Progress 08/01/20 to 07/31/24
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the training is Master of Science students. Changes/Problems:We experienced some difficulty in recruiting Master's students for the program. In the end, 46% of our total Certificate Program student pool were students who started their University career as a Master's student. We attribute the difficulty in recruiting MS students to the short length of the MS student program (2 years) and lack of time to fit the certificate program required courses into the MS students' schedules. A total of nine enrolled students (7 PhD and 2 non-thesis MS) withdrew from the program prior to completion due to personal issues, their workload and/or an over-commitment of their time. We made every effort to counsel these students and provide them with 1 to 2 "hold" semesters to assess their current schedule and determine if it would be feasible to continue with the Program prior to processing their withdrawal. When their withdrawals were processed, we extended the invitation for them to return to the Program at a later date if their schedule allowed. Due to ongoing pandemic-related issues, there were changes in departmental teaching assignments leading to challenges with the initially proposed instructors and course times. We were able to attenuate the impact on the Certificate Program through flexibility in scheduling of the faculty involved in this grant, ensuring continued course availability and accessibility for students. Due to pandemic-related staffing issues, we were initially delayed in distributing the six-month follow-up survey to the first cohort of students who completed the Certificate Program. However, the surveys are now in progress and we do not anticipate any additional delays with distribution of follow-up surveys. Due to pandemic-related travel issues, we were unable to utilize some of the award funds as originally proposed. However, during the time of the no-cost extension, we were able to use some of the remaining award funds to offer a second Class Policy Immersion Trip to Washington, D.C, which allowed six additional Certificate Program students and one additional faculty member the opportunity to participate in the impactful class trip to Washington, DC. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students were paired with industry mentors whom they met with at least 3-4 times using a developed Mentor Meeting worksheet to set goals and track accomplishments. These mentoring pairs were encouraged to continue to meet following a student's completion of this Certificate. Overall students enrolled in this Certificate Program were highly involved in professional development activities offered by our program, but they also independently sought out other opportunities for professional development. Students were required to complete at least 1 professional development activity while in the program, but were also asked to self-report all their professional development activities while enrolled in the program. Multiple students enrolled in the program held leadership positions in departmental, college or university-level student organizations or national professional societies. Nineteen of the enrolled students helped to organize a nutrition-related research symposia at the department, college or university level and nineteen of the enrolled students also participated in a professional development workshop offered by our program (such as Clifton Strengths or "Leading Through Uncertainty" workshops). Overall, students in the program self-reported involvement in over 125 individual professional development activities during the time period they were enrolled in the Certificate Program. Beyond these opportunities, the current Certificate Program participants have the following accomplishments: Three students received Division of Nutritional Sciences Endowed Awards in recognition of their outstanding research and leadership accomplishments. One student received a travel award from a national professional society to travel and present their research at a meeting. One student was a campus-level finalist for the University of Illinois Graduate College "Research Live!" research presentation competition. One student was named as a Presidential Management Fellow Finalist (PMF) and a second student was a PMF applicant. One student applied for and received a USDA NIFA pre-doctoral fellowship. One student received a University of Illinois Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship. Nineteen students attended a total of 40 different professional conferences or meetings, with all nineteen students presenting at these conferences during the time they were enrolled in the Certificate Program. A total of 31 mentors from industry or government were actively paired with one or more students participating in the Certificate Program. The degree and employment information for the mentors (as of the time they served as a mentor for the Certificate Program) are listed below. Joshua C. Anthony, Ph.D., M.B.A., Founder and CEO on Nlumn Karleigh Bacon, PhD, Director: US Supply Chain Food Safety, Science, and Regulatory, McDonald's Corporation Ellen Baker, PhD, Senior Regulatory Affairs Expert, MilliporeSigma Kristi Baker, Senior Advisor, R&D Continuous Improvement, Elanco Alison Beloshapka, PhD, Senior Nutritionist in the Global Nutrition & Communications group, Nestle Purina Petcare Company Brian Berg, PhD, Medical Science Liason, Rhythm Pharmaceuticals Inc. Richard Butterwick, PhD, Global Nutrition Advisor, Waltham Petcare Science Institute, Global Petcare R&D, Mars Petcare Kirstie Canene-Adams, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist Global Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, Mars (previously at Tate and Lyle) Coryn Commare, MS, Director Regulatory Affairs, Abbott Nutrition Gary Davenport, PhD, Companion Animal Technical Manager at ADM Nutrition Tom Earleywine, PhD, Technical Services Manager, Land O'Lakes Animal Milk Products Kari Fisher, MS, Product Innovation Manager, Mars Petcare Samia Hamdan, MPH, RD, Senior Nutritionist. USDA Food and Nutrition Service Agency Bridget Hannon, PhD, Medical Science Liasion at Abbott Nutrition Kristin Harris, PhD, Senior Manager, Nutrition Science, PepsiCo, Inc. Jodee Johnson, PhD, Principal Scientist, PepsiCo Global R&D Health & Nutrition Sciences Jennifer Kimmel, PhD, Protein Chemist, Roquette, Chicago Leah Lambrakis, MS, VP, Vice President of Research & Development, Nutrition and Scientific Affairs at Simmons Pet Food, Inc Ching-Yen Lin, PhD, Senior Nutrition Scientist, Dry Food Application, Blue Buffalo Peter Lu, PhD, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager at Mars/Wrigley Holly Nicastro, PhD, MPH, Program Director, Nutrition for Precision Health, Office of Nutrition Research Jodie Pitcock, LP training coordinator, Livestock and Poultry programs, USDA aAgricultural Marketing Services Katie Robinson, PhD, RD, MPH, Medical Science Liaison at Abbott Nutrition