Alumni News
Nutrition graduate samples dietetics career
“The cafeteria plan” – a clichéd way to describe a nutrition graduate’s career – aptly describes David Orozco’s approach to building an exciting and interesting career. Orozco, a master’s of science and dietetic internship graduate, is planning to build a private practice in nutrition. But in the meantime, he has sampled other career opportunities in dietetics.
Upon graduation, Orozco, who is fluent in Spanish, designed the nutrition component of a diabetes curriculum for an Emory physician’s group to use with Latino patients. After becoming a registered dietitian, he went to work at the Emory Clinic’s bariatric outpatient facility. As a dietitian at the clinic, he provided gastric bypass patients with comprehensive dietary and behavior modification techniques in both support group and individual counseling settings.
“The dietitians have a lot of involvement in the patient’s treatment,” Orozco says. “There is a big need to fill in the area of outpatient bariatrics as patients have been getting a lot of bad information, which can greatly affect their health. The dietary needs of a bariatric patient are quite different from the average weight-loss patient.”
Orozco’s goal is to build his own private practice, offering two types of services: the first, working with small to medium-sized companies to develop nutrition curriculum for the companies’ wellness centers. The second service is an expansion of his translation services – putting together nutrition information in Spanish geared toward the Latino consumer, and teaching Spanish to health professionals.
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On November 5 at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, Katie Sobush, MS, MPH who graduated in May 2007 from the Institute of Public Health was voted as one of the top three presentations from among 20 finalists in the Environment Section's Student Poster Sessions. The poster was based on her MPH thesis, entitled "Obesity and the built environment in twenty-six rural Georgia counties: An analysis of physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and environmental factors." Details are available here. Dr. Valerie Hepburn (thesis chair) and Dr. Derek Shendell (2nd reader, and advisor) were among the co-authors.
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Katie Kilker to Lead National Autism Communication Campaign
Katie Kilker, a 2007 MPH graduate of the Institute of Public Health, was just appointed as a Health Communications Specialist to lead CDC's new autism awareness campaign, "Learn the Signs. Act Early."
You can learn more about the campaign here.
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IPH Graduate Presents at National Meeting
Shauta Parker, a 2007 MPH graduate of the Institute of Public Health, will present her thesis research at the upcoming meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research Conference on Cancer Health Disparities. Shaunta is currently Communications and Education Manager at the Georgia Center for Oncology Research and Education, Inc. (Georgia CORE). You can read more about Shauta's thesis research here.
