Alumni Updates

Congratulations to Kathleen Niedert, MBA, RD, on winning a Medallion Award from the American Dietetic Association. Niedert is a consultant in Hudson IA and will receive her award in November.

Dr. Jeremy Davis joined the faculty of the College of Agricultural Sciences at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Davis will teach undergraduate and graduate courses in human nutrition and dietetics while doing research on obesity. Davis completed his doctorate in December 2008

Food science and dietetics alum Diane McComber was interviewed by the Iowa State Daily on her part in the landmark Nikita Khrushchev visit to Iowa in 1959. She recalled a special meeting in then President Hilton’s office and being asked to give the visitor a cookbook when he visited one of her classes. The article marked the 50th anniversary of the landmark visit by Khrushchev to Iowa to learn more about how to develop agriculture in the USSR.

Julie Henderson Craven (Dietetics, 1977) is currently Vice President of Communications at Hormel Foods Corporation in Austin, Minnesota.  She was recently named the chair of the Grocery Manufacturers of America communications committee.

Nikki (Marshman) Zimmerman, 2009 Alumni Days participant and 1949 graduate of human nutrition, had her picture with Cy in the Summer 2009 Visions magazine.

Dietetics alumnus Elizabeth Anderson (‘52) shared her love of the arts in the Summer 2009 issue of Visions magazine. In the article, “Philanthropy and the arts,” Anderson recalled her days as a student in Christian Petersen’s sculpture course.

Claudia Hohnbaum, MA, RD, LD (’72) is assistant director of Healthy Kids Challenge, whose mission is to help leaders take action to support kids and families in making healthy eating and physical activity choices. Last fall she was involved in the first annual Healthy Kids Dance school (and youth program) fundraisers. The school raising the most funds, "won" a day of dance with Sabrina Bryan, a Disney Cheetah Girl, Dancing with the Stars contestant and BYou celebrity. Bryan taught the winning school, Wichita County Junior High 6th, 7th and 8th graders, a dance routine and talked with them about healthy lifestyles.

David Rickert (MS 1996, PhD 2003) is a member of the newly formed Applied Research and Engineering group within The Food Processing Center at University of Nebraska - Lincoln, where he holds a position as Research Assistant Professor - Product Development. Rickert is working with department communications staff to share his success story to the National Needs Graduate Fellowship program. At UNL, Rickert has had many successes as course instructor, mentor, and workshop coordinator; however he hopes the best is yet to come.

Mary Wagner was named general manager and chief technology officer for Mars Botanical, a division of Mars, Inc.  She will be responsible for the management of Mars Botanical's business, including the development of a sustainable supply chain for high cocoa flavanol cocoa beans and oversight of some of Mars' global cocoa flavanol research and development.

Percy Bass, dietetic internship graduate, and his partner have opened Head 2 Toe Nutrition and Fitness Premier in Dallas, Texas. The co-owners have over 10 years of combined experience in nutrition and fitness. Head 2 Toe offers a variety of services including fitness boot camp, menu planning, group fitness classes and medical nutrition therapy. www.Head2ToeNutrition.com.

Barbara (Olson) King ('68 food & nutr) died March 4, 2008 at her home in Maple Plain, MN following a seven-month battle with cancer. She was 61.

Dr. Darrell Goll (professor in Animal Science) passed away from a sudden heart attack in Tucson Arizona on July 21, 2008. He received his Bachelor of Science degree and Masters of Science degree from Iowa State University. At the time of his death, he was the Head of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

Dr. Cynthia M. Goody, ISU dietetics alum, has joined the McDonald's company as Director of Nutrition. Goody will oversee all aspects of menu nutrition for all McDonald's restaurants in the United States.