- Email: [email protected]
A Time to Serve
PRACTICE APPLICATIONS President’s Page
A Time to Serve
L
AST MONTH, WITH HUMILITY and gratitude, I began my term as the 2015-2016 president of the Academy. I am looking forward to an exciting year. As presidentelect during the past year, I was able to take part in a number of events and activities that show the extent of our Academy’s involvement and influence. In August 2014, I rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ exchange in New York in honor of Kids Eat Right month. I traveled to Spain with Academy leaders; the Partnership for a Healthier America provided the opportunity to celebrate, with other health-care professionals and First Lady Michelle Obama, the fifth anniversary of the Let’s Move! campaign. I attended and spoke at excellent affiliate meetings in Alabama (my home state), Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, and Massachusetts. During the year it was my pleasure to participate in advocacy efforts in Alabama and in Washington, DC, with the Academy’s Policy Initiatives and Advocacy Team. Now it is time to pay back the opportunities I’ve had, and serve as president of our Academy. I pledge to work with the Board of Directors, other Academy leaders, our executive director, and Headquarters Team. My priorities include increasing both the number of internships available for students and the number of preceptors to work with interns. Another goal: Continue increasing the ethnic diversity of our membership.
DEMONSTRATE LEADERSHIP And we must keep demonstrating to the world that we are the bestqualified leaders in nutrition and dietetics. We aim to maximize the health of the people in our community, state, nation, and in the world. As a part of the Academy’s strategic plan, I hope we increase our partnerships and collaborations with like-minded organizations that are involved in addressing food insecurity and hunger issues worldwide, contributing to reductions in
ª 2015 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
health disparities, and increasing health equity.
LEARNING WHO WE ARE I believe everyone has the ability to lead. It is in leadership that we learn who we are, and what our strengths are. The word leadership can begin with either a big “L” or a little “l,” because we all are leaders at one time or another, from our families to our communities. Within the Academy, we have many opportunities for leadership. Over the years, the Academy has provided leadership training for our membership. Even back in the early 1960s, the (as it was then known) American Dietetic Association produced leadership development materials for state associations. Far more has been done since to develop leaders, including the Diversity Leadership Training Program that accepts four qualified applicants each year.
SERVANT LEADERS Leadership in the Academy at all levels, from the district, to the state, to dietetic practice groups and member interest groups, requires us to beein the words of my presidential predecessor Judith Rodriguez, PhD, RD, LDN, FAND—“servant leaders.” We may face ups and downs, but servant leaders get the job done and reach common goals. We lead by example: the group must share a vision of where the team is going, and the leader helps to make sure we get there. My leadership motto is TEAM: “Together Everyone Accomplishes More.” An African proverb puts it this way, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”1
LEADERSHIP IS NOT ALWAYS POPULAR I had the honor of working with a great leader—Arnold Schaefer, PhD, director of the Swanson Nutritional Center in
Dr Evelyn Ford Crayton Nebraska—when I was a fellow in the Ford Foundation Leadership Training Program. I visited his center and traveled with him to Native American reservations. He showed us the power and perils of advocacy for just causes, as he spoke out about hunger and malnutrition, which he documented in the TenState Nutrition Survey. His views were not always popular at the time, but he persevered. We all face challenges when we lead. Our cause may be right, but still unpopular. We may need to have “fierce conversations” and tough love in our relationships. Often we feel like we are being attacked. What to do? We have to speak up, move on, and not take any of it personally. I know from experience that one can survive, and one day look back on the experience with a smile.
FIND AND EXPRESS GREATNESS We all have leadership skills, and we all have greatness in us. Let us find and express greatness through our own style of leadership. Evelyn Ford Crayton, EdD, RDN, LDN, FAND [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2015.05.008
Reference 1.
Braun A. The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change. New York, NY: Scribner; 2014:218.
JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS
1037
A Time to Serve
L
AST MONTH, WITH HUMILITY and gratitude, I began my term as the 2015-2016 president of the Academy. I am looking forward to an exciting year. As presidentelect during the past year, I was able to take part in a number of events and activities that show the extent of our Academy’s involvement and influence. In August 2014, I rang the closing bell at the NASDAQ exchange in New York in honor of Kids Eat Right month. I traveled to Spain with Academy leaders; the Partnership for a Healthier America provided the opportunity to celebrate, with other health-care professionals and First Lady Michelle Obama, the fifth anniversary of the Let’s Move! campaign. I attended and spoke at excellent affiliate meetings in Alabama (my home state), Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Florida, and Massachusetts. During the year it was my pleasure to participate in advocacy efforts in Alabama and in Washington, DC, with the Academy’s Policy Initiatives and Advocacy Team. Now it is time to pay back the opportunities I’ve had, and serve as president of our Academy. I pledge to work with the Board of Directors, other Academy leaders, our executive director, and Headquarters Team. My priorities include increasing both the number of internships available for students and the number of preceptors to work with interns. Another goal: Continue increasing the ethnic diversity of our membership.
DEMONSTRATE LEADERSHIP And we must keep demonstrating to the world that we are the bestqualified leaders in nutrition and dietetics. We aim to maximize the health of the people in our community, state, nation, and in the world. As a part of the Academy’s strategic plan, I hope we increase our partnerships and collaborations with like-minded organizations that are involved in addressing food insecurity and hunger issues worldwide, contributing to reductions in
ª 2015 by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
health disparities, and increasing health equity.
LEARNING WHO WE ARE I believe everyone has the ability to lead. It is in leadership that we learn who we are, and what our strengths are. The word leadership can begin with either a big “L” or a little “l,” because we all are leaders at one time or another, from our families to our communities. Within the Academy, we have many opportunities for leadership. Over the years, the Academy has provided leadership training for our membership. Even back in the early 1960s, the (as it was then known) American Dietetic Association produced leadership development materials for state associations. Far more has been done since to develop leaders, including the Diversity Leadership Training Program that accepts four qualified applicants each year.
SERVANT LEADERS Leadership in the Academy at all levels, from the district, to the state, to dietetic practice groups and member interest groups, requires us to beein the words of my presidential predecessor Judith Rodriguez, PhD, RD, LDN, FAND—“servant leaders.” We may face ups and downs, but servant leaders get the job done and reach common goals. We lead by example: the group must share a vision of where the team is going, and the leader helps to make sure we get there. My leadership motto is TEAM: “Together Everyone Accomplishes More.” An African proverb puts it this way, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”1
LEADERSHIP IS NOT ALWAYS POPULAR I had the honor of working with a great leader—Arnold Schaefer, PhD, director of the Swanson Nutritional Center in
Dr Evelyn Ford Crayton Nebraska—when I was a fellow in the Ford Foundation Leadership Training Program. I visited his center and traveled with him to Native American reservations. He showed us the power and perils of advocacy for just causes, as he spoke out about hunger and malnutrition, which he documented in the TenState Nutrition Survey. His views were not always popular at the time, but he persevered. We all face challenges when we lead. Our cause may be right, but still unpopular. We may need to have “fierce conversations” and tough love in our relationships. Often we feel like we are being attacked. What to do? We have to speak up, move on, and not take any of it personally. I know from experience that one can survive, and one day look back on the experience with a smile.
FIND AND EXPRESS GREATNESS We all have leadership skills, and we all have greatness in us. Let us find and express greatness through our own style of leadership. Evelyn Ford Crayton, EdD, RDN, LDN, FAND [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jand.2015.05.008
Reference 1.
Braun A. The Promise of a Pencil: How an Ordinary Person Can Create Extraordinary Change. New York, NY: Scribner; 2014:218.
JOURNAL OF THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS
1037