From the President…

Happy June everyone! Welcome to the official start of our “year” at GSDA and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. I’m Ginger Hultin, a Seattle-based RD and the new president of GSDA. I wanted to stop by with some updates about this coming year and to encourage you to either join us if you haven’t already or stay closely connected to all that we’ve got planned this year if you’re already a member. It’s going to be really fun! 

This organization is really special. We represent YOU – the nutrition experts in the Seattle area. We’re made up of a large group of registered dietitians working in so many different fields as well as a significant amount of dietetic students and interns from local universities including SPU, UW, and Bastyr University, and several distance and local internship programs. 

Can you join us or attend events if you’re not living in “Greater Seattle”? Absolutely! We’re focused now more than ever on virtual meetings and making attending events easy and accessible for all. Some of our board members actually live fairly far away and they stay connected with us through virtual meetings and events. 

As we move into this year, I wanted to highlight the many benefits of being a member of GSDA. And I also want to talk about diversity and inclusion. Here are some important things to remember:

-We offer unique education sessions for continuing education credits for those who need them and/or for those who just love to learn! Each year, we plan a series of in-person or webinar sessions that you can attend to grow your skills and stay on top of important changes and trends in our industry. In 2019, we even had Nancy Clark MS RD CSSD, the well-known sports dietitian, speak! We also had webinars about alcohol and health, nutrition considerations for auto-immune conditions and plant-based nutrition for athletes. We’re planning 2020/21 to be mostly or all virtual so you can join us very easily.

-There’s more than just CEs! Part of the benefits of membership is connecting and networking with other experts in the area. We nurture community and friendship through fun events like happy hours, walking journal and book clubs, volunteer events, and even cooking classes and demonstrations.

-GSDA supports your career. We have a “referral” page that members can join if they own private practices in the area. We have a speaker’s bureau for experienced speakers to be found by local organizations who need experts. We post jobs monthly as we hear about them to make sure that you’re getting that information as quickly as possible if you’re looking for opportunities. We’re working on keeping our List Serve up to date and active for you. I’m rolling out a “new speaker development” program this year. Many of our interns do find preceptors through our membership, too.

-We just created a very needed position: the Diversity Chair position. Our new board member is joining this month! As you’re likely aware, we struggle with a lack of diversity and inclusion in our field of dietetics. Let’s pull together to change that. This is only the beginning of this conversation and you can expect much more from us this year on the subject. To get started, make sure to join the Diversify Dietetics organization in their mission to help increase diversity in the field of nutrition. The Academy and some DPGs also specifically offer diversity awards and grants; take advantage of these and/or share them with colleagues who could benefit from them. Finally, the president of the Academy recently put out a statement addressing systemic racism and diversity in our field.

-Stay connected through social media. It’s easy to follow us on our private Facebook group. Don’t forget that our Legislative Team is hard at work bringing you up to date on action alerts and important things you need to know about policy in our state. Doing these action items is a step towards increasing food access and equity in our country. Many also help provide more coverage to more people to see dietitians and access healthcare. Let’s take a stand to eliminate health disparities!!

-Our incredible PR team also sends out beautiful e-newsletters several times per year so you can get to know the board, other members, and things that are going on in your local community. Keep an eye on your email for those!

Please consider joining us this year, getting more involved, or attending our many events. I’m looking forward to seeing you soon!