Christina Sherry, PhD, Director, Global R&D Nutrition Sciences, PepsiCo Chuck Soderholm, PhD, Director of Research and Technical Service, Milk Specialties Global Brian Streit, BS General Manager, North Freeze Dry Chad Stroud, PhD, JD, Attorney, McAndrews, Held & Malloy Alice Welenc-Masters, MS, RAC, Regulatory Manager, Reckitt (Nutrition) Mimi Wu, MS, RD, Acting Chief, Nutrition Education and Promotion Branch, Nutrition Education, Training, and Technical Assistance Division, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Child Nutrition Programs Amy Lazarus Yaroch, PhD, Executive Director, Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition Susan Zaripheh, PhD, VP, Strategic Planning & Performance and Chief of Staff, Coca-Cola How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A college of ACES press release highlighting the program was released in Summer 2022: https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/01/1859620701.html. In addition, Division of Nutritional Sciences newsletters, outlining the progress of the Certificate Program were released in Fall 2022 (https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/11/617398211.html), spring 2023 (https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/67/108348067.html) and spring 2024 (https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/94/1922543994.html). Information about the Certificate Program, or activities sponsored by the Certificate Program was regularly posted to Division of Nutritional Sciences social media channels (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). A website for the certificate program was created during Fall 2020. This website was used for recruitment. In addition to the website, departmental newsletters and press release, recruitment was also achieved through peer-to-peer sharing/word-of-mouth, with current and prospective certificate students alerting their peers to the opportunity available through the Division. Additionally, students not already enrolled in the Certificate Program that enrolled into one of the required or elective courses were personally contacted to inform them of the certificate program and explore whether they were interested in pursuing it. Twice annually, progress in the recruitment, curricular progress, and professional development activities of enrolled students was shared and discussed with the Steering Committee. The last year of activity on this award was completed under a no cost extension. During the past year we conferred the last round of certificates of completion for students who still remained in the program. We also were able to utilize remaining award funds to organize a second Policy trip to Washington, DC in summer 2024 for Certificate Program participants who were still enrolled as students at the University of Illinois. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: The Steering Committee and investigators focused planning efforts on the implementation of the Summer 2023 elective course, NUTR 590 Industry Immersion for Career Opportunities (one credit hour), in which 18 graduate students enrolled (1 of which is a Certificate Program student). In addition to this, the Program offered one other elective course: ANSC 424 Pet Food & Feed Manufacturing (Fall 2022). A total of 30 graduate students have completed all requirements for the Certificate program. This total includes 6 students who completed the Certificate in fall 2023 or spring 2024. Overall, a total of 28 Certificate Program graduate students completed the Certificate Program new course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Nutrition Policy (three credit hours). The course was instructed by Prescott, (2021) and Chapman-Novakofski, Johnson and Mejia (2022) and featured additional lectures by 10 invited professionals and experts. The student feedback from the course was very positive, with students voicing their appreciation for the knowledge of the professors and invited professionals: "The professors were extremely knowledgeable about the topics discussed in the class. She also connected professionals in these areas to help discuss real-world work happening in these people's fields which made the class extremely interesting", and "The guest speakers were professionals in their fields. This gave us access to the best knowledge about the topics." A total of 32 Certificate Program graduate students completed the new course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Translating and Communicating Science (two credit hours). This course was revised for the fall 2021 and 2022 semesters to incorporate student feedback from the 2020 and 2021 offerings of the course. The course was instructed by Chapman-Novakofski (2020-2022) and Miller (2020), and featured additional lectures by four invited professionals and other experts. A total of 33 Certificate Program graduate students completed the new three credit course (option-select Food Regulations or Feed Regulations) NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525-Introduction to U.S. Food Regulations (23 students) or ANSC 499 Pet Food and Feed Regulations (10 students). The Food Regulations course was co-instructed by two professionals on this grant (Hartke and Johnson), guest lectured by two additional professionals experts in the field on this grant (Mejia and Endres), and featured invited industry professionals from PepsiCo, General Mills, Grocery Manufacturers Association, Abbott Nutrition, General Mills, Mars, Kraft-Heinz, Hologram Sciences, and McDonalds who have practical knowledge on Food/Feed Regulations. Feedback from the 2021 and 2022 versions of the Food Regulations course were incorporated into the Spring 2022 and 2023 re-offerings of the course. Student feedback from the 2023 course offering found that a total of 84% of responding students said they agree or strongly agree that the course gave them skills and techniques directly applicable to their career and students ranked the course quality as high or exceptionally high. A total 91% of respondents said they learned a lot or a great deal from this course. Student feedback from the 2023 offering included the statements, "I enjoyed working with my team, which was a blend of human and animal nutritionists. This diversity was awesome in learning about regulatory on both sides during open discussions", and "I really enjoyed the teams and team-based learning assignments/projects. It was great to get an understanding of everyone's perspective on each assignment every week as well as the final team project". "Yes, the mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning made the course easy to manage for someone like me who works full time". "Yes. This is incredibly valuable, especially for those conducting research and need the flexibility. Honestly, I wouldn't have been able to take this course otherwise, without the flexibility". Given the positive feedback and strong interest in the Food Regulations course, it is currently being revised