Dr. Sharine Forbes
Welcome to the digital hub of Dr. Sharine P. Forbes, D-FNP (BC), MSG, BSN, BA, RN of Los Angeles, a nationally recognized healthcare innovator, board- certified clinician, educator, and advocate for health equity. This platform showcases Dr. Forbes’s dynamic career dedicated to advancing culturally competent holistic health care, nutrition-based wellness solutions, and tailored community-centered approaches to chronic disease prevention. With a distinguished background spanning clinical practice, academic and corporate leadership, and nonprofit innovation, she has earned a reputation for compassion, vision, and measurable impact. Beyond her professional achievements, Dr. Sharine Forbes, D-FNP (BC) is deeply committed to educating and empowering communities, offering knowledge and resources that help individuals take control of their health while honoring their cultural identities. Through her visionary leadership, clinical expertise, and unwavering dedication to dignity in care, Dr. Sharine Forbes D-FNP (BC) continues to transform the future of healthcare.
Dr. Sharine Forbes D-FNP (BC): Redefining Health Through Culture, Nutrition, and Equity
In the heart of Los Angeles, where vibrant cultural traditions meet complex social challenges, one woman is quietly but powerfully reshaping the future of healthcare. Dr. Sharine Forbes, D-FNP (BC) is not simply a clinician or an academic; she is a bridge-builder between worlds that too often remain disconnected: medicine and culture, research and experience, clinical guidelines and community realities. Her life’s work is grounded in a bold belief: healthcare is most effective when it honors dignity, cultural heritage, and access for all.
A nationally recognized healthcare leader, Dr. Forbes, D-FNP (BC) has spent her career addressing some of the most pressing health inequities in the country. She is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southern California (USC), a champion for culturally competent care, and the founder of Eat Karma, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to delivering healthy meal options to people including those living with chronic illness in underserved communities. Her approach fuses rigorous academic knowledge with deep compassion, creating models of care that are both tailored to the condition and the person.
A Lifelong Commitment to Learning and Service
Dr. Sharine Forbes’s, D-FNP (BC), extraordinary academic journey reflects her unshakable commitment to excellence and her hunger for understanding every dimension of health and human well-being. She earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from the world-renowned Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, marking her fifth academic degree and a crowning achievement in her decades-long pursuit of knowledge.
Before that, she earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) from Duke University, a program that solidified her foundation in clinical care and set her on the path toward advanced practice nursing. Her graduate work includes a Master of Science in Gerontology (MSG) from USC, an accomplishment that deepened her expertise in caring for aging populations with both skill and sensitivity. Earlier still, at UCLA, she pursued dual undergraduate degrees in International Development Studies and History—an academic combination that gave her a global perspective and a keen understanding of how social, political, and historical forces shape health outcomes.
Her education does not stop with formal degrees. Dr. Forbes, D-FNP (BC) holds over two dozen certifications, including: Advanced Nutrition, Nutritional Therapy, and Culturally Competent Nursing Care, reinforcing her conviction that food is medicine and that true healing must consider mind, body, and culture. This multi-layered expertise has allowed her to craft a healthcare philosophy rooted in evidence-based practice, yet deeply aware of the human stories behind every statistic.
Eat Karma: Where Healthcare Meets Heritage
The vision for Eat Karma emerged long before its official launch. In 2013, while walking through Central Park with her friend Rosa Nuñez, Dr. Sharine Forbes, D-FNP (BC), of Los Angeles found herself reflecting on the absence of healthy, affordable, and culturally familiar food options in so many communities. Once she became a clinician, she was seeing the consequences—patients arriving in hospital ICUs with advanced chronic conditions that could have been prevented or better managed with earlier access to proper nutrition.
This observation, paired with her understanding of the systemic inequities that fuel such disparities, sparked the idea for an organization that would marry clinical precision with cultural respect. Years later, armed with new insights from her doctoral research and a network of like-minded advocates, she officially founded Eat Karma.
Eat Karma is a mission-driven organization that provides healthy meal options designed to meet specific health needs while also honoring cultural traditions. The guiding principle is simple but profound: no one should have to choose between their heritage and their health. Every recipe is crafted with both nutrition science and cultural relevance in mind, creating not just better physical outcomes but also emotional connection and dignity.
Taking Care to the Streets
One of Eat Karma’s most innovative ideas are plans to feature a fleet of mobile food trucks—rolling wellness hubs that bring nourishment directly to those living in food deserts. These trucks bypass traditional barriers to healthy eating, such as lack of transportation or limited access to grocery stores with fresh produce.
But the trucks will offer more than just meals. They will also serve as pop-up community centers, offering nutrition education, wellness resources, and even health screenings. Residents will not just receive food; they receive tools, information, and encouragement to take charge of their own well-being.
Based on projections, the model can make a tangible impact in Los Angeles, and Dr. Forbes, D-FNP (BC) envisions scaling it nationally. Plans are underway to grow the fleet by integrating more healthcare and community partnerships, and use technology to track outcomes, connect individuals to ongoing support, and further personalize services.
Mentorship and Academic Leadership
As an adjunct lecturer at USC, Dr. Sharine Forbes sees education as a form of advocacy. She actively mentors the next generation of healthcare professionals, instilling in them the value of personalized health care alongside evidence. She invites her students to engage with Eat Karma as a living case study—one that shows how research, policy, and on-the-ground action must work together to create lasting change.
Students, faculty, and community partners alike are drawn to her ability to make complex public health challenges tangible and solvable.
The Ventana
Dr. Sharine Forbes also co-founded The Ventana with her team of gerontology industry professionals. The Ventana is a pioneering luxury retirement community being developed in Panama City, Panama. As a native Spanish speaker, her cultural fluency enhances The Ventana’s vision of seamless, wellness-focused living for English-speaking retirees in Latin America. Her dynamic leadership is central to shaping The Ventana into a vibrant, world-class destination for active aging.
Living the Mission Every Day
For Dr. Sharine Forbes, D-FNP (BC) of Los Angeles, healthcare is not an abstract concept—it is lived out daily in the decisions she makes, the patients she treats, and the programs she builds. She lives by the Hippocratic principle, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food,” not as a slogan but as an operational reality. Whether in a clinic, a classroom, or a community parking lot where Eat Karma is distributing healthy groceries, her message is the same: care must be culturally relevant, accessible, and grounded in human dignity.
Her work is reshaping how chronic disease is prevented and managed, particularly among populations that have historically been excluded from conversations about health equity. By blending science with culture, policy with compassion, Dr. Sharine P. Forbes D-FNP (BC) is building a blueprint for a healthcare system that serves everyone.
Today, her influence extends beyond Los Angeles, inspiring healthcare professionals, policymakers, and community leaders across the country. And yet, if you ask her what drives her, she will not point to her titles, her degrees, or even her national recognition. She will talk about the people she serves—the families who no longer have to choose between tradition and health, the students who see a new way forward, the patients whose dignity is restored alongside their wellness.
The legacy she is creating is not measured solely in accolades but in lives transformed. And as her work continues to grow, one thing is certain: Dr. Sharine Forbes, D-FNP (BC) is not just changing healthcare. She is redefining what it means to heal and thrive.