INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY

USING SEU DEGREE TO RESTORE HEALTH TO AT-RISK COMMUNITIES

Celebrating 30 Years of the Dietetic Internship Program

This academic year marks the 30th anniversary of Saint Elizabeth University’s Dietetic Internship program. Launched in 1991 as an Approved PreProfessional Practice Program (AP4), the degree changed its status in 1994 to become known as a dietetic internship.

“This was the first postbaccalaureate program for SEU under the vision of the University’s fifth president, Sister Jacqueline Burns,” explains Monica Luby, director of the didactic program in dietetics. “It paved the way for other graduate-level courses and degrees to be offered at Saint E.” Throughout the last three decades, alumni of SEU’s dietetic internship program have implemented practical skills and theoretical knowledge developed at the University to positively impact their communities. With a strong focus on helping those in need, the dietetic internship program teaches students to be champions of justice in their fields.

Childhood Nutrition Program

When ISABELLA PAZ BALDRICH, ‘21, was a child, she benefited from the National School Lunch Program. Now, after graduating from SEU’s dietetic internship program, Isabella earned a graduate fellowship through the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute to reauthorize those same child nutrition programs with the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor.

“I had personal experiences with food insecurity when I was in elementary school,” says Isabella. “In addition to participating in the National School Lunch Program, my mother received the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). These programs made me interested in learning about how food insecurity affects children long term.” Through her fellowship, Isabella is working on modernizing the child nutrition and school meal programs that will hopefully expand the scope of assistance and allow for more children to obtain free meals at school.

“When someone is struggling with food insecurity, they typically don’t have access to fresh fruits and veggies. They’re forced to eat calorically dense foods high in saturated fat, sugar and sodium, which can cause chronic health problems,” explains Isabella. “Nutrition education is the first step in preventing those diseases before they begin, rather than fighting them once they’ve developed.”

While completing her dietetic internship at SEU, Isabella earned a Master of Science degree in Nutrition with a concentration in community and public health nutrition. She’s particularly interested in benefiting communities of color that are disproportionately impacted by diet-related diseases due to social determinants of health. This refers to economic stability, neighborhood environment, community context, education access and quality and healthcare access. “I want to help people make healthier, budget-friendly and culturally specific choices,” says Isabella. “We have to keep in mind that not everyone has access to the foods they need or the purchasing power to obtain healthier foods.”

It is through her advocacy for improved nutrition and commitment to enhancing current policy that Isabella hopes to bring about positive change in her community and the nation.

I want to help people make healthier, budgetfriendly and culturally specific choices.”

Reviving Heritage Food Ways

“A ring of red and a loaf of white” ushered in an era of unprecedented illness and disease among members of the Lakota Tribe. Representative of the refined carbohydrates and processed meat found in a bologna sandwich, this pithy phrase illustrates the movement from traditional food ways to more modern manners of consumption. “The bologna sandwich was an alternative to standing at the stove, cooking all day,” explains KIBBE MCGAA BROWN, ‘93, a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Public Health Service and a graduate of SEU’s dietetic internship program. “Eating this way became a matter of status because some people had the ability to afford convenience.”

However, with ease of preparation came an entirely new problem: high blood sugar. In the early 1990s, before the diabetes epidemic was well understood, Kibbe began working as a dietitian for Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. She had witnessed the devastating impacts of diabetes on her aunts and uncles and was determined to help other Native people with the condition. Not knowing where to start fighting this disease, Kibbe turned to her elders. “While at Pine Ridge, I had access to the Grey Eagle Society [a group of Lakota elders], who taught me about traditional food ways,” says Kibbe. “I learned that there was a radical shift in food intake for Native people in a relatively short amount of time, and the elders taught me to consider how our ancestors ate instead.”

Using both her elders’ wisdom and formal education, Kibbe began to reimagine how nutrition education was taught to Native people. Instead of relying on the food pyramid, which was the only model at the time, Kibbe looked for a symbol more reflective of heritage food ways. “The circle, with four directions, is a cultural symbol,” describes Kibbe. “Known as the medicine wheel, the west is water, the north is the buffalo, the east is for harvesting and gathering berries and plants, while the south is for cultigens such as corn, beans and potatoes.” By developing materials that mirrored the traditional food system in contemporary ways, Kibbe was able to steer people away from refined carbohydrates and toward bone broth, plants and other ancient food ways. As a national nutrition consultant for Indian Health Services (IHS) in the Division of Diabetes Treatment and Prevention, Kibbe is able to measure the impact of nutritional education, traditional diets and other methods of intervention.

As reported by the IHS, Native Americans have the highest rates of Type 2 diabetes in the United States. However, as explained in the IHS’ Special Diabetes Program for Indians Report to Congress, diabetes-related deaths, hospitalizations for uncontrolled diabetes and diabetic eye

Studying at Saint Elizabeth University equipped me to succeed in my career... I don’t think any other program could have educated me better than SEU’s dietetic internship.”