Today is Registered Dietitian Nutritionist day, and we are celebrating the incredible RDNs on our Pinnacle Prevention team! We are constantly amazed by the dedication and brilliance of these women. They work every single day to improve the health and happiness of those around them, and to build a better, brighter Arizona.
 | Jessie Gruner, PhD, RDN Director of Community Innovations at Pinnacle Prevention I have been a RDN for: 3.5 years My favorite food is: Chocolate On Sunday mornings, you can usually find me: walking my labradoodle and then at yoga. What’s the most rewarding thing about your work as a RDN? What’s the most challenging part of your work? “The most rewarding part of being a RDN is most definitely watching people fall in love with healthy food. Also, the pure joy in watching kids get excited about fruits and vegetables. Watching a first grader discover what a plum is for the first time is magical. |
What’s the most rewarding thing about your work as a RDN? What’s the most challenging part of your work?
“The most rewarding part of being a RDN is most definitely watching people fall in love with healthy food. Also, the pure joy in watching kids get excited about fruits and vegetables. Watching a first grader discover what a plum is for the first time is magical.
The most challenging part of our work is creating a food system that optimizes our health and our wallets. The healthy choice is rarely the easy choice or the cheapest choice. Trying to flip that reality at times feels like trying to turn a mountain on its peak.”
How does your work help improve and uplift Arizona’s residents, communities, and food systems?
“Whether it’s helping kiddos develop a preference for fruits and vegetables, helping seniors stretch their food dollars, or working with our policy makers to write and implement laws that promote healthy food consumption and physical activity, I’d like to think that slowly we are shifting the current health landscape to focus on prevention so that all Arizonans can live healthy and enjoy life.”
Why is your work important? What kind of impact do you strive to make?
“My nutrition quest is to help make the healthy choice the easy choice for everyone. I feel like our work is meaningful because we are trying to reduce the disparity between those who are healthy and those who are not. Your zip code shouldn’t determine your quality or length of life. Our work helps to raise the voices of the communities that often are not heard, and that to me is powerful."
“The most rewarding part of being a RDN is most definitely watching people fall in love with healthy food. Also, the pure joy in watching kids get excited about fruits and vegetables. Watching a first grader discover what a plum is for the first time is magical.
The most challenging part of our work is creating a food system that optimizes our health and our wallets. The healthy choice is rarely the easy choice or the cheapest choice. Trying to flip that reality at times feels like trying to turn a mountain on its peak.”
How does your work help improve and uplift Arizona’s residents, communities, and food systems?
“Whether it’s helping kiddos develop a preference for fruits and vegetables, helping seniors stretch their food dollars, or working with our policy makers to write and implement laws that promote healthy food consumption and physical activity, I’d like to think that slowly we are shifting the current health landscape to focus on prevention so that all Arizonans can live healthy and enjoy life.”
Why is your work important? What kind of impact do you strive to make?
“My nutrition quest is to help make the healthy choice the easy choice for everyone. I feel like our work is meaningful because we are trying to reduce the disparity between those who are healthy and those who are not. Your zip code shouldn’t determine your quality or length of life. Our work helps to raise the voices of the communities that often are not heard, and that to me is powerful."
Jessie’s healthy living advice:
 | Jaclyn Chamberlain, MPH, RDN, CSP Director of Community Engagement at Pinnacle Prevention I have been a RDN for: A little over 12 years My favorite food is: Honestly, Brussel Sprouts. I LOVE them. I also love wine and cheese and French fries. On Sunday mornings, you can usually find me: snuggling my kids on the couch, sipping coffee in a wonderful, over-sized mug. |
What’s the most rewarding thing about your work as a RDN? What’s the most challenging part of your work?
“The most rewarding thing is food. Food is essential to life in more than one way. I love how food is a great convener – it brings people together and connects families. The moments where I can help facilitate that convening in any small way is rewarding. The challenge is the inequity that prevents it for some. That, and diet culture. Diet culture is damaging, pervasive and often masked as ‘health.’ Working against that mental model is a challenge.”
How does your work help improve and uplift Arizona’s residents, communities, and food systems?
“Our work aims to identify leverage points in the food system, and the systems around communities that impact health. We do this through working directly with families, community members and leaders, policy and programs. We work to train those in the public health profession about the determinants of health and aim to learn from the families and communities we serve. Every day we are taught how to let those impacted by the inequity lead the direction, and use our influence and skills to support the work.”
Why is your work important? What kind of impact do you strive to make?
“We are connected to and accountable to others. My work gives me the opportunity to grow, improve, and, hopefully, leave this world in a better place.”
“The most rewarding thing is food. Food is essential to life in more than one way. I love how food is a great convener – it brings people together and connects families. The moments where I can help facilitate that convening in any small way is rewarding. The challenge is the inequity that prevents it for some. That, and diet culture. Diet culture is damaging, pervasive and often masked as ‘health.’ Working against that mental model is a challenge.”
How does your work help improve and uplift Arizona’s residents, communities, and food systems?
“Our work aims to identify leverage points in the food system, and the systems around communities that impact health. We do this through working directly with families, community members and leaders, policy and programs. We work to train those in the public health profession about the determinants of health and aim to learn from the families and communities we serve. Every day we are taught how to let those impacted by the inequity lead the direction, and use our influence and skills to support the work.”
Why is your work important? What kind of impact do you strive to make?
“We are connected to and accountable to others. My work gives me the opportunity to grow, improve, and, hopefully, leave this world in a better place.”
Jaclyn’s healthy living advice:
 | Kathleen Carlson, MSCA, RDN Director of Community Strategies at Pinnacle Prevention On Sunday mornings, you can usually find me: working and playing in the garden with my kids. What’s the most rewarding thing about your work as a RDN? What’s the most challenging part of your work? “I love it when my work helps people build a healthy relationship with food and when I get a chance to help healthy choices be easier. The most challenging part is getting past the expectation or assumption that as a dietitian I only ever eat ‘super healthy’ foods and that I have a strict approach to eating. I find that once I can get past that, people tend to be more receptive to the role I can play in helping people, families and communities improve their overall health.” |
How does your work help improve and uplift Arizona’s residents, communities, and food systems?
"The goal of our work is really to make sure that all Arizonans have access to affordable healthy foods in their own communities. We work to help these foods be an easy choice for families and I hope to eventually be a default choice in communities around Arizona. This goal lifts up Arizona farmers and small businesses by expanding their customer base and will strengthen all Arizonans by improving multiple aspects of health including physical health and connection to community.”
Why is your work important? What kind of impact do you strive to make?
“I feel that my work is meaningful because it will have a long-term positive effect on the communities I serve. The impact I hope to make is two-fold. First, I hope to help strengthen the Arizona food system, allowing healthy choices to be easy and second, to shift perceptions around what healthy eating looks like towards a view that focuses more on a person’s relationship with food and less on the specific nutrients a person is eating at each meal.”
Kathleen’s healthy living advice:
