GMC welcomes Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D. as scholar-in-residence

Public invited to free presentation by renowned radio host and “Dietitian on a Mission”
Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m.—POULTNEY—Nationally known “Food Sleuth,” radio host, speaker and award-winning writer Melinda Hemmelgarn, M.S., R.D., will soon be helping Green Mountain College and people in the surrounding community to “think beyond their plates.”
Green Mountain College, the nation’s number-one college for sustainability based education, announced that Ms. Hemmelgarn will be the 2017 scholar-in-residence for students completing their Master of Science in Sustainable Food Systems (MSFS). In addition to working with each student Feb. 15-18, she will be making a free public presentation, “Food System Literacy: Thinking Beyond Our Plates to Find Food Truth (A Moral Imperative)” Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7 p.m. in the college’s Ackley Hall. The community is invited to meet this “Dietitian on a Mission” and learn how their food and farming practices affect their health and environment.
“We are thrilled to give our graduate students the opportunity to learn from Melinda Hemmelgarn,” said Dr. Robin Currey, MSFS Program Director. “She is an engaging speaker, accomplished educator and passionate humanitarian. In addition, she shares our mission of fostering a sustainable society through a more purposeful approach to food and farming.”
Ms. Hemmelgarn said of her time at GMC: “In our new political atmosphere of ‘fake news,’ ‘post-truth’ and ‘alternative facts,’ we citizens need critical questions to find ‘food truth.’ That’s what I hope to bring to the students and larger community.”
Ms. Hemmelgarn has more than 35 years’ experience in clinical, academic, and public health nutrition. Recognizing the power of media to influence food choice, she created and directed the Nutrition Communication Center at the University of Missouri-Columbia, and blazed the trail blending media literacy with nutrition education. She wrote a weekly newspaper column for 25 years, and hosted “Food Sleuth” TV on community access television. Her weekly “Food Sleuth” radio program is syndicated through Pacifica and Public Radio Exchange, and ranks among the nation’s top “green food radio shows.”
In 2004, Ms. Hemmelgarn was awarded a Kellogg Food and Society Policy Fellowship, which allowed her to connect the dots between food, health and agriculture. She is a member of the Association of Health Care Journalists, the Union of Concerned Scientists Science Network, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She is also a leader within the Hunger and Environmental Nutrition practice group, where she created and chairs the annual “HEN Film Feastival.” In 2014, Today’s Dietitian Magazine named her one of the nation’s “Top 10 Dietitians Making a Difference,” and in 2015, she received the “Excellence in Hunger and Environmental Nutrition Leadership” award from her Academy peers.