About

Our Program welcomes diverse students, empowering them to become nutrition leaders through a rigorous curriculum and supervised worksite practice. Graduates use research, advocacy, and behavior change strategies to inspire healthy physical activity and food choices, to prevent and manage diet-related medical conditions, to transform the food system, and to improve food access for all.

Based on its rich foundation in nutrition, our Program provides a vibrant, forward-looking platform on which to build your career in Nutrition. Since its founding in 1909, the Program in Nutrition at Teachers College has been a leader in developing strategies for promoting health through encouraging dietary change. We include issues about race, equity, and inclusion across our curriculum and provide experiential learning at clinical, community, and food service sites in New York City’s diverse communities. This is paired with our strong foundation in nutrition science, analytical reasoning, and medical nutrition therapy enabling our graduates to develop strong cross-cultural abilities and communication skills.

To educate the next generation of nutrition professionals, our Program offers Master of Science degrees that prepare students to complete the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) exam. The MS degrees offer three specializations: nutrition education, nutrition and public health, and nutrition and exercise physiology.

Students in all specializations gain a thorough grounding in nutrition science, medical nutrition therapy, nutrition education and counseling, dietary assessment, nutrition research, and community nutrition. The nutrition education degree offers extra courses in psychology and education. The nutrition and public health degree offers extra courses in public health and epidemiology. The nutrition and exercise physiology degree offers extra courses in exercise science.

1. We define nutrition broadly: “From the Farm to the Fat Cell”. 
We are interested in teaching individuals not only how to eat in a way that’s good for their bodies, but also to help them become aware of how their food choices affect the environment, as well as how the food workers (who bring us the food) were treated along the food chain. Our Program has been shaped by the pioneering work of the late Joan Dye Gussow who taught Nutritional Ecology from 1970 to 2021. All students take this course, which has been described as “transformative,” by generations of graduates.

2. We have a focus on nutrition education and counseling. 
Research and practical experience have taught us that knowledge alone does not change behaviors.  People have to be inspired to want to change, need the practical knowledge and skills to change, and need the environmental supports to sustain change. 

3. We emphasize analytical and reflective thinking.
Students will learn a lot of technical information, but that’s not the whole story.  We emphasize a way of thinking – a “process” or approach to analyzing current literature and forming opinions and recommendations based on the evidence. 

4. We emphasize practical experience integrated with theory. 
Hands-on learning opportunities are seamlessly integrated with your coursework. We have so many incredible partnerships that we have fostered over the years. We think NYC is an amazing place to learn and go to school.  

5. We are committed to ongoing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
We are committed to advancing DEI and explicitly integrate issues of race, food justice, and inclusion into our program’s vision, curriculum, and practicum-based opportunities. 

6. We strive to be very student-oriented.
We try to create a supportive environment and build community through many opportunities for faculty and students to engage outside of the classroom.
 
Due to the breadth of our aims, we admit a) students who have undergraduate degrees in a wide variety of fields, b) students who are career changers, and c) students who understand health disparities facing low-resource communities. Such students bring valuable knowledge, skills and attitudes to our Program and to the field of nutrition.

Our Program provides extensive opportunities for practical experiences in addition to traditional classroom lectures and discussions. Among the course-related educational experiences are field experiences in community nutrition; planning and teaching of nutrition sessions to selected audiences in the community; practicing nutrition counseling skills; presenting medical nutrition therapy case studies; conducting food education and gardening projects in schools; performing dietary assessments and analyses; and initiating social media and web-based nutrition activities. Supervised practice in sports nutrition with college athletics programs is included in the Nutrition and Exercise Physiology master’s degree.

To generate new knowledge, the faculty are actively engaged in cutting-edge and transformative research, and evaluation, policy, and other scholarly activities. Faculty write articles for peer-reviewed journals, books, and engage in other scholarly activities. Both master’s and doctoral students are an integral part of these activities, which include childhood obesity prevention research and programs, the impact of nutrition education on breast cancer survivors, the impact of changes in school lunches and of transforming school cafeteria design, dietary practices of those with celiac disease, parental feeding practices, the role of exercise in diabetes prevention, the impact of soda taxes on perceptions and attitudes, and much more.

To contribute to the enrichment of the community and the profession, the faculty are actively engaged in activities at the local, national and international levels. Local community organizations include New York City Nutrition Education Network and our Tisch Food Center’s Food Education Coalition. National professional associations include the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior, and the American Society for Sports Medicine. International organizations include the Food and Agriculture Organization, UNICEF of the United Nations, and the International Union of Nutrition Scientists.