Emilie Westcott, MS RDN LD

Chair

Emilie's primary role is to lead special projects related to technology and data, specializing in quality improvement and new process implementation, for the Clinical Nutrition & Lactation Department at Dayton Children's Hospital. She works to develop new tools in the electronic health record to streamline documentation and care along with providing data analytics to progress strategic goals. Prior to this, she worked in pediatric clinical and community roles and currently serves on the hospital's Health Equity Council. She is proud to be a Cultural Food Partner, spearheading cultural food celebrations at the hospital with our foodservice and marketing partners.

Alice Bones Gonzalez, DHA, MS, RDN, FAND

Chair-Elect

Erica Stevens, RDN

Past Chair

Erica began her journey as a dietitian working in various positions in the hospital setting, transitioning to clinical and eventually food service management. Since then, she transitioned to working in nutrition informatics in 2015. She got her start building menu databases within a diet office software system and then worked in various technology related roles relating to diet office software including focusing on HL7 interface testing coordination, developing implementation processes, policies, and procedures, and eventually adding software requirement development and QA to her resume. She currently oversees an interdisciplinary team who implement, support, and develop a diet office software system.

Hannah Kittrell, MS RD CDN EP-C

Secretary

Hannah has been a Registered Dietitian and ACSM-certified Exercise Physiologist since 2019 and is currently completing her PhD at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in NYC. She began her dietetics career working as a research dietitian running deep phenotyping studies on human metabolism and as Director of the Mount Sinai Physiolab, a body composition and metabolic testing clinic. Working with clients one-on-one to develop personalized nutrition and exercise programs sparked Hannah's interest in the field of precision nutrition. She is now completing her PhD in Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technologies in Medicine, where her research focuses on evaluating the utility of unsupervised learning algorithms to model compositional dietary intake and identify objective diet biomarkers.

Brian Jones, MS, RDN, LDN, CCM, POPM, FAND

Treasurer

Carolyn A Silzle, MBA MS RD FAND

Academy House of Delegates Representative

Carolyn has been a registered dietitian for over 45 years. She earned her undergraduate degree from Penn State, a Master’s from Case Western Reserve University, and an MBA from Troy University. Carolyn is married with two adult daughters and two grandsons.

Her career began in adult nutrition at various hospitals in Cleveland. After relocating to Atlanta due to her husband’s job transfer, Carolyn worked prn at an adult hospital and was later recruited to a pediatric position at the nearby Children's Hospital. This hospital merged with another, forming Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, where Carolyn specialized in pediatric neurology and the ketogenic diet. As the hospital system began integrating a new electronic medical record (EMR) system, Carolyn volunteered for a task that led her to shift focus to clinical informatics. She developed numerous orders for the new EMR and later worked as a lab orders analyst until her retirement.

In Atlanta, Carolyn became active with the Atlanta and Georgia Dietetic Associations and was encouraged by a colleague to join and volunteer with the Pediatric Nutrition Practice Group (PNPG), where she held several positions, including Chair. She was also prompted by Kathleen Pellechia, the first Chair of the NI DPG, to get involved with the NI DPG, given her previous experience. Carolyn served two years as treasurer and is currently in her second year as the NI Delegate for the House of Delegates (HOD). Her goal this year is to enhance communication about the HOD with members. Please reach out if you have questions about the group.

Julia Oblein, RD

Nominating Committee Chair

Erica Stevens, RDN

Advisory Committee Member

Erica began her journey as a dietitian working in various positions in the hospital setting, transitioning to clinical and eventually food service management. Since then, she transitioned to working in nutrition informatics in 2015. She got her start building menu databases within a diet office software system and then worked in various technology related roles relating to diet office software including focusing on HL7 interface testing coordination, developing implementation processes, policies, and procedures, and eventually adding software requirement development and QA to her resume. She currently oversees an interdisciplinary team who implement, support, and develop a diet office software system.

Amy Wootton, RD

Academy Interoperability and Standards Committee (ISC) Liaison

Sue Kent, MS

Awards Committee Member

Ali Berry, MBA RD LD

Strategic Communications Chair

Alison Berry is a respected Account Relationship Manager at Computrition where she specializes in working directly with clients on the integration of software platforms into their daily operations. With 15 years of experience working inside hospitals as a Registered Dietitian, Alison brings a wealth of practical, real-life experience to her clients.

