Award winners
NE proudly applauds its members receiving these distinguished ADA and NE DPG Awards. The awards will be presented at FNCE 2009 in Denver. Congratulations!
ADA Annual Award Winners
NE Award Winner
Past NE Award Winners
2009 Professional Development Dietetic Student Award Winner
Nomination Form
2009 Excellence in Practice Award for Consultation & Business Practice
Denice Ferko-Adams, MPH, RD, LDN
The NE DPG nominee Denice Ferko-Adams will receive the 2009 ADA Excellence in Practice Award for Consultation and Business in Denver. A pioneer in worksite wellness, Denice served as NE Secretary and Chair and she credits this leadership experience in helping her to create new career paths for dietitians in worksite wellness. Denice has continued to volunteer in leadership roles, including: NE’s Corporate Health Specialty Chair, President of the Pennsylvania Dietetic Association, ADA Professional Issues Delegate, and 2011 Symposium Chair for Weight Management.
As president of her company, Wellness Press, Denice has 20 years of expertise in wellness program design, implementation and customization that are implemented by RDs, use evidence-based guidelines and show measureable outcomes. Denice specializes in team-based health, weight, fitness, and cafeteria campaigns. She is passionate about not only improving the health of employees, but also creating a positive shift in the corporate health culture for sustained behavior changes. Denice’s first team-based, weight loss competition enrolled 500 participants and set a new standard for delivering nutrition services. She also developed proprietary software to manage data and track changes in risk factors, documenting outcomes that translate to lower health care costs. Her services include an internet component and comprehensive data analysis. Denice’s client list includes: BMW of North America, Impact Health, Lehigh University, Marywood University, Lockheed Martin and many others.
Nationally recognized as a dynamic speaker and writer, Denice believes that to effectively reach audience members, the information must be entertaining and interactive. A self-proclaimed foodie, Denice enjoys providing cooking demonstrations that reach 100 or more people. . A sought-after speaker, Denice has presented to audiences with over 1,500 members at many professional conferences, including state dietetic meetings, FNCE/ADA, OHN, AWHP, SCAN, and Alliance for Wellness ROI.
To help other dietitians succeed in worksite wellness, Denice offers sessions and workshops on business skills necessary for corporate health promotion. In addition, she has self-published a manual, A Dietitian’s Guide to Corporate Health Promotion.
In Denver, Denice will receive the 2009 ADA Excellence in Practice Award for Consultation and Business Award on Sunday, October 18, at the 1 PM session: Entrepreneurship: Six-figure Success or Simply Surviving? The NE DPG is pleased to have Denice Ferko-Adams selected as this year’s recipient of this prestigious award.
On November 2, from 1-2:15, Denice will lead a free tele-seminar, Weight Management at the Worksite: deal or no deal? Offered through the WM-DPG, the seminar will also be free to NE and SCAN members.
2009 Outstanding Nutrition Entrepreneur Award Winner
Nancy Collins, PhD, RD, LD/N, FAPWCA
Nancy Collins, PhD, RD, LD/N, FAPWCA of Weston, FL is the 2009 Outstanding Nutrition Entrepreneur of the Year. The Nutrition Entrepreneurs (NE) Dietetic Practice Group will honor Dr. Collins at the annual American Dietetic Association Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in Denver, Colorado. Dr. Collins’ outstanding achievements will be recognized at the NE reception on Saturday evening, October 17, 2009.
Dr. Collins has exemplified the spirit of a true entrepreneur in her twenty year career. She has two distinct loves, both of which are off the traditional path of registered dietitians. Dr. Collins’ first love is wound care while her second love is technology.
Dr. Collins is nationally known for her work in the wound care arena. She has extensively studied the nutritional needs of patients with wounds and the effects of unintended weight loss on healing. She is passionate about educating other health care professionals and has delivered more than 350 professional lectures on these topics. Dr. Collins is also a prolific author and has numerous publications to her credit. Dr. Collins is an editorial advisor to the journal Advances in Skin and Wound Care, a contributing editor for Ostomy-Wound Management, and an editorial advisor for Today’s Diet and Nutrition. She is also a member of many medical advisory boards including the American Professional Wound Care Association, which granted her Fellow status. Dr. Collins is the sole dietitian with the FAPWCA credential. Her ground breaking work in wound care has led to a second specialty in litigation and risk management. Dr. Collins has served as an expert witness in over 400 medical malpractice and wrongful death suits involving the interwoven issues of nutrition, wounds, body weight and the applicable standard of care.
Dr. Collins’ work in wound care highlighted the need for quality, professional resources for health care professionals. This need led Dr. Collins to create RD411.com and Wounds411.com. These web sites provide over 1500 free, peer reviewed, downloadable and customizable resources covering a multitude of topics in nutrition and health care. Health care professionals from around the globe turn to Dr. Collins’ sites for patient handouts, slide sets, in-services, policies, and more. In a recent media article, RD411.com was called the Google of dietetics and nutrition. Dr Collins says “My goal is for dietitians and health care professionals to spend less time redeveloping every handout so they will have more time to spend with patients and clients, doing what they do best. We can improve health care outcomes by having quality materials for everyone to utilize. The Internet makes this global library possible.”
