Rachel Klenzman is a first year dual Master of Science in Public Health Nutrition and Master of Public Health student and an MCH Nutrition trainee at the University of Tennessee. She will also be completing a dietetic internship through UT in 2021. Rachel received her Bachelor of Science degree in Dietetics from Ashland University in Ashland, OH in May 2018. She hopes to use her education and training to improve health outcomes for mothers and infants.
In January, I attended the first general East Tennessee Childhood Obesity Coalition (ETCOC) meeting of the year. The Childhood Obesity Coalition, as it was previously known, began under the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital in 2008. In the Spring of 2018, our University of Tennessee MCH Nutrition Leadership and Education Program faculty, Drs. Marsha Spence and Betsy Anderson Steeves, and funded trainees have assumed facilitating the coalition and it has been renamed ETCOC. The Coalition’s mission is to prevent and reduce childhood obesity by promoting healthy, active lifestyles through family, community and interprofessional collaborations. The vision is to see that all children in East Tennessee have access to nourishing foods, opportunities for physical activity, and community resources to support healthy weight. ETCOC’s overall goal is to facilitate collaborations that maximize funding to reduce childhood obesity in East Tennessee.
There are currently three active committees – policy, assessment, and outreach – each with unique goals and objectives in efforts to support the coalition’s mission and vision. During the meeting, we reviewed the direction of ETCOC with the coalition members and committee chairs. Next, each committee brainstormed specific ways to meet their respective goals during breakout sessions. As a coalition, we decided to reach out to more community members and organizations in order to increase participation and commitment. I am very excited to be a part of ETCOC and see how we are able to amp it up and make an impact in our very own community! As a member of the outreach committee, I am especially excited because we already have so many great ideas about how to maximize resources and make them attainable for families, teachers, and the community, for the benefit of children in Knoxville and in East Tennessee.
For more information, check out our website at https://etncoc.org
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