Chair
Victoria A Warren-Mears PhD FAND is the Director of The Northwest Tribal EpiCenter, a position she has held for 15 years. Professionally trained as a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist she has taught nutrition at both Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Portland. Dr. Warren-Mears holds a PhD from the University of Washington Interdisciplinary Program in Nutrition Sciences. She completed post-doctoral training in Human Investigations at Oregon Health & Science University. She has had a long-standing interest in food systems, food quality and consumer perception of the food system as well as public health messaging. Dr. Warren-Mears has experience collaborating with the Northwest tribal communities. She served as a WIC and MCH Nutritionist at a local health department for over 10 years. A 35-year member of AND, Dr. Warren-Mears is a past president both Oregon and Washington States.
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Chair-Elect
Cicely Thomas's, M.Ed, RDN, LD, heart is with educating the community to reduce chronic diseases, reducing health disparities and promoting healthy behavior. She has 4 children, 2 being a set of twins. She is currently in the dissertation of her doctorate degree of clinical nutrition from University of North Florida. She has been employed with Public Health for 22 years. As a liaison for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access, it is her desire to help everyone achieve their highest potential with equitable access.
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Past-Chair
Yen Ang, DrPH, MS, MPH, RD is the Vice president of Health at Tangelo, an organization that fights for health equity and food justice through innovative technology. In the past decade, Yen’s work has centered on efforts that drive policy, system and environmental level changes through community engagement and collaboration. Her public health innovations have earned her three NACo (National Association of Counties) Achievement Awards (2019, 2020 and 2021). She skillfully pivoted the SNAP-Ed effort at the local health department to facilitate collective solutions for food insecurity during the COVID pandemic. Yen was named Woman-of-the-Year 2021 of the 45th district by the California state assembly majority leader Eloise Reyes for her art in building a successful coalition in the fight against hunger.
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Treasurer
Erin M. McKinley, PhD, RD, LDN, CLC, CHES is Assistant Professor and Director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics at Louisiana State University and the LSU AgCenter. Her current research is focused in creating and testing new scales to measure psychological components related to infant feeding. Before joining the PH/CN executive board, she was the Secretary of the Research DPG and is the current Secretary of the Louisiana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She mentors over a dozen nutrition and dietetics students and professionals across the US and recently started the student success podcast Geauxing All In: Get the Edge You Need to Succeed on YouTube to increase student exposure to supervised practice programs during the pandemic.
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Secretary
Nicole Larson, PhD, MPH, RDN is a Senior Research Associate in the Division of Epidemiology and Community Health at the University of Minnesota. She is the Project Director for the Project EAT (Eating and Activity over Time) longitudinal studies. Nicole also teaches courses on policy and environmental approaches to promoting healthy eating and physical activity, and coordinates educational opportunities for the REACH (Research on Eating and Activity for Community Health) Applied Epidemiology Training Program. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree at St. Catherine University, completed a dietetic internship at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and completed her graduate studies at the University of Minnesota. Nicole also completed training as part of a Leadership Education in Adolescent Health program and pre-doctoral fellowship in Adolescent Health Protection Training at the University of Minnesota.
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HOD Delegate
Katrina A Holt MPH, MS, RD, FAND Katrina Holt serves as director for the National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center at Georgetown University. In this role, she assists the federal Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB), the Office of Child Care, and the Office of Head Start to enhance the quality of oral health services for pregnant women, infants, children, and adolescents, especially those from families with low incomes. Prior to joining Georgetown University, Katrina worked in a variety of settings, including local health departments, prenatal clinics, school-based clinics, refugee clinics, and other community programs.
Ms. Holt completed a Master of Public Health degree in maternal and child health from the University of Minnesota, a Master of Science degree in human nutrition from the University of Nebraska, and a Bachelor of Science degree in nutritional sciences and food from the University of Washington. She also completed a dietetic internship from the University of Nebraska, a MCHB-supported nutrition fellowship with the University of Minnesota, Adolescent Health Training Program, and an adolescent health fellowship at Georgetown University.
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Nominating Committee Chair
Ms. Lisa M Zullig MS, RDN, CSG, CDN is the Director of Nutrition Services at God’s Love We Deliver in New York City, a medically tailored food and nutrition program for people living with serious illnesses. She also co-leads Clinical Committee of the Food is Medicine Coalition, an association of non-profit medically tailored food and nutrition service providers. Currently, Lisa is the Nominating Chair for the Public Health Community Nutrition DPG, and previously held several positions within the Infectious Diseases DPG. Lisa is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Certified Dietitian/Nutritionist, Certified Specialist in Gerontological Nutrition, a graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute’s Chef Training Program and holds a Master's degree in Nutrition from Brooklyn College.
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Nominating Committee Chair-Elect
Dr. Deborah L Slawson PhD RDN LDN is a registered, licensed dietitian serving as Professor and Chair of Community and Behavioral Health in the College of Public Health at East Tennessee State University. She received her doctorate in educational research methodology and statistics from the University of Memphis in Tennessee, and her Bachelor’s and Masters in Clinical Nutrition from Memphis State University. Dr. Slawson’s focus is on school and community-based health promotion planning, mixed-method research, and program evaluation. In addition to her academic pursuits, Dr. Slawson brings several years of experience as a school district administrator and evaluator for Coordinated School Health programming. When not researching new and exciting areas in dietetics, Debbi enjoys spending time with her family, friends and colleagues, creating pottery, and exploring the hills around her East Tennessee home.
