What is your current position? 

• Director of Outpatient Nutrition for the Renfrew Centers
• Private Practice at Mehr Nutrition providing supervision for those seeking iaedp certification.

How did you get started in your career? 

I went into college majoring in Pre-Med.  This meant that I was taking Animal Biology and Plant Biology – and had to learn the Krebs Cycle.  The Krebs Cycle was tough and made no sense to me in the context of plants. Then a friend introduced me to the field of nutrition. I shadowed a dietitian over the summer. When I took my first nutrition class and it just clicked. I really loved studying about how the body works; the Kreb Cycle made sense (still didn’t get out of learning that).  It was in college where I really became interested in field of eating disorders after hearing from a local dietitian working in the field. It seemed like such a rewarding area that involved the science, psychology/counseling and connecting with others.

My first job after my internship was in the clinical setting as the only dietitian at small community hospital. This position really helped to form my communication within a team and collaborate with others; all skills I use now. It also helped form a solid understanding of the disease states impacted by nutrition that I learned about in school and internship. Being the only dietitian, led to doing some outpatient work and having a few eating disorder clients; which, I loved and looked for an opportunity to do more!

What advice would you give to someone new to the eating disorder field? 

Network and build connections with those that are in the field/area you want to work in; you never know what opportunities will come. Continue learning and growing in your practice regardless of the work you do as there is so many complex cases regardless of what field you are in.