Melissa Freeman

I attribute my success to, first of all, the leaders and peers who have provided me the opportunity and offered me opportunities, who saw my potential even when I may not have had all of the hard skills and experience, but who saw my potential and who supported me in accepting new challenges professionally. On an ongoing basis, my team members have also supported me as their leader and provided feedback that would help me continue to support them successfully in building really strong teams and the supports and structure that allow them to be successful in their roles. And I would also say, lastly, a pursuit of continuous learning and self-improvement, and taking advantage of whatever opportunities are available to work on development and growth and learning, whether that be structured programs in the workplace, like leadership programs, or things of that nature, or independently, reading, listening to podcasts, watching videos, talking with others, connecting with peers or mentors, whether it be one time or on a continuous basis, to make sure that there's always someone there to bounce things off of and who can reflect back to me.

The first thing is being strong, and not just strong mentally and in terms of your will, but continuing to pursue, strengthen your skills and your knowledge and your experience, so that you know your worth and you know what you can bring, and continuing to push for what you know you deserve. Advocating for the opportunities that you know you're capable of, and always pushing a little bit more outside of your comfort zone, because you never know what you'll be capable of and what you can achieve. And remembering that nobody really knows what they're doing. Everyone is making it up as they go along. Developing a strong network and strong connections, and seeking mentorship, whether it's a single conversation or an ongoing mentorship relationship, but looking to those who have the experience, or the skills, or the qualities that you want to develop, and learning from them. And building your network, and how you can give back to others in your network is crucial, especially for building up a world of influential women.

Some of the biggest challenges in the field of dietetics are the challenges with requirements for entering the profession and then having the commensurate compensation, and particularly reimbursement for services to help sustain the workforce. In the clinical setting, what we see is a lot of folks wanting to move to remote work or independent consulting, and we really need to continue to develop a strong clinical base within the dietary program. We need folks who are excited about working in a hospital setting and all of the fun and interesting opportunities that come along with that. Continuing to promote the opportunities in the clinical setting, and then continuing to advocate with CMS and payers to recognize nutrition, and there is a lot more recognition of food as medicine and nutrition as preventative care to help our healthcare process, but it takes a lot of work, and the ongoing need for advocacy and lobbying is crucial. On the opportunities side, I think there is a growing recognition of food as medicine and the importance of nutrition and preventative care, and so there's a greater recognition of the field of dietetics. We see companies out there really exploding in bringing dietitians in with patients close to home, in their communities, and really the best focus on preventative care. There's always going to be opportunities in directly in the clinical setting, like hospitals and clinics, but also a lot more opportunities in the community as we work on education and building healthy and strong communities and the preventative aspect of that for the health of our country long-term. There's a lot of opportunity for creative endeavors, and you see that a lot more now with unique business ideas, so there is still, for those who have that entrepreneurial spirit, a lot of opportunity for that as well, and creative partnerships, or nonprofits in the community and things like that.

The values most important to me are integrity, honesty, and compassion and empathy.