Alice B Clark
I’ve had a successful fulltime career, been a stay at home parent, and a community volunteer. I've actively explored different fields, seeking employment that challenges me professionally, provides growth opportunity, and parallels my values. I’m passionate about empowering people and using whole foods to help patients change the quality of their lives. I have a proven track record of success in leadership, self-direction and flexibility, and I want to share my strengths with others.
While I have loved cooking and healthy food since I was a child, my first career was not in nutrition. I worked in commercial sales for a Fortune 500 company. I was promoted three times in my tenure with Champion International Corporation, a company now owned by International Paper, before I resigned to be a full time parent. I excelled in detailed project management, employee training, and relationship building. Outside of my corporate experience, I was a core-team lead of a volunteer group assembled to remodel a Seattle city park. Over three years, I wrote grants, personally raising over $38,000 in private funds and lobbying the Department of Neighborhoods successfully to match our fundraising. Collectively we amassed over $250K to build new play structures and revitalize a neighborhood. This experience taught me life lessons about building a strong core-team, empowering a diverse workforce, and coordinating successfully across public and private sectors, each with different stakeholders. I expect to use my skills from these experiences in my work as a dietitian.
I became interested in the chemistry of food and how nutrients work in the body after becoming a mother. As my daughter transitioned from breast milk to whole foods she became a picky eater. I was relentless in looking for ways to creatively ensure the presence of essential nutrients in her diet. I later incorporated tips and nutrition facts I learned during that time into a monthly Healthy Eating column in her school's PTA newsletter. That writing led to a position working as a recipe tester for a nutritionally focused family meal website, The Six O’Clock Scramble. At the time I was teaching preschool and volunteering in my son's classroom. I saw the importance of reaching children during foundational years, not only with a nutrition message, but also an appealing example of simple whole food snacks and meals. My children and I began volunteering with Cooking Matters, a non-profit organization that offers free cooking classes to low-income and frequently non-English speaking adults. I taught classes in a domestic violence shelter, community centers and Head Start classrooms. I've done cooking demonstrations at food banks and in community gardens. I've enjoyed learning more about the cultures of North Africa, Afghanistan, and China. I have frequently been complimented on my ability to develop rapport across cultures and ages. I was touched on one occasion when an African American man, 10 years my senior approached me for advice on diversifying the food interests of his macaroni loving nephew. I am genuinely energized by my work with Cooking Matters and my experiences have served to strengthen my interest in education and commercial food service nutrition.
I’ve also had opportunities to connect with patients, use active listening skills, and presentation skills while working in clinical settings for University of Washington Medical Center Outpatient Nutrition Clinic, Diabetes Education Services at Northwest Hospital, and Team-Care at Bastyr Center for Natural Health. I have benefitted from observing different clinical approaches and challenges presented with a variety of patients. I taught a 90-minute class on Rethinking What You’re Drinking, and Balancing Carbs without Eggs. In my clinical practicum at Bastyr Center for Natural Health, I worked with patients challenged by a range of health conditions, usually compounded by depression, financial difficulty, or mental illness. I see daily progress in my rapport and trust with patients, my ability to effectively interview and apply motivational counseling techniques, and to demonstrate exceptional documentation in the electronic medical record.
At Bastyr University, a leading institution for natural medicine and whole foods nutrition, I had the unique experience of preparing meals in a whole foods commercial kitchen where daily meals consist of locally sourced, organic produce, fresh dairy items and both vegetarian and meat centered meals. I’ve altered recipes, using gluten free baking ingredients and replacing fat and processed ingredients with spices and natural flavors so that healthy meals are appealing to a broad range of palates. This experience was helpful in my work at Ronald McDonald House, serving themed dinners to families of patients at Children’s Hospital. Whether in the front, greeting patients and serving food, or in back, monitoring safe food handling procedures and creating menus, I know I am making an important contribution to many lives.
My employer will benefit from extensive community, clinical, and food service activities as well as my life experience. I’ve been the primary cook for my family for over 20 years, empowering my kids to pack healthy lunches, and my husband to think “outside the carnivore box.” I’ve done cooking demonstrations both hot and cold, showing food bank patrons how to use unfamiliar produce. I’m flexible because I have to be: So much of nutrition is human behavior! I excel in problem solving. My first year as a full time graduate student, I struggled in a few classes. Working with tutors, extending focused time on my hardest class, I was rewarded with 99% on the final exam! I have practical life experience modifying menus, accommodating disease processes in the lifecycle, and helping people feel “normal” as they work on their independent nutrition journey. I’ve had my own struggles with weight, health and self image. That affords me credibility, humility, and no judgment. As caregivers, we can learn from each patient and each story. My life experience lends me compassion, authenticity, and a sense of humor.
I plan a long and diverse career in nutrition, working with individuals in a clinical setting initially, and pursuing growth opportunities as presented. Nutritional healthcare is a dynamic and contemporary field. I hope to live and work long enough to see great progress and to help many people.