Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access!
We’re hearing these words with increasing frequency…and importantly so. At the Academy Foundation, we intentionally and actively integrate the principles of Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (I-D-E-A) into our efforts (as has the Academy at-large). In this February monthly message, I’ll share how our Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation is achieving this goal.
Let’s start with our scholarship program. Our Foundation awarded a record amount of scholarship funding, $860,250, to 309 deserving students for the 2022-23 academic year. This included $555,200 in scholarships to 180 recipients of diverse backgrounds and cultures, representing 64.5% of total scholarship funding awarded.
Interestingly, we are seeing an increasing number of donors seek out our Foundation and partner with us to leave their legacy, and help create opportunities with I-D-E-A top of mind. This is excellent! New named scholarship funds with a focus on I-D-E-A for all Academy members will help increase the diversity of our profession in the future. Currently our Foundation manages more than 100 named scholarship funds, and many have made inclusion, diversity, equity and accessibility a priority.
Just recently, my predecessor, Academy Foundation Past-Chair, Becky Dorner, RDN, LD, FAND, created the Dorner Family Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access Scholarship Fund. This is the first Foundation scholarship whose criteria provides a preference for diversity in sexual orientation.
Also of note, in honor of February’s Black History Month, our Foundation celebrates pioneers who have made a lasting impact on our profession. For example, Joncier Greene, MS, RD, was a trailblazer as an Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics member for 29 years. Greene served in several leadership capacities at the local and national levels, including President of the Washington DC Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She was also a founding member and Chair of the Healthy Aging Dietetic Practice Group and the National Advisory Council of the Academy from 1978-1981. In 1985, Greene was awarded the Academy’s highest honor, the Medallion Award.
To further honor Greene, Mead Johnson, in 1997, established the Mead Johnson Nutrition Scholarship Fund. This Fund provides an annual scholarship to students studying in the field of nutrition and dietetics with an expressed career interest of pediatric nutrition. When possible, the scholarship criteria guide the Foundation to give this award to a student who identifies their ethnicity as Black.
In 2022, our Foundation awarded this scholarship to Charlene Washington.
My name is Charlene Washington, and I am the proud recipient of the Foundation’s Mead Johnson Nutrition Scholarship in Memory of Joncier Greene. My family and I would like to express our gratitude for granting me this scholarship. Words cannot express how grateful I am that you have the confidence in me to help me achieve my goal to become an RDN. Thank you!
Charlene Washington
2022 Mead Johnson Nutrition Scholarship in Memory of Joncier Greene Recipient
As your Foundation chair this year, I’m proud of how our Foundation is intentionally and actively integrating the concepts of I-D-E-A into our work. I encourage you, in honor of Black History Month and the concepts of I-D-E-A, to support our Foundation’s efforts by making a gift to our IDEA Fund. Your donation will support initiatives that expand opportunities for Academy students and members of diverse backgrounds and cultures. Your donation will count towards our $1 million dollar Make It a Million Scholarship Campaign!
With Your Help, We Can Do Even More
Sincerely,
Hope Warshaw, MMSc, RD, CDCES, BC-ADM, FADCES
2022-2023 Chair, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation
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