Alison holds a MBA from Western Governors University along with her Bachelors in Nutrition and Food Management from Oregon State University. Throughout her career, Alison has built a reputation as an empathetic leader who has overseen a wide range of critical assignments including new revenue generation, optimization of software implementation and managing a staff of 60+ employees.

She is passionate about the blending of health and well-being across the spectrum of daily life including nutrition, exercise, sleep and mental health. In her free time, Alison enjoys volunteering for local athletic organizations as well spending time with her family.

Valarie L Chudzinski, MA RDN LDN CNSC

Communications Committee Member (Website)

Val has been a registered dietitian for 17 years and is currently the Regional Clinical Nutrition Manager for the Northwestern Health System's Northwest Region, where she oversees three community hospitals located an hour west of Chicago, Illinois. Her expertise lies in nutrition informatics, quality improvement, and critical care nutrition. She is passionate about optimizing electronic medical records (EMR) to reduce charting time and eliminate manual data collection. An active volunteer, she contributes to the Nutrition Informatics DPG, Clinical Nutrition Manager DPG, and the Illinois Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, where she was recently elected as Delegate. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, supporting her daughters' sports activities, and singing karaoke with her husband, Eric.

Susan (Sue) Evanchak, RD LDN

Education Committee Co-Chair

Sue is the Nutrition Data Manager for the UPMC Health System in PA, NY and MD who is leads system-wide Food and Nutrition software implementation and EHR interoperability projects. Sue has served on the Academy’s Nutrition Informatics Committee (NIC) and was a founding member of the Nutrition Informatics Dietetic Practice Group. Sue currently serves on the Commission on Dietetic Registration Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) Task Force.

Valarie L Chudzinski, MA RDN LDN CNSC

Education Committee Co-Chair

Val has been a registered dietitian for 17 years and is currently the Regional Clinical Nutrition Manager for the Northwestern Health System's Northwest Region, where she oversees three community hospitals located an hour west of Chicago, Illinois. Her expertise lies in nutrition informatics, quality improvement, and critical care nutrition. She is passionate about optimizing electronic medical records (EMR) to reduce charting time and eliminate manual data collection. An active volunteer, she contributes to the Nutrition Informatics DPG, Clinical Nutrition Manager DPG, and the Illinois Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, where she was recently elected as Delegate. Outside of work, she enjoys reading, supporting her daughters' sports activities, and singing karaoke with her husband, Eric.

Sharon Solomon, RD

NI DPG and Friends Coordinator

Kristin Walters, MS RD CHES

Education Committee Member

Terese Scollard, MBA RDN LD FAND FASPEN

Tech Fair Liaison

Brittney Patterson, MS RD RDN-AP CCTD CNSC

Membership Committee Chair

Brittney is an experienced ICU dietitian at Stanford Health Care where she strives to provide compassionate, innovative care to all her patients. As an Epic Super User, she combines her passion for technology and dietetics to create efficient and impactful workflows that elevates the RD role. In 2021, she was awarded the “Excellence in Clinical Dietetics” by the California Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. In 2023, Brittney received the Integrated Strategic Plan Star Award at Stanford Health Care for her work using the EHR to ensure safe enteral feeding practices in the ICU.

Amy Wootton, RD

Membership Committee Member

Suzanne Smith MS, RD, LDN, IBCLC

Nominating Committee Chair-Elect

Ashley Ratliff, RD LD CNSC

Nominating Committee Member

Ashley Ratliff is the IT Program Manager for the Center for Human Nutrition within the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. She works closely with the clinical nutrition clinicians to ensure the electronic platforms meet the needs of the caregivers to be able to provide the best patient care. She provides research, data management, and quality improvement support. Prior to her current role, she worked on the Nutrition Support Team prescribing PN to hospitalized patients. She received her master's degree in clinical nutrition from Rush University in Chicago, Illinois.

Sharon Solomon, RD

Nominating Committee Member, ex officio

Margaret Neese, RD

Policy and Advocacy Leader