About WellFedMinds

WellFedMinds (WFM) is a women-led public health and systems innovation organization working at the intersection of nutrition, behavioral health, and community wellbeing.

Founded by former federal leaders from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), WellFedMinds was created to address a persistent gap across health systems: integrating food, culture, and nutrition into behavioral health prevention, treatment, and recovery.

WFM partners with behavioral health providers, public health agencies, healthcare systems, schools, Tribal Nations, and community-based organizations to design and implement practical, scalable models that strengthen protective factors for youth, families, and communities.

Based in Denver, Colorado, WellFedMinds works locally and nationally to advance holistic, prevention-focused approaches to mental health and substance use challenges.

Why We're Here

WellFedMinds started as a quiet, persistent question:
Why do we treat food, mental health, and community as separate things-when they have always belonged together?

We have spent our careers in public health, nutrition systems, and behavioral health. We’ve worked inside federal agencies, across states/Tribal Nations, and alongside communities trying to do their very best for children and families.

And over and over again, we saw the same truth:
When families are nourished-emotionally, culturally, and physically-everything changes.
When they aren’t, the cracks show up everywhere.

We created WellFedMinds because we believe prevention begins long before a crisis.
It begins in kitchens. In gardens. In classrooms. In conversations.
It begins with belonging.

What Shaped Us

We are professionals, yes.
But more importantly-we are mothers, partners, daughters, neighbors.

We’ve navigated school systems.
We’ve supported children with big feelings and big needs.
We’ve balanced sports schedules and homework and family dinners.
We’ve seen how food can regulate a mood and how the lack of it can magnify stress.

We have witnessed how culture protects.
How shared meals build identity.
How community reduces isolation.
We’ve also seen how systems can feel overwhelming, fragmented, and far removed from real life.

WellFedMinds was born from both our expertise and our lived experience.
From board rooms and kitchen tables.
From policy and parenting.

Image of a woman with two young children in a greenhouse garden looking at plants

What We Believe

We believe nourishment is more than calories.
It is safety. Connection. Identity. Regulation.

We believe culture is not an add-on, it is medicine.

We believe families already hold wisdom.
Our role is to listen, align, and strengthen what’s already there.

We believe children deserve environments that support their mental and emotional well-being before they struggle.

We believe prevention should feel human-not clinical.

What Guides Our Work

Rooted in Relationship
We move at the speed of trust.

Centering Lived Experience
We honor the voices of youth, caregivers, and communities.

Whole-Person Nourishment
Mental health, food, culture, and connection are intertwined.

Equity with Intention
We pay attention to who has been left out and why.

Humility + Learning
We don’t have all the answers. We build them together.

Where Culture, Care, and Food Come Together

WellFedMinds exists because we’ve seen what happens when families are supported early and what happens when they’re not.

We are here to create spaces where:

Children feel grounded.
Families feel supported.
Food feels joyful and culturally meaningful.
Mental health is part of everyday conversation.
Community is the norm, not the exception.

This work is personal for us.
It always has been.

And we are building WellFedMinds with the same intention we bring to our own homes:

Carefully. Thoughtfully. Rooted in love.

Image of the founders wearing hats outdoors

Contact WellFedMinds

About the Founders

Traci Pole - Co-Founder

Traci Pole is a seasoned public health leader with extensive experience acrossmultiple federal health agencies including HHS, SAMHSA, CDC, and regional publichealth systems. Her work focuses on systems alignment across behavioral health,nutrition, and community health to strengthen prevention and recovery supports.

Gina O’Brian, RDN – Co-Founder

Gina O’Brian is a registered dietitian and former USDA Lead Nutritionist with over three decades of experience in nutrition policy, food systems innovation, and federal grant management across ten states and 30 Tribal nations.