Celebrating Black Leaders in Nutrition and Dietetics

This #BlackHistoryMonth, we’re celebrating Black leaders in nutrition and dietetics. Director of Nutrition Services at God’s Love, Lisa Zullig, along with her department came up with a list of inspiring Black leaders in the field who they invited to share their thoughts on community nutrition. Read through this amazing list of quotes from these very inspiring thinkers!

“I empower clients to realize that what they already know has value and that their knowledge can be applied to facilitate dietary and lifestyle change. I am simply there to partner with them in this process within their community.” Of working in the community, Emily says, “Community RDNs have the responsibility of promoting and improving the health of the community in which they work. To do this effectively within the African-American community, the RDN must understand the social determinants influencing the health of the community and provide actionable advice under the inherent disadvantaged conditions of the African-American community.”

“I was first exposed to the concept of community nutrition at NYU by my Professor Michelle Futrell, a Black dietitian who had a profound effect on my life as a professional role model, because representation matters and as a person, because she was tough but kind. She taught me about giving back to the community through my work. Because of her influence, my first job out of graduate school was working with WIC at Betances Health Center, a FQHC, serving low-income, ethnically diverse families on the Lower East Side. I would stay in that role for four years. I continued to seek out ways to address the needs of the communities I served in Bed Stuy and Harlem by building chronic disease management programs.  I have recently moved out of the nonprofit space, having spent 7 years at City Health Works as its Chief Health Officer into the health tech space as the VP of Clinical Operations at One Drop. In my journey, one thing has been my guiding principle, to continue to impact communities, far and wide, by helping as many people with chronic conditions as effectively and efficiently as I can.”

“As a dietitian, it’s important for me to reach communities who not only might not have access to healthcare, but also might not even know what a dietitian is. There are only 2.6% of Black dietitians and I think that number needs to increase for many reasons. People generally take advice and feel comfortable from those that not only understand their culture, but also look like them. I also think it’s important for people to realize that their cultural foods are not “unhealthy” just because it’s not mainstream. There are numerous ways to nourish the body and leaving behind your cultural roots, shouldn’t have to be one of them.”