Nancee Jaffe, RD, MS

Nancee is the lead dietitian for the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases. Nancee was recruited in 2012 to help develop a comprehensive GI nutrition program to enhance care for patients with specific nutritional issues and to provide ongoing nutritional education to UCLA GI fellows, gastroenterologists and other health care professionals. The GI nutrition program is now an integral part of the division’s Integrative Digestive Health and Wellness Program and the Robert G. Kardashian Center for Esophageal Health.

In addition to her lead role, Nancee continues her clinical nutrition practice, counseling patients on diagnoses such as irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, short bowel syndrome and idiopathic or functional bowel disorders. Nancee shares her expertise on nutrition and digestive disorders by speaking at national conferences. Her current research includes the reintroduction phase of the low FODMAP diet and the Mediterranean diet’s effects on the gut microbiome in IBS with Lin Chang, MD, co-director of the UCLA G. Oppenheimer Center for Neurobiology of Stress and Resilience. Nancee is also researching different types of diets and their potential effects on remission and flare states in IBD with Berkeley Limketkai, MD, PhD, director of clinical research for the Center for Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Nancee spearheaded an effort to formalize a GI-specific dietitian group housed jointly under the American Gastroenterological Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics which became official in 2020.

Nancee graduated from California State University, Los Angeles, where she earned her masters of science in nutrition. She completed her dietetic internship at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was mentored by Dr. Chang.