Cassidy Pont
A healthier America awaits...
Professional Philosophy
My experiences in life have fostered a passion for nutrition and dietetics. I have always been very in-tune with my body, and in middle school after being overweight, not exercising or watching what I ate, I wanted to make a change. After altering my diet and increasing my physical activity I lost weight and had a newfound confidence; however I was still not at my optimal health. After numerous doctor visits and tests, it was discovered I was both gluten and lactose intolerant. Two weeks after eliminating gluten and dairy from my diet I felt like a new person, physically and mentally. This personal experience spurred my interest in nutrition, the science of the human body and food, as well as creating healthy dishes and disseminating nutrition information to various populations.
My other passion of working with children intersects with my nutrition endeavors. Having experienced all aspects of dietetics, which I believe to be: clinical, food service, community, research and policy, I have learned that I aspire to work for a large organization to systemically impact children, specifically infants and toddlers. I am also pursuing a career in communications by creating pieces that resonate with varying audiences to improve their diets. My unique training to become a Master in Public Health while concentrating in Dietetics will provide a strong foundational launching point to use scientific, evidenced-based practices to accomplish my career goals.
To be successful in the nutrition field I believe the following skills should be exhibited: the ability to communicate, adapt, advocate, and network.
Communication is important for dietitians to translate scientific information in a way that attracts people’s attention and to make them understand certain health behaviors should be adopted. I want to create nutrition interventions tailored to clients, groups, or communities to improve health status as well as write for various communication outlets to spread my nutrition knowledge and foster a healthy generation. I have experience in creating and implementing a child nutrition program called, “Courageous Cassidy to the Rescue!” where I tailored activities and program messages to best resonate with the ages of the children. My public health expertise allows me to tailor program activities and messages to fulfill the target various communities’ needs. Future clients will come from different backgrounds and hold different experiences; moreover, it is important to be culturally aware when working with clients and colleagues to foster trusting relationships that spur behavior change.
I elect to gain experiences geared towards children through class and internship projects. It is vital to instill healthy eating behaviors in children to improve the health status of America. Different governmental administration may pose challenges to altering nutrition policy and regulations. I look forward to continue using my advocacy skills to ensure quality products geared towards children contain adequate nutrients to foster proper growth and development.
Children have unique behaviors at each developmental age that can signal the best way to approach them with nutrition information. I have learned a great amount of this information in my Child Health Development course, and I look forward to gaining more experience with this population through the Dietetic Internship rotations at Women, Infants, and Children and on the pediatric rotation. Expanding my knowledge with this population will allow me to best create nutrition messaging that will resonate with them, and to advocate for what is appropriate for each age group regarding nutrition programs and interventions.
Throughout my diverse experiences I have learned the importance of establishing professional relationships and networking. Working on a collaborative team allows for integration of expertise and the creation of multi-dimensional approaches to targeted issues. Each team member brings a unique perspective that may highlight a way to move forward that was not considered. One person will not improve the status of America alone, and health professionals need to band together and combine their skillsets and knowledge to systemically create change.
Please scroll below to learn my professional competencies and goals.
Professional Competencies
Communicate
Effectively communicate nutrition information in a concise manner to various audiences.
Artifacts:
Public Policy Workshop Newsletter (PPWN)
was created after conducting a literature review on effective advocacy materials and observing previous ones. This was sent to over 350 Academy members of varying educational and professional status' comunicating how to prepare for the workshop and Hill day.
Education materials for the Terrace Dining Room at American University were created after conducting research on the various topics. Below you will see a sample of a flyer hung up around campus promoting healthy food consumption to college-aged students. I made sure to provide quick information to college students that would resonate with their lifestyle and preferences.
I have been published numerous times writing about different topics in nutrition and professional development. I enjoy spreading the knowledge I have acquired throughout my studies to foster healthy, successful behaviors in others. Before I write, I make sure I research the publication I am submitting to in order to align with their values, and tailor the writing the media source's audience.
Adapt
Tailor nutrition programs and interventions to the needs of the target population.
Artifacts:
"Courageous Cassidy to the Rescue!" was the child nutrition program I created. Below will take you to the page the program's contents are on. Certain activities needed to be changed in order to resonate with the children. I met with the teacher of the classroom to evaluate the activities I had initially came up with and incorporated his feedback in activities before implementation. This shows how I adapted program components, including activites and the pre/post-survey to meet the capabilities and needs of my targeted population via continuous evaluation.
Another project I completed was researching child malnutrition with a social-ecological lens. It demonstrates the importance of observing various aspects of life when creating interventions. These various aspects need to be taken into account when creating programs and interventions to be tailored to the audeicen of interest.
Advocate
Understand the importance of advocacy, especially for children.
Artifacts:
I wrote an alternative policy memo regarding unhealthy food television advertisements geared toward's children. This was written as if it were going to be sent to the Division of Advertising Practices' Associate Director. Much research was conducted before writing this to have a great understanding of realistic alternatives within the governmental context. This represented how to effectively advocate for children's health in order to foster a healthier generation and America.
While interning at the Academy I learned the importance of effectively communicating in politics. This was after I had experienced many different sectors of policy and advocacy via different conferences, hearings, and writing advocacy materials. I write about my experience which is published below.
Network
Effectively, professionally, and appropriately network with those in the nutrition and public health field.
Artifacts:
By observing the behaviors of others in the profession during my varied experiences, I have learned the importance of networking. I cultivate professional relationships via e-mails, in-person informational interviews, and phone conversations. Doing this has provided me with opportunities I would not have been presented with otherwise. My network can be seen via my LinkedIn profile below.
CEPH Competencies aligned with communication:
F18: Select communication strategies for different audiences and sectors
F19: Communicate audience-appropriate public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation
F20: Describe the importance of cultural competence in communicating public health content
CEPH Competencies aligned with communication:
F9: Design a population-based policy, program, project or intervention.
F11: Select methods to evaluate public health programs.
F19: Communicate audience-appropriate public health content, both in writing and through oral presentation
CEPH Competencies aligned with communication:
F14: Advocate for political, social, or economic policies and Programs that will improve health in diverse populations
CEPH Competencies aligned with communication:
F21: Perform effectively on interprofessional teams
*It should be noted that many more artifacts can be found on the other pages (Nutrition Artifacts, Health Promotion, and Public Health) including pictures of my work in action!
Professional Goals
Strengthen organizations with a systemic impact on food system's knowledge of sound nutrition information to positively impact the food system.
Continuing to write for various communication outlets to spread my nutrition knowledge and expertise to foster a healthier generation and America. I will continue to submit ideas and articles to various media outlets to gain more experience and build my communications portfolio.
Confidently create nutrition interventions tailored to patients or clients to improve health status via nutrition support by accumulating experience in th Dietetic Internship and workforce that will assist in such creation.
Serve as an advocate for nutrition programs and research by partaking in Action Alerts.