On August 31, 2023, Nutritional Outlook hosted a roundtable discussion asking academic and industry experts, “Are enough women being trained in the fields of nutrition and nutraceuticals?”
We are presenting this roundtable in association with Women In Nutraceuticals. Women In Nutraceuticals is a nonprofit group spearheaded by global nutraceutical leaders whose mission is to build support for women in the nutraceuticals industry, including 1) helping to increase the percentage of women holding leadership roles in the C-suite and across the dietary supplement industry, 2) increasing funding for female-led businesses, and 3) increasing women’s participation in nutraceuticals research.
For more information about Women In Nutraceuticals, visit https://womeninnutraceuticals.org. We urge everyone to get involved with WIN’s important work.
View the following video excerpts from this roundtable:
Women in Nutrition Education (Part 1): Are there currently enough higher-education schools focusing specifically on the fields of nutrition or nutraceutical studies?
Women in Nutrition Education (Part 2): Are many students coming up through the education system seeking a career in the nutrition or the nutraceuticals industries?
Women in Nutrition Education (Part 3): Are there any gender differences in terms of the ratio of females to males being trained in nutrition sciences or the nutraceuticals industry?
Women in Nutrition Education (Part 4): From a DEI standpoint, what are some groups that are underrepresented in the nutrition or nutraceuticals study fields?
Women in Nutrition Education (Part 5): Once women graduate in nutrition or nutraceutical studies, are there generally enough higher-level job opportunities available to them?
Women in Nutrition Education (Part 6): What needs to happen to inspire more students to pursue educations and careers in the nutrition or nutraceutical fields?
Meet the Panelists
Michelle Cardel, Senior Director of Global Clinical Research & Nutrition at WeightWatchers, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Florida
Michelle Cardel is a nutrition scientist, a registered dietitian, the senior director of global clinical research and nutrition at WeightWatchers, and a faculty member at the University of Florida, where she is also an associate director for the Center for Integrative Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases. Her research focuses on implementing effective healthy-lifestyle interventions, particularly among underserved populations. She is a fellow of The Obesity Society and has published more than 100 papers in high-impact journals, including JAMA, JAMA Pediatrics, and the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Dr. Cardel has won many awards, including the University of Alabama’s Outstanding Woman Award, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Excellence in Emerging Outcomes Research Award, and the University of Alabama’s Young Alumni Rising Star Award.
Nana Gletsu Miller, Associate Professor at Indiana University Bloomington
Nana Gletsu Miller, associate professor, is affiliated with applied health science in the School of Public Health at Indiana University-Bloomington. She obtained a PhD in nutrition and metabolism from the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She then underwent a postdoctoral fellowship in pathology and molecular biology at Emory University. Afterwards, she served as an assistant professor in surgery at Emory, and then as assistant and associate professor with tenure in nutrition science at Purdue University. Dr. Gletsu Miller serves as the director of the Nutrition Research Laboratory, a clinical research facility that faculty use to design research diets and perform various nutritional phenotyping for clinical studies. The vision of Dr. Gletsu Miller’s research program is to evaluate nutritional solutions to promote the health of individuals undergoing clinical management of obesity and diabetes. One focus of her research is developing effective and safe diet and supplemental strategies for improving nutritional outcomes following bariatric surgery. A separate research program focuses on the prevention of youth-onset type 2 diabetes in adolescents who have obesity and prediabetes. Dr. Gletsu Miller modifies nutritional status via diet and nutritional supplement interventions, and she assesses nutritional status using state of the art anthropometry, biochemical, clinical, and dietary methods.
Jeff Hilton, Adjunct Professor at Sonoran University of Health Sciences
Jeff Hilton is the cofounder of BrandHive, a leading global healthy-lifestyle branding agency. For 25 years (from 1996 to 2019), BrandHive provided high-level strategic planning and branding expertise to consumer packaged goods and value-based ingredient companies in the U.S. and across the globe. Jeff has been an invited speaker at healthy-lifestyle events worldwide, including Natural Products Expos East and West, NBJ Summit, Fancy Food Show, IFT, and Vitafoods Europe and Asia. In 2019, the then-named Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM) reached out to Jeff to develop and teach the marketing curriculum for its masters in nutrition business leadership online degree, which launched in 2022. He is also on the advisory board for SCNM’s School of Nutrition. His vision, leadership, and boundless energy led to the acquisition of BrandHive by an INC 5000 marketing research and data-management company in May 2019. Jeff continues consulting to help health and wellness companies succeed in today’s marketplace.
Michael McBurney, Adjunct Professor at University of Guelph and Tufts University
Michael McBurney is an adjunct professor in the Department of Human Health & Nutritional Sciences (HHNS) at the University of Guelph in Guelph, ON, Canada, and at the Division of Biochemical and Molecular Nutrition, Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy, at Tufts University in Boston, MA. He is also a senior scientist at the Fatty Acid Research Institute in Sioux Falls, SD. He has also held academic appointments at several universities, including Texas A&M (as professor and founding department head of Nutrition and Food Science), Alberta, North Carolina–Chapel Hill (sabbatical), Toronto, and Michigan State. Michael also led nutrition teams at DSM-Firmenich and Kellogg Company.
Brandi Reinbold, Senior Manager of Certification at NSF
Brandi Reinbold is the senior manager of global certification at NSF International, where she leads technical program design and management of NSF’s Health Sciences Certifications business unit, which services the dietary supplements, cosmetics, and over-the-counter drug industries. She has been with NSF for over eight years and was previously the group lead of quality and compliance, and a senior certification project manager for dietary supplements. Brandi previously worked at Vericel Corporation, Wayne State University, and the American Red Cross. She graduated with a bachelor of science degree in biology from Oakland University.
April Stull, Associate Professor of Nutrition Sciences at Baylor University
April J. Stull is an associate professor of nutrition sciences in the Department of Human Sciences and Design at Baylor University. Her research is focused on polyphenol-rich foods and other functional foods and their effects on the risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome. Dr. Stull is also interested indietary interventions aimed at preventing type 2 diabetes in underserved and underrepresented populations. Dr. Stull is a fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (FAND). Currently, she serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics as well as Nutrition Reviews, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Scholarship and Grant Review Committee. Dr. Stull also serves on the American Society for Nutrition’s board of directors as the treasurer, and finance and audit committee as the chair. Prior to joining the Baylor University faculty, Dr. Stull was the director of the Didactic Program in Dietetics and an associate professor at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore (Princess Anne, MD), and research assistant professor and postdoctoral fellow at Pennington Biomedical Research Center (Baton Rouge, LA).
