RDN Spotlight: Jada Linton, RDN, LD

What is your ethnicity/race? Did your family have any customs related to food? Please describe.

I am Black and growing up food was always a time for fellowship in my family. When I was younger I remember sitting around the table for family dinners sharing about my day at school with my three sisters and parents. We have a few family customs related to food. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner is definitely a family effort. My dad is a vegan, so we have a mix of vegan mac and cheese, regular mac and cheese, baked chicken, cornbread pudding, cornbread, vegan greens and green beans, baked rolls, fresh cranberry sauce, gravy, and sweet red zinger tea with lemon. I usually bake chocolate chip cookies for dessert (vegan and regular). I always look forward to the holidays because it is a time to be with family & eat my favorite foods!

Where/when did you go to undergrad/dietetic internship/grad school?

In 2018 I graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Bachelor of Science in Dietetics. I also completed the coordinated program during undergrad. I had three rotations during my internship: James Graham Brown Cancer Center in Louisville, KY, Owensboro Public School in Owensboro, KY, and Jewish Hospital in Louisville, KY.

Why did you decide to choose nutrition and dietetics as a career?

I started out as a human nutrition major on the pre-med track. I quickly realized this was not the path for me and I switched over to Dietetics. I knew I had a passion for helping people and I also had a passion for food. I saw how much of an impact food has on overall health and I wanted to help others make a lifestyle change. In school, I loved learning about food from different cultures, making certain dishes, and eating delicious meals! I became passionate about educating others about food when I realized how big of an impact food has on health. Changing to healthy food behaviors can be great for the mind, body, and soul which is why I became an RD!

What do you do now as an RDN and what does a typical day/week look like for you?

I work in the marketing and communications space for a commodity board: National Peanut Board. At the National Peanut Board, we strive to help America’s 7,000 peanut-farming families improve their production practices and continue to put the world’s highest-quality peanut product in the hands of people around the globe. In my current role, every single day is different working in marketing, and I LOVE that! I currently manage nationalpeanutboard.org and lead our digital meetings that occur every Tuesday, I lead our Health Ambassador Program with over 60 health influencers where I send out four mailings with peanut and peanut butter information and goodies throughout the year, I create a lot of content for our website that goes through USDA approval, and pre-COVID I also traveled to conferences and events catered to different audiences in the health and wellness space to make more relationships for peanuts. Now a lot of these conferences have gone virtual, and I have made the pivot to create engaging virtual booths for these conferences/trade shows. In addition to events, I do a lot of RD outreach in the retail space with one of our PR agencies to meet consumers at the store level. I also worked with another one of our PR agencies to create the newly launched Peanut Pros Certification Program. All RDs can get Peanut Pro Certified and earn 2 CPEUs through eight 15-minute modules on peanuts and get access to exclusive NPB prizes/activities like a peanut farm tour! Visit www.peanutprocertified.com to learn more.

What is/was the biggest challenge for you in becoming a dietitian and how did you overcome that challenge? This can be related to being an RD of color or not just any challenge?

The biggest challenge for me in becoming a dietitian was definitely passing the RD exam. In order to overcome this obstacle, I had to buckle down and focus my efforts on MNT. After dedicating almost all of my time to studying for about 6 months in total, I took the RD exam for the second time and passed!

Have you had any mentors in your career if yes how have those mentors affected your career/life?

Yes, I have had a few mentors in my career! One Black woman who really took me under her wing when I moved back to Atlanta after graduating, helped me get my first job as a Clinical Dietitian, and one of my professors at UK pushed me to apply to the coordinated program. All my mentors have made such a huge impact on my life, both personally and professionally, by guiding me through experiences that were new to me. They always have great advice and are always there to listen when I need to talk.

Why do you think diversifying this field is important?

Diversifying this field is important because it brings new thought leaders from different backgrounds together in a way that helps to problem solve. It’s also great to have a broader perspective of the world in which we live to better serve our patients and clients.

What is a piece of advice you would give a student of color interested in entering the field of dietetics?

Make sure you have a community of people in a mentorship capacity to help guide you through new situations.