About

Rooted deep in the St. Louis food and wellness scene, Caryn Dugan is STLVegGirl, a plant-based personality, nutrition and culinary educator with a simple mission, “A Plant on Every Plate™”.

Caryn adopted a plant based diet in response to tragedy; in 2008, cancer took her father at an early age and ten weeks later, tried to take her. In response to her diagnosis, she searched for an answer and found one in the growing body of literature supporting a whole food, plant based diet to bolster our natural immune system. Adopting a plant-based diet herself and beating cancer, she sought to share her knowledge to help others.

In 2011, Caryn studied in Washington, DC, under the direction of Neal Barnard MD at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine’s (PCRM) Food For Life program, becoming a certified instructor. Bringing this knowledge home, she teaches immune boosting, plant based cooking classes at the Cancer Support Center of St. Louis for the benefit of others who have, like her, met cancer at the door.

Caryn went on to form STLVegGirl, LLC, St. Louis’ first fully plant based entity providing cooking instruction, personal cheffing, and collaborative restaurant events. She regularly appears in cooking and nutrition segments on St. Louis affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox morning shows and teaches cooking classes in many locations around the St. Louis area.

Caryn has continued to earn her spurs as a graduate of:
Rouxbe Cooking School Plant-Based Professional Program
Wellness Forum’s Plant Based Certified Personal Chef Program
Complete Health Improvement Program (CHIP) as a Lifestyle Medicine Institute Certified Program Facilitator
Wellcoaches as a Certified Health and Wellness Coach

She has also teamed up with Forks Over Knives to create the first ever
Forks Over Knives Community and Support Program which piloted in St. Louis and continues to sell out. Most recent speaking engagements include Caryn presenting culinary instruction in Naples, Florida to a group of 100 attendees at Total Health Immersions, Health Retreat where immersionists reportedly marked weight and inches lost, a decrease in insulin and blood pressure medication administration, and chronic illness reversal all within the span of seven days.

National exposure includes Naked Food Magazine featuring Caryn in their Spring 2017 Anniversary issue where she received three full pages.


To learn more about Caryn, visit STLVegGirl.com