and expanded by Hartke and Johnson to be offered as a 4 credit hour online course starting in 2025. Goal 2: We enrolled a total of 39 graduate students into the Certificate Program and of these 39 students a total of 30 students completed all program requirements and were awarded the Certificate. Students who enrolled in the program came from different departments/units at the University of Illinois: Nutritional Sciences (16), Food Science and Human Nutrition (12), Animal Sciences (10) and Math (1). At their time of enrollment into the Certificate Program, 18 of the students were MS candidates and 21 of the students were PhD candidates. Thirty-eight of the students completed a baseline evaluation survey; one student declined consent to participate in the data gathering. Certificate recognition ceremonies were held in spring 2022, spring 2023 and spring 2024 to congratulate the students and present them with their Certificates for this program. Program faculty and Deans from the College attended and congratulated the students. There were nine students who enrolled in the program but for a variety of reasons did not complete all program requirements (personal issues, time management issues/research program time conflicts with the additional coursework, change in anticipated graduation date). Thirty-six (36) of the 39 students enrolled in the program were successfully paired with industry mentors, and all 36 students had one or more (up to nine) reported meetings with their mentors before completing the Certificate Program. For the elective courses, 11 Certificate Program students completed ANSC 424 Pet Food & Feed Manufacturing, six have completed the NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 School Nutrition Programs and Policies course, 10 completed the NUTR 590 Industry Immersion for Career Opportunities course, and 16 completed the NUTR 590 Applied Nutrition Policy field course. We have also taken 16 Certificate Program students on a policy immersion trip to Washington, D.C., as part of the Summer 2022 and Summer 2024 elective course NUTR 590 Applied Nutrition Policy Field Trip-Washington, DC.
Publications
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Progress 08/01/22 to 07/31/23
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the training is Master of Science students. Changes/Problems:The difficulty in recruiting Master's students has lessened due to the recruitment efforts in the past year; we now have 62% of our total Certificate Program student pool as students who started their University career as a Master's student. To increase master's student enrollment, we have been reaching out to Master's students when they are accepted in their graduate program, before they have their course plan created. A total of four enrolled students (3 PhD and 1 non-thesis MS) withdrew from the program prior to completion due to their workload and an over-commitment of their time. We made every effort to counsel these students and provide them with 1 to 2 "hold" semesters to assess their current schedule and determine if it would be feasible to continue with the Program prior to processing their withdrawal. When their withdrawals were processed, we extended the invitation for them to return to the Program at a later date if their schedule allowed. Due to ongoing pandemic-related issues, there have been changes in departmental teaching assignments leading to challenges with the previously established instructors and course times. We have attenuated the impact on the Certificate Program through flexibility in scheduling of the faculty involved in this grant, ensuring continued course availability and accessibility for students. Due to pandemic-related staffing issues, we were delayed in distributing the six-month follow-up survey to the first cohort of students who completed the Certificate Program. However, the six-month survey is now in progress and the two-year follow up survey is actively in development. We do not anticipate any additional delays with distribution of the six-month and 2-year follow up surveys. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Students have been paired with industry mentors who they are meeting with at least 3-4 times using a developed Mentor Meeting worksheet to set goals and track accomplishments. These pairs are encouraged to continue to meet following a student's completion of this certificate. Six of the enrolled students were involved in the planning and execution of the Spring 2023 Nutrition Symposium, and one was involved in planning and executing the 2023 annual Food Science and Human Nutrition symposium. Five certificate program students attended the DNS annual professional development workshop during Fall 2022 which was titled "Leading Through Uncertainty", and four held leadership positions in the Nutritional Sciences Graduate Student Association. Beyond these opportunities, the current Certificate Program participants have the following accomplishments: Three students received Division of Nutritional Sciences Endowed Awards in recognition of their outstanding research and leadership accomplishments. Two students received a travel award from a national professional society to travel and present their research at a meeting. One student received several awards: the Clark Fellowship in Applied Dairy Cattle Nutrition; the Animal Sciences Departmental Spring 2023 Award; the University Block Grant Fellowship; the Pinnacle Award, International Ingredient Corporation. One student received the Mitchell Animal Nutrition 2023-2024 Fellowship award. One student was a campus-level finalist for the University of Illinois Graduate College "Research Live!" research presentation competition. One student was named as a Presidential Management Fellow Finalist (PMF) and a second student was a PMF applicant. One student applied for and received a USDA NIFA pre-doctoral fellowship. One student received a University of Illinois Doctoral Dissertation Completion Fellowship. Six students attended a total of eight or more professional conferences, with all six students presenting at these conferences List of mentors actively paired with a student within 2022-2023: Peter Lu, PhD, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager at Mars/Wrigley Bridget Hannon, PhD, Medical Science Liasion at Abbott Nutrition Susan Zaripheh, PhD, VP, Strategic Planning & Performance and Chief of Staff, Coca-Cola Kirstie Canene-Adams, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist Global Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, Mars (previously at Tate and Lyle) Chuck Soderholm, PhD, Director of Research and Technical Service, Milk Specialties Global Tom Earleywine, PhD, Technical Services Manager, Land O'Lakes Animal Milk Products Katie Robinson, PhD, RD, MPH, Medical Science Liaison at Abbott Nutrition Alison Beloshapka, PhD, Senior Nutritionist in the Global Nutrition & Communications group at Nestle Purina Petcare Company Joshua C. Anthony, Ph.D., M.B.A., Founder