April Member Spotlight: Kelsey Bigbee

Provide us with a brief description of your job: I work as a registered dietitian and care coordinator at the Indian Health Board of Minneapolis, a community clinic that focuses on addressing health disparities and improving health outcomes of AI/AN community. I do nutrition education with individuals and groups covering chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension, and general healthful lifestyle.

What do you love about what you do? I love the flexibility and creativity involved in creating new ways to reach patients and provide education. I enjoy learning about traditional ways of healing and guiding patients to incorporate other modalities of healing into their daily practices.

What are the challenges? People have complicated relationships with food. With the clients that I work with it is further complicated by generational trauma, colonization, commodity foods, boarding schools, and loss of indigenous knowledge around traditional foods and medicines. It is challenging to try and provide trauma informed nutrition care that allows for these complexities to exist and to work within them.

How has your MAND membership benefited you? I have enjoyed being on the public policy panel and learning more about how policy impacts our profession and learning how to advocate for policy changes.

What do you think is the future of nutrition and dietetics? I think that the future of nutrition and dietetics is fat liberation.

What are your favorite activities/hobbies? Solo traveling, reading non-fiction or YA novels, listening to podcasts, gardening, walking/hiking

What is your favorite restaurant in Minnesota? Tandem Bagels