Season 3 Episode 2: Making a Difference as a RD in Nutrition Communications

Are you interested in nutrition but unsure of whether or not you will enjoy working in a clinical setting or one on one with clients? Then you’ll want to tune into this episode as we sit down with Melanie Hall, MS, RD.

Melanie was inspired to study nutrition by her mother. Since her mother had a hard time getting an education and had to persevere in order to become a nurse, she fought for her children to receive a quality education in the sciences. This led Melanie to choose a major in nutrition.

While pursuing her nutrition degree, Melanie worked as a diabetes educator for Kaiser and it was in this role that she realized she was not meant to save the world just one person, at a time. She went on to obtain a Masters’s degree in Nutrition Communications and begin her career in marketing and is currently the Director of Brand Marketing at Kashi. Tune into this episode, to hear more about her RD journey including her various jobs and “accidents” until she figured out that nutrition communications was the area she was meant to be in.

About Melanie

With a Bachelor of Science degree in Dietetics from UC Berkeley and a Masters degree in Nutrition Communications from Tufts University, Ms. Hall started her career as a marketing manager with the California 5 a Day African American Campaign, where she helped promote fruit and vegetable consumption through Sacramento and Los Angeles health ministries. Then, as the manager of the Network for a Healthy California–Retail Program she learned the ropes of the produce industry and worked with retailers throughout the state to create in-store marketing and events that increased fruit and vegetable purchases among low-income households.

In 2010. Ms. Hall joined the Kellogg Company Wellness team to create and drive the company strategy for partnering with the Women Infants and Children program. In that role, she worked to help brand teams expand their portfolio of WIC foods and helped WIC staff use commercial marketing techniques to find new ways to get participants excited about making healthy choices.

In 2020, Ms. Hall joined the Kashi team as the Director of Brand Marketing, where she works with her team to create food, content, partnerships, and programs that help make eating well easy for people and the planet.