and CEO on Nlumn Leah Lambrakis, MS, VP, Vice President of Research & Development, Nutrition and Scientific Affairs at Simmons Pet Food, Inc. Mimi Wu, MS, RD, Acting Chief, Nutrition Education and Promotion Branch, Nutrition Education, Training, and Technical Assistance Division, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Child Nutrition Programs Gary Davenport, PhD, Companion Animal Technical Manager at ADM Nutrition Alice Welenc-Masters, MS, RAC, Regulatory Manager, Reckitt (Nutrition) Kari Fisher, MS, Product Innovation Manager, Mars Petcare Karleigh Bacon, PhD, Director: US Supply Chain Food Safety, Science, and Regulatory, McDonald's Corporation Jodie Pitcock, LP training coordinator, Livestock and Poultry programs, USDA Agricultural Marketing Services Brian Streit, BS General Manager, North Freeze Dry How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?A college of ACES press release highlighting the program was released in Summer 2022: https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/01/1859620701.html. In addition, Division of Nutritional Sciences newsletters, outlining the progress of the Certificate Program were released in Fall 2022 (https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/11/617398211.html) and spring 2023 (https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/67/108348067.html). Information about the Certificate Program, or activities sponsored by the Certificate Program are regularly posted to Division of Nutritional Sciences social media sites (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram). A website (https://publish.illinois.edu/nutritionpolicyfoodregulationscertificateprogram/) for the certificate program was created during Fall 2020. This website is used for recruitment but also will be used to share results in the future. Recruitment has also been achieved through peer-to-peer sharing/word-of-mouth, with current and prospective certificate students alerting their peers to the opportunity available through the Division. Additionally, students not already enrolled in the Certificate Program that enroll into one of the required or elective courses are personally contacted to inform them of the certificate program and explore whether they are interested in pursuing it. Twice annually, progress in the recruitment, curricular progress, and professional development activities of enrolled students is shared and discussed with the Steering Committee. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We have requested a one year no cost extension for this award. During the coming year, we will continue to confer certificates of completion. We estimate that at least nine more students will complete the certificate by May 2024. We also plan to organize another Policy trip to Washington, DC in summer 2024 for Certificate Program participants who are still enrolled as students at the University of Illinois. For the professional development component, we will continue to pair newly admitted students with industry and government mentors, and monitor that the current students complete regular meetings with their mentors. We will plan and offer another professional development workshop during Fall 2023. For the evaluation components, we have developed the six-month and will develop the two-year post-certificate-conferral survey and administer those using Qualtrics. The six-month follow-up surveys are already in progress.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: The Steering Committee and investigators focused planning efforts on the implementation of the Summer 2023 elective course, NUTR 590 Industry Immersion for Career Opportunities (one credit hour), in which 18 graduate students are currently enrolled (1 of which is a Certificate Program student). In addition to this, the Program offered one other elective course: ANSC 424 Pet Food & Feed Manufacturing (Fall 2022). A total of 24 Certificate Program graduate students have completed the Certificate program and 9 students are still in progress and will complete the Certificate Program requirements in Spring 2024. So far, a total of 27 Certificate Program graduate students have completed the Certificate Program required new course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Nutrition Policy (three credit hours). The course was instructed by Prescott, (2021) and Chapman-Novakofski, Johnson and Mejia (2022) and featured additional lectures by 10 invited professionals and experts. The student feedback from the course was very positive, with students voicing their appreciation for the knowledge of the professors and invited professionals: "The professors were extremely knowledgeable about the topics discussed in the class. She also connected professionals in these areas to help discuss real-world work happening in these people's fields which made the class extremely interesting", and "The guest speakers were professionals in their fields. This gave us access to the best knowledge about the topics." To date, a total of 31 Certificate Program graduate students have completed the required course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Translating and Communicating Science (two credit hours). This course was revised for the fall 2021 and 2022 semesters to incorporate student feedback from the 2020 and 2021 offerings of the course. The course was instructed by Chapman-Novakofski (2020-2022) and Miller (2020), and featured additional lectures by four invited professionals and other experts. A total of 32 Certificate Program graduate students have completed the required three credit course (option-select Food Regulations or Feed Regulations) NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525-Introduction to U.S. Food (22 students) or ANSC 499 Pet Food and Feed Regulations (10 students). The Food Regulations course was co-instructed by two professionals on this grant (Hartke and Johnson), guest lectured by two additional professionals experts in the field on this grant (Mejia and Endres), and featured seven invited industry professionals from PepsiCo, General Mills, Grocery Manufacturers Association, Abbott Nutrition, General Mills, Mars, Kraft-Heinz, Hologram Sciences, and McDonalds with practical knowledge on Food/Feed Regulations. Feedback from the 2021 and 2022 versions of this course were incorporated into the Spring 2022 and 2023 re-offering of the course. Student feedback from the 2023 course offering found that a total of 84% of responding students said they agree or strongly agree that the course gave them skills and techniques directly applicable to their career and students ranked the course quality as high or exceptionally high. A total 91% of respondents said they learned a lot or a great deal from this course. Student feedback from the 2023 offering included the statements, "I enjoyed working with my team, which was a blend of human and animal nutritionists. This diversity was awesome in learning about regulatory on both sides during open discussions", and "I