Photo of Matthew Lederman, MD and Alona Pulde, MD

Alona Pulde, MD & Matthew Lederman, MD

Co-Founders and Chief Officers

Alona Pulde, MD
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder

Matthew Lederman, MD
Chief Medical Officer & Co-Founder

Touted as doctors of the future by Dean Ornish, MD and with their work supported by many experts including Sanjay Gupta, MD, Dr Alona Pulde and Dr. Matthew Lederman combined conventional Western medicine, Chinese medicine, Lifestyle medicine, Nonviolent Communication, Polyvagal Theory, and Trauma-Informed, Somatic Principles & Pain Reprocessing to create their groundbreaking health paradigm. They have been successful corporate leaders, starred in the life-changing documentary Forks over Knives, lectured for eCornell, served as adjunct medical school professors and corporate medical advisors, and are NY Times bestselling authors.

Together they have co-authored six books, including The New York Times Bestseller Forks Over Knives Plan, Forks Over Knives Family, and Keep It Simple, Keep It Whole. They co-authored The Whole Foods Diet and The Whole Foods Cookbook with John Mackey, co-founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market. Most recently they co-authored, “Wellness to Wonderful,” interweaving medical science, psychology, spirituality, and life wisdom to help people achieve lasting health, vibrancy, peace, and joy. They consult for companies such as Whole Foods Market and serve on advisory boards for various organizations.

Alona Pulde, MD is a board-certified practitioner of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine & Family Medicine Physician. She is particularly passionate about supporting clients with nutrition and women’s health. Dr. Matthew Lederman is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician & CNVC Certified Trainer of Nonviolent Communication. He is particularly passionate about integrating mind-body health treatment and providing second medical opinions for patients with persistent chronic disease.

After ten years of serving Whole Foods Market as corporate Vice Presidents, helping launch their national comprehensive medical & wellness centers, coaching and retreat programs, and integrated hospital and insurance networks, Dr. Pulde and Dr. Lederman moved on to co-found their new venture, WeHeal, which is the culmination of decades of learning and practical experience organized into an easily accessible program that does everything just short of guaranteeing lasting health, joy and satisfaction in your life.

Lisa Rice

Sr. Health Mentor & Director of Content and Promotion

Lisa is a Health Coach and Plant-based Educator. She spent six years on the Whole Foods Medical & Wellness Center and Health Immersion teams. She has been teaching plant-based cooking for decades, working with individuals and groups, on local television and at lifestyle conferences. Lisa holds a Masters in Traditional Asian Medicine from Emperor’s College, is a graduate of the Rouxbe Plant-Based Professional Course and the Global College of Natural Medicine and is a Certified Yoga Instructor through Yoga Works.

She worked for over a decade as an acupuncturist, herbalist and yoga instructor in Los Angeles and Austin. Before she switched careers, Lisa was a record company executive in New York and Los Angeles working in publicity and marketing on national campaigns for major label recording artists. Lisa’s passions are cooking and feeding others, writing, reading, gardening, and sharing her life with her husband David, teenage son Judah and their chicken, canine and feline children.

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Mark Ideta

Sr. Connection Mentor & NVC Trainer

Mark graduated from the University of Southern California, Santa Barbara and completed his graduate studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. He brings elements of Nonviolent Communication, Internal Family Systems and Hakomi to his personal and interpersonal mentorship approach. His passion to heal and serve has inspired a commitment to lifelong learning. Among his extensive accomplishments are an intensive Mindful-Somatic trauma therapy course, a year-long course centered around resonance-based healing, and ongoing training and courses through the NVC Academy. Mark lives with his wife, a registered nurse who’s pursuing her master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and their three boys whom they homeschool.

Simona Lederman

Project Director & Sr. Trauma Recovery Mentor

Simona is a certified yoga therapist, RYT-500, a Trauma Center Trauma Sensitive Yoga Facilitator (TCTSY-F) and a Reiki Master. She started practicing yoga as a way to deal with anxiety and PTSD after several traumatic events in her life. During her yoga teacher training, she felt guided to research yoga for trauma survivors, which is how she came across TCTSY. TCTSY is an empirically validated, clinical intervention for complex trauma or chronic, treatment resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Over time, Simona’s healing practices have led her to becoming a shamanic practitioner.

As a facilitator, Simona recognizes that everyone has their own story and no one understands their body better than themselves. She blends her knowledge and experience with her intuition to support each participant in reconnecting with their body and regain agency. She works with clients with trauma and chronic illness, veterans with PTSD, as well as with women with childhood trauma, perinatal trauma or reproductive-related trauma.

Photo of Dane Mosher, DO

Dane Mosher, D.O.

Family Practitioner

Dr. Dane Mosher is an osteopathic physician who focuses on optimizing health and well-being using natural methods. His career in medicine was originally inspired by the book Life Extension, which he read in his teens, and which opened his eyes to the idea that one’s health is modifiable with lifestyle, diet, and nutrition changes. He attended medical school at the University of North Texas Health Science Center in Fort Worth, and completed a residency in Family Medicine with East Tennessee State University in Kingsport.

He has since expanded his knowledge base with certification through the Institute for Functional Medicine, several years of work in urgent care medicine, and five years of fulfilling primary care work with Whole Foods Medical and Wellness Center of Austin, under the direction of MDs Matthew Lederman and Alona Pulde. Dr. Mosher also has a strong interest in autism and other childhood developmental delays, and he is a past as president of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine. He is board certified with the American Board of Family Medicine. Dane is originally from Spring, Texas and currently resides with his family in North Idaho.

Photo of Neesha Kurian, MD

Neesha Kurian, MD

Internist & Pediatrician

Dr. Kurian graduated from University of Texas at Houston (McGovern) Medical School in 2001 and completed her training in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles in 2005. She currently holds board-certifications in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics and has previously practiced primary care with an emphasis on community health, student health and wellness programs.

Neesha is passionate about helping her patients through education, awareness, and empowerment by encouraging her patients to better understand and successfully pursue healthier lifestyle choices. She prioritizes helping her patients maximize the health benefits from nutrition, exercise, stress management and adequate sleep. In her free time, Neesha enjoys spending time with her husband and her 4 children.

Amber Sigman

Connection Mentor & NVC Trainer

Amber is a Nonviolent Communication (NVC) Trainer with a background in RYS 200 Yoga. She specializes in Trauma-Informed Yoga with concentrations in Yoga Nidra to aid healthy sleep, Chair Yoga to help make yoga accessible to all, and Laughter Yoga as an aid in training the brain for joy and laughter. She has worked extensively with individuals recovering from substance use disorders, helping them to process deep pain and shame through self-compassion and Nonviolent Communication. She is also certified as an End-Of-Life Doula through Inelda, and is trained in Grief and Bereavement, utilizing Expressive Arts to help children whose significant loved one has died. She has education in trauma-informed healing modalities with a particular interest in Somatics.

Amber grew up in diverse communities throughout the US, working extensively as a domestic and international photographer covering various social issues through a compassionate lens. These experiences allow her to have diverse perspectives and enhance her natural ability to connect with others empathically.