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Nominating Committee Member
Cindy Brison MS, RD has worked with Nebraska Extension for 25 years. She has also taught sanitation at the Metropolitan Community College Culinary Institute for over 26 years. Cindy worked in various aspects of long-term care for 16 years before that. Her areas of expertise are community nutrition, local foods, the cottage food industry, food preservation and food safety. She coordinates food safety training for Extension in Nebraska. Cindy works with 4-H teaching school enrichment classes and with childcare and school nutrition managers to teach food safety. She has extensive experience with social media and blogging. Cindy has held various positions in DPG’s and her state dietetic association over the years, and is a seasoned dietitian.
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Policy and Advocacy Leader
Shannon Mai, RD, LDN Born and raised in Orlando, Florida, Shannon’s culinary roots have propelled her into a career as a policy dietitian that advocates for consumer safety and public health. Her passion is to influence food policy with a dietitian's perspective, such that all parts of the food system win. Shannon stands for a whole and equitable food system, that is intentional and serves the consumers, workers, environment, and animals involved.
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Diversity and Inclusion Liaison
Dina Lipkind MS, RDN, CDN is the Director of Nutrition Services at YvY Early Childhood Center a CBO in Brooklyn, NY.
She manages the nutrition and food services for YVY's Head Start, Early Head Start, Expectant Moms Program, Early Intervention and Special Education programs. Dina has a particular interest in cultural foods, food resources for low income communities in NYC and promoting healthy food and habits for a lifetime. When she is not at work, she likes to garden, grow her own veggies and peruse the local farmer's markets. Dina is an active contributor to her local nutrition community and has been a member of the Academy for over 27 years, she has served on the board for GNYDA, as well as the Women's Health DPG in the past.
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Membership Committee Chair
Samantha M Rex MS, RD completed her BS in Dietetics, MS in Human Nutrition, and Dietetic Internship at the University of Delaware. Over the last several years she has continued to work on behavioral obesity prevention intervention trials and community-based research projects such as collaboration with the Food Bank, Food Pantries, and Snap-ED at the University of Delaware. She is currently an incoming doctoral student in Human Nutrition at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her doctoral work will focus on interventions surrounding affordability and accessibility to healthy foods in underserved populations in Baltimore City. After being a PHCN DPG member for some time she is thrilled to be part of the Executive Committee as the Membership Committee Chair.
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Student Committee Chair
Chelsey Laviolette is pursuing an M.S. in Human Nutrition at Texas State University. She also received her B.S. in Family and Consumer Sciences majoring in Nutrition and Foods at Texas State University.
Due to her personal experience, she is driven to improve the nutritional status and overall health of all individuals, and especially supporting parents and children. She has a true passion for public health nutrition, which is why she is examining the effect of a behavioral nutrition program on psychosocial indicators and dietary intake of fruits and vegetables with Latino children for her thesis project. Her passion for improving public health nutrition is also demonstrated in her work as a Graduate Research Assistant on a USDA-funded project with Latino/a/x parents. The MESA Project focuses on how Latino/a/x parents interpret the USDA Food Security Survey Module (FSSM) and describe varied experiences of food insecurity.
Based on her lived experience and training, Chelsey believes that achieving and maintaining equity in nutrition is key to public health. Working to support food security will support people and communities now and in the future.
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Professional Development Coordinator
Mateja R Savoie PhD, MPH, RD is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences at Utah State University (USU). Mateja is also the Director of the online Master of Public Health (MPH) program which has emphasis areas in Nutrition and Veterinary Public Health. Mateja teaches a variety of courses including: Community Nutrition, Education and Counseling in Dietetics, Motivational Interviewing for Health Professionals, Hunger Issues and Solutions, and Advanced Public Health Nutrition. Mateja recently led a group of faculty in the development of the Hunger and Food Security Studies Minor and is a Co-Director of the Hunger Solutions Institute at USU. When Mateja is not teaching, she is researching and evaluating nutrition education programming, farmers’ market incentives, gardening interventions for youth, motivational interviewing training, and more. Mateja has served in various positions for the Public Health Community Nutrition Practice Group for many years. She is also very involved in the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB). Mateja has won many teaching and leadership awards over the years. Most recently she won the 2019 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Nutrition in Higher Education award which was award by SNEB. In her free time, Mateja enjoys spending time outdoors with her husband, their 3-year-old daughter, and their two hunting dogs.
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Strategic Communications Chair
Amanda Kopetsky Fultz PhD, RDN, LDN is a Registered Dietitian and researcher whose background and research interests are focused on community and public health nutrition. Previously Amanda was a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance educator and home visit Dietitian. Working in community and public health nutrition inspired her to research. Recently Amanda completed her doctoral training at the University of Delaware and will continue her research as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Health Behavior Research at the University of Pennsylvania where her research surrounds food acquisition behaviors and diet quality. Amanda has been a Registered Dietitian for nine years, was the past PHCN DPG Treasurer, and active within her state affiliate organization.
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Discussion Board Coordinator
Alyssa Baldino, MPH, RD is Associate Director of Nutrition Services at Project Angel Food, a community-based organization specializing in medically tailored meals in Los Angeles. She previously worked at a Head Start agency for 4 years. Her areas of expertise and interest as an RD are community nutrition, public health, pediatric nutrition, geriatric nutrition, renal nutrition, foodservice/recipe development. Alyssa has served as volunteer chair for Los Angeles Dietetic Association for 7 years, and co-currently serving on the public policy committee for HEN and discussion board coordinator for PHCN.
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Website Editor: position open
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Awards Chair: position open
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DPG Manager: Josie Hernandez
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