewarding for Dr. Z as a clinician.
Outside of medicine Dr. Z has a myriad of interests as well. She homeschooled her children, and now is working on homeschooling her dogs. She hasn't yet decided which group is more challenging. Additionally, she has had training in Reiki and is a 2nd degree practitioner, another healing modality which can be a good adjunct to forward progress in health and life. Dr. Z also enjoys spending time with her family, practicing her photography on them and hiking, running, or traveling together when possible. The rest of the time Dr. Z enjoys life in Austin and taking her dogs out and about.