really enjoyed the teams and team-based learning assignments/projects. It was great to get an understanding of everyone's perspective on each assignment every week as well as the final team project". "Yes, the mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning made the course easy to manage for someone like me who works full time". "Yes. This is incredibly valuable, especially for those conducting research and need the flexibility. Honestly, I wouldn't have been able to take this course otherwise, without the flexibility". Goal 2: We have enrolled 39 graduate students into the Certificate Program in these first three years (we enrolled 3 students during year 3). One of these new students is a Master's student and 2 are PhD students. They come from two different departments/units on campus (Food Science and Human Nutrition (1), Animal Sciences (2)). Thirty-seven of the students have completed the baseline evaluation survey; one student declined consent to participate in the data gathering. In Spring of 2023, 11 students had completed all requirements and earned their Certificates for this program. A nice reception took place and the Deans from the College attended and congratulated the students. Of the 9 students who are still working to complete the Certificate Program requirements, six of the students have completed the course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Translating and Communicating Science, four have completed the NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Nutrition Policy course and eight have completed the Food/Feed Regulations Course. Eight of the nine student participants remaining in the certificate program have taken the required one course elective. Thirty-three (33) of the 35 students in the program have been paired with industry mentors, with 33 having had one or more (up to nine) reported meetings with their mentors thus far. The final two students are in the process of being matched with a mentor. The nine students remaining in the program will complete any final course requirements during Fall 2023/Spring 2024. For the elective courses, 11 Certificate Program students have completed the ANSC 424 Pet Food & Feed Manufacturing course, six have completed the NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 School Nutrition Programs and Policies course, 12 have completed the NUTR 590 Industry Immersion for Career Opportunities course, and 10 have completed the NUTR 590 Applied Nutrition Policy field course. We have also taken 10 Certificate Program students on a policy immersion trip to Washington, D.C., as part of the Summer 2022 elective course NUTR 590 Applied Nutrition Policy. This course made it onto the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students! A total 100% of respondents said they learned a lot from this course. Student feedback from the 2022 offering included the statements, "A truly great once in a lifetime experience. I enjoyed networking and making meaningful connections. Great expansion of topics and agencies learned about." "They did a phenomenal job at inviting quality guest speakers. The trip to Washington DC was top notch, too." "Each presenter has their own expertise and is open to questions and sharing their experiences." "The course pulls in real-world experts working in Food policy to highlight the realities of the job and field. A major strength was allowing students to ask questions to current working professionals." "Such an incredibly instructor who is so passionate about the subject area and helping students succeed." "The instructor invited many great speakers to come and talk with us about their career in academia, industry, and government." The course was well organized and the grading was completed in a timely manner.
Publications
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Progress 08/01/21 to 07/31/22
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the training is Master of Science students. Changes/Problems:The difficulty in recruiting Master's students has lessened due to our recruitment efforts in the past year; we now have 62% of our total Certificate Program student pool as students who started their University career as a Master's student. To increase master's student enrollment, we have been reaching out to Master's students when they are accepted in their graduate program, before they have their course plan created. A total of four enrolled students (3 PhD and 1 non-thesis MS) withdrew from the program prior to completion due to their workload and an over-commitment of their time. We made every effort to counsel these students and provide them with 1 to 2 "hold" semesters to assess their current schedule and determine if it would be feasible to continue with the Program prior to processing their withdrawal. When their withdrawals were processed, we extended the invitation for them to return to the Program at a later date if their schedule allowed. We have attenuated the impact on the Certificate Program through flexibility in scheduling of the faculty involved in this grant, ensuring continued course availability and accessibility for students. The majority of the students that had a Certificate conferred in Spring 2022 have either graduated or have left campus for the summer, making it difficult to get a high response rate for the Certificate Program exit survey at this time. With the next round of certificate conferrals, we will require students to complete their exit survey prior to conferring their certificate. For the six-month and two-year surveys, we are optimistic that these students will be more willing to collaborate with us and donate their time. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All students, except for one newly admitted student, have been paired with industry mentors who they are meeting with at least 3-4 times using a developed Mentor Meeting worksheet to set goals and track accomplishments. These pairs are encouraged to continue to meet following a student's completion of this certificate. Six of the enrolled students were involved in the planning and execution of the Spring 2022 Nutrition Symposium, and one was involved in planning and executing the 2022 annual Food Science and Human Nutrition symposium. Six certificate program students attended our annual professional development workshop during Fall 2021 which included completing the Clifton Strengths assessment, and five held leadership positions in the Nutritional Sciences Graduate Student Association. Beyond these opportunities, we have had: Ten students attended one or more professional continuing education (CPE) events eligible for continuing education credits/units (CECs/CEUs) for professionals Eight students attended one or more professional conferences, with five of these students presenting at these conferences Four students attended other professional development workshops, either hosted by the University or by an outside group Two students participated in immersive internships (one in a