KRNC Student Spotlight – Bree Phillips

Bree grew up on the small, sunny island of Kauai, Hawaii in a home enlivened by her mother’s cooking and love for local ingredients. From a young age, she knew that nutrition was her passion. Bree will be graduating this spring and is currently applying to dietetic internships, hoping to attend a rigorous and adept program with the goal of becoming a clinical pediatric dietitian. She aspires to participate in both inpatient and outpatient settings, specializing in inherited metabolic diseases and neurological conditions. As her career advances, Bree plans to enhance her outpatient involvement as well as partake in community outreach, targeted specifically towards obstetrics and pre-natal nutrition education and counseling.

In the past, Bree has worked with Healthy Planet, Healthy Youth as a research assistant. “I participated in implementing and evaluating strategies for food waste reduction and food recovery in Northern Colorado public schools. I predominately collected and analyzed data samples, structured survey information and developed educational posters for two middle schools,” Bree says. Over this past winter break, Bree launched a blog highlighting functional foods and yummy recipe applications, The Art of Appetite. She states, “I love exploring and learning how food impacts the functions of the human body, designing a platform to compile and share my research has been exciting and a new learning experience in itself!”

Bree’s favorite part about working in the KRNC is observing the practical application of Medical Nutrition Therapy in an outpatient setting. She remarks, “Watching Shelby and Kalyn work with patients on fostering their nutritional needs has been so rewarding! I genuinely value this experience given that one day I will be implementing these counseling skills myself.”