Michelle Maria Pietzak, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine.  She is a New York native, born in Greenwhich Village and growing up on Long Island.  She received her Bachelors in Biology at Manhattan College in the Bronx, and did her medical school training at SUNY Buffalo.  She did both her residency and fellowship in Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.  She is boarded in both Pediatrics and Gastroenterology and practices as a Pediatric Gastroenterologist at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.  In her practice she cares primarily for children with autoimmune inflammatory bowel diseases (such as celiac disease, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis), short bowel syndrome, and those who have special nutritional needs requiring either intravenous nutrition or special formulas.  She has written several book chapters and scientific articles, both peer-reviewed and in the lay press, on these topics.  Since 1995, she has been the director of the Center for Celiac Research-West, and has been a co-author on numerous papers and abstracts describing the prevalence of celiac disease in the United States, California and Los Angeles.  Dr. Pietzak is also the recipient of numerous grants, including from the NIH, to study autoimmune intestinal diseases, as well as the interactions of E. coli bacteria and the gastrointestinal tract.  Dr. Pietzak lives in Glendale, California, and is supported patiently by her husband Derek, daughter Olivia, mother Lillian and two boxers named Barkley and Pockets.