Shanthi Appelö is an alumnus of the Maternal and Child Health Leadership traineeship. She completed both her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees at the University of Tennessee. Currently, she is a registered dietitian nutritionist working at the Knox County Health Department. In this blog post, Shanthi describes her experience as a former trainee, her current & upcoming projects, and recent recognition.
It is the best feeling every time I counsel a patient and see them thrive and reach their goals. Even more exciting is knowing that I get to have an impact on a policy, system or environment to influence more than just an individual, but a population. This very concept is what drove me to want to pursue a career in public health. As a MCH nutrition trainee, I was exposed to Knoxville’s diverse population, health equity particularly facing the maternal and child population. The traineeship offered me the experiences and opportunities to explore how to start solving our community’s problems.
Fast forward to today, I am a registered dietitian nutritionist working at the Knox County Health Department. My job has a clinical and public health component as my day-to-day varies from providing clinical nutrition consultation in our Centers of Excellence for HIV and AIDS clients to planning, overseeing and providing training in public health prevention programming to support policy, systems and environmental interventions to childcare facilities. My position also has a media component, where I appear in the local news at times and write a monthly column for our local business journal, Knox.Biz. Other parts of my job include helping our very own staff to become healthy by creating and leading an evidence-based weight loss program.
The MCH traineeship taught me to seize every opportunity and provided me with training in maternal and child leadership to where I can influence population-wide outcomes. I have joined our Health Department’s quality improvement committee, serve on the local Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Board as legislative chair and served in leadership positions on the Tennessee Public Health Association Board. I was honored to receive the award for Knoxville’s Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year Award in 2019 for my diverse job experiences during school, for being eager to learn as I earned the certificate of training in adult obesity interventions, for joining many leadership roles in my work and beyond, and for making a difference in the community with a focus on health equity.
Coming up, my team is pursuing a Tennessee Department of Health’s (TDH) Project Diabetes grant focused on diabetes prevention. My highlights in the application will focus on diabetes prevention while addressing health equity in the maternal and child population. Another TDH grant fast approaching: I have applied for a grant that focuses on diabetes and cardiovascular disease outreach, resources and treatment.
MCH Nutrition Trainee Hub 
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