UTK Trainee Spotlight: Veronica Rubio

Veronica is a first-year graduate student in the Nutrition program at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK). Veronica also received her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition at UTK in 2014. She then went on to complete her dietetic internship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Veronica worked as a registered dietitian in the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program in South Carolina, and served as a clinical dietitian in the island of American Samoa. Veronica has been a MCH Nutrition trainee since August 2018.

My earliest experience working with the MCH population dates back to my volunteer work as an undergraduate. I worked as a research assistant with Dr. Marsha Spence (UTK) for the Cardiac Club Program, which is an afterschool nutrition and physical activity intervention program for elementary school-age children in fourth and fifth grades. Additionally, I worked as a nutrition educator for the Healthy Kid’s Club program ran by East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. For this program, I helped plan and teach weekly nutrition lessons and games that focused on movement and physical activity. My interest in working with this population grew throughout my dietetic internship, both in my community and clinical rotations, where I chose a concentration in pediatrics/pediatric oncology. My experience in public health nutrition further developed with my work as an RD for the WIC program.

So far, as a trainee, one of the projects I am leading is the diversity recruitment and retention committee. The committee is comprised of faculty members from both the Departments of Nutrition and Public Health at UTK. Currently, the committee is planning strategies to increase recruitment efforts of racially/ethnically diverse students into the dietetics profession. One of these strategies includes visiting historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the surrounding states. Another strategy is to create an infographic to disseminate to Hispanic-serving institutions and tribal colleges/universities that are further away. I am excited about the many opportunities the traineeship offers, and am looking forward to increasing my knowledge, refining my leadership skills, and better serving the MCH population.