Dietitian Spotlight

I am really excited for today’s spotlight! I have previously mentioned that the field of Dietetics is vast and Tanya’s career direction is not only unique but something I have never looked into. Enjoy!

Hello, my name is Tanya and I am a Registered Dietitian and currently working on my PhD in Human Nutrition and Exercise Science.

I also blog over at Dine, Dash, and Deadlift in my spare time! I am excited that Allison asked me to share what my life as an RD consists of with all of you! If I could sum it up best, my “position” is as a “PhD, RD in training”. Completing my doctorate will allow me to work as a RD faculty member in the environment that I believe suits me best – academia. I love performing research, teaching, and constantly learning – which is essentially what my current and {hopefully} future position(s) will entail. So here is the breakdown of my work/life:

Coursework – At this point in my PhD program I am still completing graduate level course work in Biochemistry, Inflammation, Metabolism, Immunology, Research Methods, Pedagogy, and Statistics.

Teaching – My graduate assistantship (what pays my tuition and provides me with a monthly stipend) is a teaching assistantship. This means I am responsible for assisting with or fully instructing undergraduate courses in the Human Nutrition department. There is a LOT of time and effort that goes in to developing courses, lectures, assignments, quizzes/exams and also handling issues which arise with students and grading. However, (most of the time) it is worth it to pass along knowledge on topics I am passionate about.

While counseling and education are certainly part of most RD jobs, I was frankly bored out of my mind constantly passing along basic information to clients/patients. I felt as if I have so much more knowledge in my head than is necessary to share with clients/patients. They probably would not appreciate my burning desire to “enlighten” them about vitamin D metabolism… “and then, in the liver vitamin D is hydroxylated at C-25 by one or more cytochrome P450 vitamin D 25 hydroxylases”… ZZzzz, yah they would probably fall asleep! Oh well, thus why I am not in the setting. Well that, and I do not have the sweet, kind, bubbly, supportive personality either to help clients/patients be successful. Huge props to all of the RDs that work in the environment as I know it is not easy.

Research – My other big responsibility is research! I started working in nutrition and exercise research labs as an undergraduate and became hooked. My role in research projects has covered all aspects from grant writing, study design, participant recruitment, lab work, data analysis, manuscript writing, and presentation at professional meetings. I really enjoy this aspect of my job because things are always different.

Some days I am reading several journal articles in order to prepare background/introduction sections of papers; other days I am working hands on with research subjects; other times just with their blood in the lab; and sometimes I am disseminating information to others. Always something new to learn and do!

For the most part I love what I do and that I have a great deal of autonomy in completing my work. There are downsides of course. The hours are long! I am in the office doing work most weekends (granted, I cut down on my own free time significantly by blogging). Balancing different obligations can be hard at well. For instance – when I have an exam and a deadline for an abstract for a conference the same time – what gets my effort first? Or, I may have plans to work on data entry and analysis one day and then a problem pops up with another research project; students want to meet; a paper gets assigned in one of my classes; and so on which causes my schedule to become totally thrown for a loop. All in all though I could not see myself working in any other setting right now and I am genuinely happy with my decision every day. Maybe not every minute of every day…but you get the point!

If working as a professor or researcher is something you are interested in doing as a RD (or not as a RD), feel free to shoot me any questions you may have!

Tagged as: Dietitian Spotlight