BuddyPress.org

echo "<div class=item-meta><p>".
bp_member_profile_data('field=Expertise')."
</p></div>";

If I got you then you mean that item-meta class is not getting displayed there, right?

But it should work, anyways you can always wrap it like this:

echo "<div class='item-meta'><p>".
bp_member_profile_data('field=Expertise')."
</p></div>";

Thanks