New Member Profile: Mindy Yoder from Rest By The Willow

Mindy Yoder, founder of Rest By The Willow, is a Wellness Dietitian and Certified Travel Coach. With roots in hospitality, she began her career as a Restaurant Guest Service Manager at the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World, followed by a role as Sales Manager at Hyatt Regency Buffalo. After experiencing her own health challenges early in her career and realizing she lacked the tools to navigate them, Mindy pivoted professionally and has spent the past 16 years practicing nutrition therapy in Buffalo.

Today, she helps professionals align their nutrition and wellness habits with full schedules that include career demands, family responsibilities, and frequent travel. Through Rest By The Willow, Mindy partners with meeting planners and destination organizations to integrate practical, intentional wellness into conferences and professional gatherings—especially for attendees navigating full agendas and the complexities of travel. Her work focuses on simple, travel-aware nutrition and self-care strategies that fit real-life event schedules, not ideal ones.

Rest By The Willow integrates nutrition, wellness, and intentional travel planning into the meeting experience itself, addressing a gap many traditional events overlook. Each strategy is designed to elevate the attendee experience while remaining seamless for planners to implement. The name Rest By The Willow was inspired by Mindy’s childhood memories of falling asleep to the calming sound of the breeze moving through a willow tree outside her family home in the country.

Over the years, she has found that most clients ultimately share the same goal: they simply want to feel better and a feeling of peace. By helping organizations and individuals integrate practical wellness strategies into full schedules, they experience greater comfort and peace—what Mindy often refers to as the “Willow Effect.”

With service and hospitality at her core, Mindy is excited to reconnect with the travel industry—bringing her experience in nutrition and wellness to help both travelers and tourism leaders thrive. She looks forward to being an active member of NYSTIA and contributing to conversations about how destinations can support visitors in feeling energized, cared for, and well while experiencing the incredible places, food, and history across New York State. Mindy is also a member of: Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Wellness Tourism Association, and Travel Coach Network. She also holds a Certificate of Training in Adult Weight Management.

Outside of work, Mindy enjoys spending time outdoors, exploring local restaurants, and connecting with friends and family. A lifelong baseball fan, she is also a proud baseball mom to a nine-year-old son who dreams of playing for the Toronto Blue Jays someday and currently plays for a travel team. Mindy and her family travel several times each year and have explored many parts of the country. They make it a point to visit Saratoga Springs and the Lake George region annually, which now feels like a second home. She and her husband also enjoy exploring local breweries, wineries, and restaurants around Buffalo and wherever they travel.