Mission Statement
Through current academic initiatives, research, and service activities, the Program in Nutrition focuses on facilitating change in individuals and communities, and on ways of modifying personal choice, community access, and the food system within which such choices are made to ensure healthy people in healthy and sustainable communities.
To fulfill this mission, the Program in Nutrition:
- Educates the next generation of nutrition and dietetics professionals to fulfill a variety of entry-level and leadership roles;
- Generates new knowledge, policy and models for nutrition practice through research, scholarship and demonstration projects;
- Contributes to the enrichment of the community and the profession by service to the field.
Academic Programs
To fulfill its mission to educate the next generation of nutrition professionals, the Program in Nutrition offers master's degrees in Nutrition and Education, Nutrition and Public Health, and Nutrition and Applied Physiology. Doctoral degrees in Nutrition Education, Nutrition and Public Health, and Behavioral Nutrition are also offered. In addition to degree offerings, the Program in Nutrition houses a Dietetic Internship Program.
The Program in Nutrition prepares graduates to take positions of leadership and service in health agencies, hospitals, and private practice; in food advocacy organizations, media organizations and the workplace; in community interventions and public health nutrition programs; and to fulfill clinical practice, planning, educational, and administrative roles in a variety of institutions and settings.
Our Program in Nutrition provides students:
- A thorough grounding in nutrition science, nutrition education and clinical nutrition.
- A broad understanding of the psychological, social, political and economic context of foods and nutrition.
- An ability to critically evaluate the scientific, policy and lay literature about food, food systems and nutrition-related issues.
- The ability to integrate knowledge from the fields of nutrition science, foods, the behavioral sciences and community nutrition to design and implement nutrition education with individuals, groups and communities.
- The ability to integrate research, theory and practice.
In addition, the Program in Nutrition facilitates the development of competencies and skills in:
- Identifying and analyzing the determinants of food selection and nutrition status in both individuals and populations.
- Facilitating healthful and ecologically sustainable food choices.
- Conducting educational interventions and nutrition counseling with individuals and groups.
- Analyzing, understanding and acting on the food system within which food choices are made.
- Assessing nutritional status and dietary behaviors.
- Critically evaluating complementary and alternative nutrition therapies.
- Applying nutrition science principles to exercising individuals.
- Promoting social, policy and political change in the area of food, nutrition and health in a variety of settings.
- Conducting research in a variety of food and nutrition-related areas.
Emphasis is placed on integrating theory and professional practice.
The location of Teachers College in the heart of New York City makes it possible for students to participate in a wide range of community field experiences.
Research and Scholarship
To fulfill the Program in Nutrition's second mission, recent research and demonstration projects have focused on the following:
Cognitive and psychosocial factors influencing food choices and eating behaviors in children, adolescents and adults. - The integration of nutrition education and science education through investigations about food from farm to table, and the impact on personal health and on the natural environment.
- Ecological concerns in food choice.
- Epidemiological relationships between diet, physical activity and chronic disease.
- Complementary and alternative nutrition therapies for cancer.
- Tests of education intervention models to increase vegetables and whole grains in the diets of elementary school children.
- The environmental impacts and sustainability of various dietary patterns.
- Anthropological and historical approaches to examining consumers' roles in determining food product choice in the marketplace.
- Impacts of macrobiotic-like diets on women's health.
Service to the Community and the Profession
To fulfill the third mission of the Program in Nutrition, faculty and staff are involved in a variety of activities to provide service to communities, the profession and the nation, such as:
- Providing education about the Whole Story of Food through the Earth Friends Program to children from New York City schools in our Food Education Center.
- Participating in community food access and education programs.
- Providing nutrition counseling in private practice.
- Participating in national professional associations such as the Society for Nutrition Education, American Public Health Association, American Dietetic Association, and on national panels such as the National Academy of Medicine committees.
