Dear Kentucky Dietetic Professionals

Dear Kentucky Dietetic Professionals:

The 2009-2010 year will be very exciting for us in Kentucky. I am sure that all of us as KDA members will continue to be very active in our work areas, as well as in the communities in which we live. I am pleased to mention that our Board Change-Over meeting was a success. We met at Sullivan University and were treated to a delicious lunch served by Julep’s Catering. Thank you so much to Cynthia Chandler from Sullivan for assisting us with the planning of our meeting. Our KDA leadership team this year is made up of several veteran members, as well as many newcomers. As a collective board, we have developed many great ideas for this year and we are eager to put them into action. Thank you to everyone who agreed to be a board member. Your support and assistance is most appreciated.

A special thank you goes out to Merritt Bates Thomas, our Past President, for making 2008-2009 such a successful year. Merritt provided our affiliate with strong leadership and she was fantastic to work with on a regular basis. On a personal note, we have developed a wonderful friendship, and I hope to continue to provide KDA with such quality leadership this year. I would also like to thank Steve Perry for his diligent work on the budget. His dedication to fiscal stewardship does not go unnoticed. In addition, I would like to extend congratulations to Danita Kelley, our new President-Elect. Prior to this position, Danita served on the board as our Membership Chair.

At our recent board meeting, I unveiled our theme for this year which I would now like to share with the rest of our membership. It is as follows:

T hanks

E xchange

A ctive

M entor

I feel that this theme best embodies my goals for this year. I truly want to give THANKS to all KDA members for your dedication to our career of choice. I want all of us to EXCHANGE ideas and share our knowledge in order for us to continue ADA’s quest in improving our nation’s health. We all need to be more ACTIVE if we want to properly advance the dietetics profession through nutrition education, research, and service. It is also extremely important for us to be proactive in order for us to have strong district representation within Kentucky. Last but not least, it is our duty as nutrition professionals, to MENTOR our students, dietetic interns, and entry-level dietitians. This will assist in preparing them well to be able to provide our fellow Kentuckians with the ability to develop overall healthy eating habits.

It will be by utilizing this theme that we will continue to build strong relationships in order for us to maintain and grow our corporate sponsorships. It will also be by utilizing this theme that we will continue to work on updating the KDA Strategic Plan. Another way in which this theme will guide us is by implementing our new Public Policy Committee. It is our job as Registered Dietitians to be advocates for our profession and to become more visible with respect to public policy. If you are interested in serving on this committee, please let us know. To assist us in this area, we are thrilled that Tonya Chang has agreed to stay on as our Legislative Liaison and that Kimberly Gravley has continued to be our State Policy Representative. Both Tonya and Kimberly will work closely with Janet Tietyen, our new Public Policy Coordinator, in combining our efforts to plan a State Legislative Day in Frankfort to be held early next spring.

I would like to highlight a couple of items that have already taken place early into this membership year. We successfully submitted our 2009 Principles of Affiliation Report to the American Dietetic Association at the end of July. The information included in this report will assist ADA Headquarters to develop tools and resources to help ensure that we remain legally and fiscally viable. Another event that has already taken place was the Growing Healthy Kids in Kentucky Conference. This year, KDA co-sponsored the event, along with Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky. The meeting was a great success and the overall feedback was excellent! A huge thank you goes out to Adrienne Grizzell for her assistance in planning this fantastic meeting.

In closing, it is most definitely an honor to be serving as President of the Kentucky Dietetic Association. I look forward to meeting and working with many of you during the course of this year. Please remember that KDA belongs to all of us as Dietetic Professionals. It will take each of our active involvements to assure that we remain the driving force in influencing the nutritional status of our state.

Sincerely,

Amanda Goldman, MS, RD, LD

2009-2010 KDA President