As a registered dietitian and master’s student in the Department of Allied Health Sciences Health Promotion Sciences Program, Heidi Karner assembled a collaborative team to address nutritional health in the community of Windsor. Focusing on the Sage Park Middle School, she brought together Windsor Public Schools, Foodshare’s Windsor Hunger Action Team and UConn with the goals of increasing fruit and vegetable consumption, expanding participation in a breakfast program and reducing food insecurity. Karner continues to help provide people with nutritional guidance and ways to improve their behaviors and dietary choices to live long and healthy lives. Here is what she said in an interview about her work.
Where did you study as an undergraduate?
UConn.
What was your major?
The Coordinated Dietetics Program in the Department of Allied Health Sciences.
Why did you decide to go to graduate school?
Because I wanted to learn more about how to better promote health among my patient population. More specifically, I knew that this program had a heavy emphasis on health psychology and I was interested in learning more about how to encourage lasting behavior change in the people that I work with.
