Patrick Traynor is a practicing registered Dietitian and owner of his insurance based practice, MNT Scientific, LLC. He completed his internship through Iowa State University and earned his registered dietitian credential in 2019. He has since practiced privately providing medical nutrition therapy (MNT) across all disciplines, with an emphasis in weight loss. He writes weekly for the the Tahoe Tribune on all topics related to nutrition.
He has had an intense interest in nutrition all of his life adding it with entomology at UC Davis for a double major. He went on to earn his master of public health (MPH) degree from UC Berkeley, with a nutrition concentration. He earned his PHD from UC Riverside in educational administration.
In his practice, he emphasizes aligning eating behaviors with the consumption of minimally processed foods as he believes these foods must be patients’ default choice in order to attain and sustain most health and fitness goals including losing weight, enhancing blood lab values, improving gastrointestinal health, and increasing athletic performance and vitality.
Traynor has also been adjunct faculty at Brandman University teaching biology, UC Riverside teaching the school environment, and Argosy University teaching statistics, research methods, and assessment in education. He has been published in peer reviewed journals such as Education, Learning and Leading with Technology, and Journal of Instructional Psychology, largely surrounding student behaviors.
Included in his pedagogical endeavors, Dr. Traynor has been a career educator in public education. After earning his teaching credential at UC Davis, he immediately became a high school science teacher teaching, teaching biology, chemistry, physics, and health. Then after earning two masters of arts degrees, one in computer education, the other in educational administration, he transitioned to the administrative leadership ranks as assistant principal, principal, director, assistant superintendent, California director of student assessment, and finally district and county superintendent of schools.
Apart from education, Traynor applied his entomology background to agriculture, holding several part time jobs to keep his agricultural skills active in college and during his educational career. He has worked in integrated pest management to maximize production and minimize costs, which involved strategic, rather than wasteful routine applications of pesticides. However, he mainly worked with bees for honey production, queen bee rearing/breeding, and almond orchard pollination.
Traynor has many other personal interests as well. He is a certified personal trainer (CPT), certified ski race coach, and certified ski instructor. In addition to skiing and weight training as serious sideline diversions, he enjoys road biking and jazz trumpet.