Posted on March 3, 2004 at 9:20 a.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — Nancy H. Wooldridge, MS, RD, LD, assistant professor in the department of pediatrics at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham), was among a select group of nutrition and health experts chosen to participate in the American Dietetic Association’s first Leadership Institute, February 19-22 in Tucson, Arizona.

Participation in ADA’s invitation-only Leadership Institute, an intensive certificate-training program in the theory and practice of leadership in dietetics, was limited to fewer than 500 of ADA’s nearly 70,000 members throughout the country.

Wooldridge is the co-director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Center at UAB and serves on the nominating committee for the ADA.

“The purpose of the program was to enhance the leadership competencies of ADA members through a combination of information, skill development and intensive practice-based educational experiences,” said ADA President Marianne Smith Edge. “The program was designed to strengthen dietetics professionals’ ability to lead within ADA and in their places of employment, to assist other ADA members in mastering change in their environments and to advance the goals of the dietetics profession.”

Wooldridge has been a faculty member in the departments of pediatrics and nutrition sciences at UAB for over 22 years. Her clinical specialty is the nutrition management of children with pulmonary disorders and she is involved in the training of long-term graduate nutrition trainees, UAB dietetic interns, as well as the UAB pediatric residents, interns, medical students and trainees of other health care disciplines.

The Chicago-based American Dietetic Association is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. ADA serves the public by promoting nutrition, health and well-being.