Meet Our Experts
At Klean Athlete, we’re committed to formulating and manufacturing the safest, highest-quality, science-based sports nutrition products available for all athletes at every stage of the training cycle. The ingredients and formulations we offer reflect a sincere commitment to scientific innovation made by our sports nutrition experts who bring diverse professional backgrounds, a wealth of knowledge, and extensive experience to our research and development processes. These dietitians, PhDs, nutritionists, scientists, educators, writers and physiologists have experience working with some of the world’s most successful sports teams, programs and athletes. More than that, our experts are athletes themselves, committed to living clean, healthy and active lifestyles, and are dedicated to delivering scientifically supported products that are safe and effective.
Leslie J. Bonci , MPH, RD, CSSD, LDN is the owner of Active Eating, a nutrition consulting company that encourages clients to “Be fit, fed and fearless.” She has also worked as a nutrition consultant for Major League Baseball’s® Pittsburgh Pirates® and Toronto Blue Jays®, in addition to Carnegie Mellon University® Athletics, and the NFL’s® Kansas City Chiefs®. Leslie worked as a sports dietician for the Pittsburgh Steelers® for 24 years, and has also worked with the NHL’s® Pittsburgh Penguins® and MLB’s® Washington Nationals®. In addition, she serves as the company nutritionist for the Pittsburgh Ballet Theatre and is a sports nutrition consultant to the WNBA®.
Leslie is a member of the Whey Protein Advisory Panel and is an ambassador for the National Dairy Council®. She is the author of “Sport Nutrition for Coaches” and the “American Dietetic Association Guide to Better Digestion.” Leslie is also a blogger for US News and World Report® Eat + Run, and has a weekly television segment, “The Winning Plate,” on KDKA-TV, Pittsburgh Today Live show. She also has a weekly radio spot on KDKA radio. [...]
Karlyn Grimes, MS RD LDN CSSD, is the founder of Simply Simple Health (SSH) and author of The Everything Anti-Inflammation Diet Book. SSH creates and administers nutrition, fitness and health education programs for athletes, educators, coaches and sports teams at schools and colleges throughout the Boston area. Its programming includes individual and group sports nutrition counseling, as well as sport-specific personal training. SSH also contributes to numerous academic textbooks and magazines.
Karlyn has a dual Master’s degree in nutrition and exercise physiology from Boston University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in biology from Colgate University, with a minor in economics. She is a registered dietitian (RD) with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a certified specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) and a licensed dietitian nutritionist (LDN) in the state of Massachusetts. She is currently a faculty member in the Nutrition and Biology Departments at Simmons College in Boston, where she teaches sports nutrition, medical nutrition therapy, exercise physiology, anatomy and physiology, general biology, and numerous other courses.
Kelly C. Heim, Ph.D., is a nutritional pharmacologist and Senior Director of Scientific Affairs for Atrium Innovations’ heath care practitioner brands, for which he oversees the scientific integrity and safety of products by maintaining rigorous standards of research evaluation and its application to product formulation. Dr. Heim has a doctorate in pharmacology from Dartmouth Medical School and a Bachelor of Science in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire. While at Dartmouth, his research culminated in authorship of several publications on the regulation of hormone and fat-soluble vitamin receptors. His academic research, invited reviews and book chapters have traversed critical topics in nutrition and pharmacology, with a focus on examining the mechanisms by which dietary polyphenols and other phytochemicals favorably influence human health. He has lectured extensively to practitioner audiences on nutritional genomics, bioavailability, and safe and effective condition-specific use of dietary supplements. As a bantamweight bodybuilder, physique competitor and martial artist, he has dedicated many years to applying evidence based nutrition to help meet performance goals, and he competes exclusively in drug-tested events.
Our Medical Advisors have been retained as consultants in advising Klean Athlete.