Dr. Collins also has a long history of service to the profession. She is a past president of the Broward (Fort Lauderdale) Dietetic Association, past president of the Florida Dietetic Association, and past chair of the Nutrition Entrepreneurs Dietetic Practice Group. Currently, she is the Florida affiliate delegate to the American Dietetic Association.
The NE Dietetic Practice Group would like to celebrate all of Dr. Collins’ accomplishments by awarding her the 2009 Outstanding Nutrition Entrepreneur of the Year Award. She is truly an entrepreneur at heart.
Past Outstanding Nutrition Entrepreneurs Award Winners
2008
Ann Litt, MS, RD, LD; Maryland
2007
Christine Palumbo, MBA, RD; Illinois
2006
Maye Musk, MS, RD; New York
2005
Barbara Ann Hughes, PhD, MPH, RD, LDN, FADA; North Carolina
2004
Barbara Storper, MS, RD; Massachusetts
2003
Bonnie Taub-Dix, MA, RD, CDN; New York
2002
Alice Baland, MA, LPC, RD/LD; Texas
2001
Dale Ames Kline, MS, RD, CNSD; Oregon
2000
Becky Dorner, RD, LD; Ohio
1999
Patricia Godfrey, RD, LD, CFCS; Minnesota
1998
Kathryn Scherb, MBA, RD; New Jersey
1997
Janice Kidd, PhD, MBA, RD; Tennessee
1996
Carol Coughlin, RD; Massachusetts
1995
Brenda Garritson, MS, RD; Texas
1994
Lauren Swann, MS, RD; Pennsylvania
1993
Terri Fields Hosler, RD; Hawaii
1992
Linda V. Callahan, MS, RD, LDN, CDE; Tennessee
1991
Johanna Burani, MS, RD; New Jersey
1990
Dayle Hayes, MS, RD; Montana
NE past award recipients in pdf file, click here.
2009 Professional Development Dietetic Student Award Winner
2009 Professional Development Dietetic Student Award Winner
Jennifer Westerkamp
Jenny is a 2008-2009 dietetic intern. She graduated with high honors from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earned a Bachelor's degree in Food Science and Human Nutrition. Beyond the classroom, Jenny gained valuable and diverse experiences in food service, academia, research, clinical nutrition, and sports nutrition. During her senior year, she held a teaching assistant position for an online sports nutrition course for Food Science graduate students. For four semesters, she was an undergraduate research assistant for three separate labs. She assisted in three studies including a rat study on the relationship between protein consumption and breast cancer tumor growth, an e-diary diet recall pilot study, and a pig study on infant formula with probiotics. Jenny gained additional dietetics-related experience during her summers off campus. In 2006, she assisted a consulting firm of clinical dietitians at multiple long-term care facilities. In 2007, she was an intern for Julie Burns, a Chicago-based sports nutrition dietitian and owner of Sportfuel and Eat Like the Pros. Her mentorship with Julie opened her eyes to the exciting opportunities awaiting her in the dietetics profession.
As the eldest among five brothers, Jenny is drawn to leadership roles. In addition to serving on the Human Interest Professionals Club executive board during her junior year, Her entrepreneurial spirit, ambitious attitude, and desire to serve others motivated her to start an organization on campus called Students Team Up to Fight Hunger (STUFH). STUFH became the official liaison between the Eastern Illinois Foodbank and the University of Illinois student community. As founder and president, Jenny coordinated campus-wide and community-wide food drives, volunteer events, and fundraisers. She recruited student members and increased campus awareness of local hunger and food insecurity.
During her undergraduate career, Jenny was the recipient of three merit-based scholarships including the Strawberry Fields Scholarship, which is awarded to the most outstanding dietetics student. She also was the recipient of the Senior Honorary 100 award. The Senior Honorary 100 award recognizes the top 100 seniors at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign for academic excellence, outstanding leadership, and unique contributions to the university.
As a dietetic intern, Jenny gained a wide variety of experiences in clinical, food service, community, business, public relations, and communications. Jenny was able to serve as an assistant manager at a retail food service operation. She created written handouts for the employee wellness program and patient education materials. As part of an intern team, she developed and presented a business plan for a telehealth-based, interactive website for the outpatient nutrition services. She worked to improve the gluten-free patient menu, presented case studies on patients with chronic kidney and pancreatic cancer, and independently counseled patients on weight management, diabetes, hypercholesterolemia and cancer. Jenny also redesigned the dietetic internship website and department website, in addition to creating social media platforms allowing the internship program to connect with alumni and current students. During her specialty rotation, she was able to spend four weeks at Weber Shandwick, a public relations firm. There, she performed literature reviews, researched media coverage, brainstormed marketing strategies, developed nutrition tips for consumer messaging, and assisted on a variety of writing assignments.
Outside of the dietetic internship and All Access Internships, Jenny enjoys writing about nutrition. She started a blog, Trendy Nutrition (trendynutrition.blogspot.com), in February 2009. She also serves as a marketing assistant and blogger for SuperKids Nutrition. Jenny develops and executes social media marketing strategies and contributes blog content.
NE presents a $1000 award annually to a member demonstrating originality and dedication to entrepreneurism in nutrition. The online application form is available in the members area. You can also nominate someone you know - make your talents known to NE!
Click here for the Online Nomination Form (in members area)