six-month rotation at Pepsi-Co., and the other three-month rotation at Eikon Therapeutics) List of mentors paired with a student: Samia Hamdan, MPH, RD, Senior Nutritionist with the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Agency. Jennifer Kimmel, PhD, Protein Chemist, Roquette Amy Lazarus Yaroch, PhD, Executive Director at the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition Peter Lu, PhD, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager at Mars/Wrigley Chad Stroud, PhD, JD, Attorney, McAndrews, Held & Malloy Bridget Hannon, PhD, Medical Science Liasion at Abbott Nutrition Susan Zaripheh, PhD, VP, Strategic Planning & Performance and Chief of Staff, Coca-Cola Kristin Harris, PhD, Senior Manager, Nutrition Science, PepsiCo, Inc. Kristi Baker, Senior Advisor, R&D Continuous Improvement, Elanco Christina Sherry, PhD, Director, Global R&D Nutrition Sciences, PepsiCo Coryn Commare, MS, Director Regulatory Affairs, Abbott Holly Nicastro, PhD, MPH, Program Director, Nutrition for Precision Health Office of Nutrition Research, All of Us Research Program, National Institutes of Health Kirstie Canene-Adams, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist Global Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, Mars (previously at Tate and Lyle) Chuck Soderholm, PhD, Director of Research and Technical Service, Milk Specialties Global Tom Earleywine, PhD, Technical Services Manager, Land O'Lakes Animal Milk Products Katie Robinson, PhD, RD, MPH, Medical Science Liaison at Abbott Nutrition Alison Beloshapka, PhD, Senior Nutritionist in the Global Nutrition & Communications group at Nestle Purina Petcare Company Joshua C. Anthony, Ph.D., M.B.A., Founder and CEO on Nlumn Jodee Johnson, PhD, Principal Scientist, PepsiCo Global R&D Health & Nutrition Sciences Elvira de Mejia, PhD, Professor and Director, Division of Nutritional Sciences at UIUC, University Scholar, Presidential Fellow Leah Lambrakis, MS, VP, Vice President of Research & Development, Nutrition and Scientific Affairs at Simmons Pet Food, Inc Mimi Wu, MS, RD, Acting Chief, Nutrition Education and Promotion Branch, Nutrition Education, Training, and Technical Assistance Division, USDA Food and Nutrition Service, Child Nutrition Programs Gary Davenport, PhD, Companion Animal Technical Manager at ADM Nutrition Alice Welenc-Masters, MS, RAC, Regulatory Manager, Reckitt (Nutrition) Jennifer Kimmel, PhD, Protein Chemist, Roquette Kari Fisher, MS, Product Innovation Manager, Mars Petcare Karleigh Bacon, PhD, Director: US Supply Chain Food Safety, Science, and Regulatory, McDonald's Corporation How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Press releases were created in collaboration with the College of Agricultural Consumer and Environmental Sciences communication office and released on Aug 13, 2020 and June 2021. A Press Release outlining the progress of the Certificate Program was just released in Summer of this year (2022): https://emails.illinois.edu/newsletter/1859620701.html. A website (https://publish.illinois.edu/nutritionpolicyfoodregulationscertificateprogram/) for the certificate program was created during Fall 2020. This website is used for recruitment but also will be used to share results in the future. Recruitment has also been achieved through peer-to-peer sharing/word-of-mouth, with current and prospective certificate students alerting their peers to the opportunity available through the Division. Additionally, students not already enrolled in the Certificate Program that enroll into one of the required or elective courses are personally contacted to inform them of the certificate program and explore whether they are interested in pursuing it. In November of 2021, Encoura Eduventures Research was hired and created a market report assessing the current certificate program as well as prospects for future expansion of the program. This data was shared with partnering institutions as well as the USDA in an application for the expansion of this program. Among its findings, we learned that our program can set itself apart by emphasizing pragmatic skill education, the inclusion of UI alumni stories and experiences in the marketing and curriculum, and leveraging the online modality. Eduventures Research reported that there was no other program they are aware of having the proposed program's unique approach. Twice annually, progress in the recruitment, curricular progress, and professional development activities of enrolled students is shared and discussed with the Steering Committee. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During grant Year Three we will continue to recruit and enroll students and confer certificates of completion. We estimate that at least seven more students will complete the certificate by December 2022. We will also re-offer the courses developed in grant Years One and Two with student evaluations and feedback taken into consideration. For the professional development component, we will continue to pair newly admitted students with industry and government mentors, and monitor that the current students complete regular meetings with their mentors. We will plan and offer a professional development workshop during Fall 2022. For the evaluation components, we will develop the six-month and two-year post-certificate-conferral survey and administer them per schedule using Qualtrics.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: The Steering Committee and investigators met on March 9th, 2022, to assess Certificate Program progress, products, successes, and challenges, ensuring the program is continuing to progress per the timeline and goals. They also focused planning efforts on the creation of our Summer 2022 elective field course, NUTR 590 Applied Nutrition Policy Field (two credit hours), in which 12 graduate students are currently enrolled (10 of which are Certificate Program students). In addition to this, the Program offered two other elective courses this year: ANSC 424 Pet Food & Feed Manufacturing (Fall 2021) and NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 School Nutrition Programs and Policies (Spring 2022). A total of 19 Certificate Program graduate students have completed the required new course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Nutrition Policy (three credit hours, offered in fall semesters). The course was instructed by 1 investigator (Prescott) and featured additional lectures by 10 invited professionals and experts. The student feedback from the course was very positive, with students voicing their appreciation for the knowledge of the professor and invited professionals: "Dr. Prescott was extremely knowledgeable about the topics discussed in the class. She also connected professionals in these areas to help discuss real-world work happening in these people's fields which made the class extremely interesting", and "The guest speakers were professionals in their fields. This gave us access to the best knowledge about the topics." A total of 19 Certificate Program graduate students have completed the required course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Translating and Communicating Science (two credit hours, offered in fall semesters), 8 in Year 1 (2020), 11 in Year 2 (2021). This course was revised for the fall 2021 semester to incorporate student feedback from the 2020 pilot course, was co-instructed by 2 investigators (Chapman-Novakofski and Miller), and featured additional lectures by 4 invited professionals and experts. A total of 21 Certificate Program graduate students have completed the option required course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525-Introduction to U.S. Food Regulations (three credit hours, offered in spring semesters), 10 in Year 1 (Spring 2021) and 11 in Year 2 (Spring 2022). The course was co-instructed by two (2) investigators on this grant (Hartke and Johnson), guest lectured by two additional investigators on this grant (Mejia and Endres), and featured seven (7) invited industry professionals from PepsiCo, General Mills, Grocery Manufacturers Association, Abbott Nutrition, General Mills, Mars and McDonalds. Feedback from the 2021 pilot version of this course was incorporated into our Spring 2022 reoffering, which was overall well-received. Student feedback from the 2022 offering included the statements, "The team-based assignments were a good way to learn the material through other people's perspectives, especially with different industry backgrounds", and "Some aspects I enjoyed about this class was the ability to connect with people in the industry, so that what we were learning was not just specific to class, but you could see how it applied to real life." A total of 89% of responding students said that they agree or strongly agree that the course gave them skills and techniques directly applicable to their career, with 83% of responding students reporting that the course improved or significantly improved their understanding of concepts and principles in this field. Goal 2: We have enrolled 36 graduate students into the Certificate Program in these first two years (26 in year 1, and 10 so far in year two). Twenty-two are Master's students and 13 are PhD students. They come from five different departments/units on campus; Division of Nutritional Sciences (16), Food Science and Human Nutrition (11), Animal Sciences (7), Agricultural Consumer and Environmental Sciences (1), and Mathematics (1). Thirty-four of the students completed the baseline evaluation survey; one student declined consent to participate in the data gathering. In Spring of 2022, 13 students had completed all requirements and earned their Certificates for this program. Of the 22 students who are still working to complete the Certificate Program requirements, eight (8) of the students completed the course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Translating and Communicating Science during Fall 2020 and ten (10) completed the NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Introduction to US Food Regulations Course during Spring 2021. The majority of remaining certificate program participants have taken the required one (1) course elective. Thirty-five (35) of the 36 students have been paired with industry mentors, with 30 having had one or more (up to nine) reported meetings with their mentors thus far. The final student is in the process of being matched with a mentor. For the elective courses, 7 Certificate Program students have completed the ANSC 424 Pet Food & Feed Manufacturing course, 6 have completed the NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 School Nutrition Programs and Policies course, 9 have completed the NUTR 590 Industry Immersion for Career Opportunities course, and 10 have completed the NUTR 590 Applied Nutrition Policy field course. We have also taken 10 Certificate Program students on a policy immersion trip to Washington, D.C., as part of our Summer 2022 elective course NUTR 590 Applied Nutrition Policy.
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Progress 08/01/20 to 07/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the training is Master of Science students. Changes/Problems:The current program coordinator left the program on 6/15/21 so as a transition we have two graduate students helping the Co-PIs with that role. We are working on finding a permanent replacement. We also found that it was harder to recruit MS students as they have already their course plan created when enrolled in the graduate program. To increase MS enrollment we are reaching out to MS students when they are accepted in their graduate program, before they have their course plan created. A team-based learning (TBL) approach was planned for the new Introduction to US Food Regulations course. However, due to the pandemic, this new course had to be offered for the first time in an online environment. The instructors did not want the use of online instruction to be a barrier to the implementation of team-based learning as originally envisioned for this new course. In late 2020 and early 2021, staff from the University of Illinois Center for Innovation, Teaching and Learning (CITL) worked closely with Dr. Hartke to develop methods and identify best practices that would allow for successful implementation of TBL in an online environment. With CITL's assistance, we were able to successfully implement TBL in an online environment, and the course received excellent reviews from participating students. The course received such high reviews from students that Dr. Hartke will be featured on the University of Illinois "List of Teachers Ranked As Excellent by Their Students". What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?All students have been paired or are in the process of being paired with industy mentors who they will meet with three or fourtimes a year using a developed Mentor Meeting worksheet to set goals and track accomplishments. Five of the enrolled students were involved in the planning and execution of the Spring 2021 Nutrition Symposium. Due to COVID-19 we could not hold a professional development workshop for the students during Fall 2020 but we are planning to offer that worshop during Fall 2021. List of mentors paired with a student: Samia Hamdan, MPH, RD, Senior Nutritionist with the USDA Food and Nutrition Service Agency. Jennifer Kimmel, PhD, Protein Chemist, Roquette Amy Lazarus Yaroch, PhD, Executive Director at the Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition Peter Lu, PhD, Scientific and Regulatory Affairs Manager at Mars/Wrigley Chad Stroud, PhD, JD, Attorney, McAndrews, Held & Malloy Bridget Hannon, PhD, Medical Science Liasion at Abbott Nutrition Susan Zaripheh, PhD, VP, Strategic Planning & Performance and Chief of Staff, Coca-Cola Kristin Harris, PhD, Senior Manager, Nutrition Science, PepsiCo, Inc. Kristi Baker, Senior Advisor, R&D Continuous Improvement, Elanco Christina Sherry, PhD, Director, Global R&D Nutrition Sciences, PepsiCo Coryn Commare, MS, Director Regulatory Affairs, Abbott Holly Nicastro, PhD, MPH, Program Director, Nutrition for Precision Health Office of Nutrition Research, All of Us Research Program, National Institutes of Health Kirstie Canene-Adams, PhD, Senior Principal Scientist Global Scientific & Regulatory Affairs, Mars (previously at Tate and Lyle) Katie Robinson, PhD, RD, MPH, Medical Science Liaison at Abbott Nutrition, Iowa City, Iowa Alison Beloshapka, PhD, Senior Nutritionist at Nestlé Purina North America Elvira de Mejia, PhD, Professor and Director, Division of Nutritional Sciences at UIUC, University Scholar, Presidential Fellow Leah Lambrakis, MS, VP, Vice President of Research andDevelopment, Nutrition and Scientific Affairs at Simmons Pet Food How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Press releases were created in collaboration with the College of ACES communication office and released on Aug 13, 2020 and June 2021. A website (https://publish.illinois.edu/nutritionpolicyfoodregulationscertificateprogram/) for the certificate program was created during Fall 2020. This website will be used for both recruitment but also to share results in the future. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During grant Year Twowe will continue to recruit and enroll students. We will also finalize the creation and offer the new NUTR 510 Nutrition Policy course (Fall 2021). Fifteen (15) of the students have enrolled in the NUTR 510 Nutrition Policy Course during Fall 2021. We estimate that the first six (6) students will complete the certificate by December 2021. We will also finalize the creation and offer of the new ANSC 499 Pet Food & Feed Regulations (Fall 2021) and the last new course Nutr 590 Applied Nutrition Policy Washington, D.C. field trip course (Summer 2022). We will also offer the two (2) courses created in grant Year One(Spring 2021, Fall 2020) a second time with student evaluation feedbacks taken into considerations. For the professional development component, we will continue to pair new students with industry mentor, and monitor that the current students complete regular meetings with their mentors. We will plan and offer a professional development workshop during Fall 2021. For the evaluation components we will create the end of certificate survey, and sixmonths and twoyears post-graduation survey and administer per schedule using Qualtrics.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Goal 1: The Steering Committee invited all investigators to a planning meeting on July 30, 2020 and the main action items were create and offer two new courses during Year One, get approval by the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences (ACES) for the certificate program, Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, website created, and 25 students enrolled. We also offered three (3) of the elective classes during this year: ANSC 424 Pet Food & Feed Manufacturing (Fall 2020), NUTR 510 School Nutrition Programs and Policies (Spring 2021), and NUTR 590 Industry Immersion for Career Opportunities (Summer 2021). Seventeen (17) graduate students completed (eightof those are enrolled in the certificate program) the Fall 2020 course (Fall 2020 NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525 Translating and Communicating Science (twocredit hours) that was co-instructed by two (2) investigators (Chapman-Novakofski and Miller) on this grant and had four (4) invited professionals. The students gave feedback on the course and those are incorporated into the course that will be offered Fall 2021. For example, the students gave a fourout of fiveon this statement "The course gave me skills and techniques directly applicable to my career". And one student commented "The best part of this course was the assignments where we would put into practice the different ways to communicate science, for example, the podcast or the news release. It was a unique, fun way to put communication skills into practice". Twenty (20) graduate students completed (tenof those are enrolled in the certificate program) the Spring 2021 course NUTR 510/FSHN 510/ANSC 525-Introduction to U.S. Food Regulations (three credit hours) that was co-instructed by two (2) investigators on this grant (Hartke and Johnson), guest lectured by two (2) additional investigators, and had seven (7) invited industry professionals from PepsiCo, Grocery Manufacturers Association, Kraft-Heinz, Abbott Nutrition, General Mills, and Mars. The students gave feedback on the course and those are incorporated into the course that will be offered Spring 2022. For example the students rated the overall quality of this course as 4.5 out of five, the instructors overall teaching effectiveness as 4.75 out of five, and how much they learned in this course as 5 of five. One student commented "Strengths included groupwork emphasis, diverse speakers, and lots of industry professionals and another student said "I love all of the experts that came in and spoke with us. It really allowed us to get a clear view of what the world of food regulation entails". The College of ACES at University of Illinois approved the certificate program on October 9, 2020 and the university IRB approved the evaluation component of the certificate progam on October 2020. A website and recruitment flyer was created. During October and November 2020 we held two information sessions (sixand threestudents attended, repectively) for interested students and a third session was held in January 2021 (twostudent attended). We now have the information session recorded so we send it to interested students so they can watch it on their own time. The Steering Committee has met in December 2020 and May 2021 with the other investigators to ensure the program is progressing per the timeline and goals. Goal 2: We have enrolled 25 graduate students into the certificate program this first year. Fifteen (15) are MS students and ten (10) are PhD students. They came from four different departments/ units on campus; Division of Nutritional Sciences (13), Food Science and Human Nutrition (7), Animal Sciences (4), and Mathematics (1). All the students have completed the baseline evaluation survey. Eight (8) of the students completed the NUTR 510 Communication Course during Fall 2020 and ten (10) completed the NUTR 510 Food Regulations Course during Spring 2021. And the majority of them have taken the required one (1) course elective. Seventeen (17) of the students in the certificate program have been paired with industry mentors, five have had their first mentor meeting and one has had her second meeting, and the other students are in the progress of being paired with mentors. For the elective courses, one (1) student completed the ANSC 424 Pet Food & Feed Manufacturing course, four (4) have completed the NUTR 510 School Nutrition Programs Policies course and twelve (12) have completed the NUTR 590 Industry Immersion for Career Opportunities course.
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