Natasha Sugimoto

I attribute my success to remaining open to new opportunities, including nontraditional roles, seeking guidance from strong mentors—most notably Professor Norma Gonzalez—and staying true to my passions.

The best career advice I received came from my college professor, Norma Gonzalez. She was always that person who would tell me 'you're brilliant, go chase your dreams.' She would say 'look, you can do whatever you want to do, you're brilliant, just keep going.' That was always very nice to have somebody like that who was not just approachable, but somebody who knows so much about nutrition and is such an expert in the field. Having someone who empowers you and believes in you, who tells you that you can do it and to continue to reach your goals - that kind of support and encouragement has been invaluable to me.

My advice to young women entering nutrition is to keep an open mind. Your career may take unexpected but rewarding turns. For me, staying open led to becoming a traveling dietitian, working at hospitals across the country, and even moving into a sales role connecting people with registered dietitians. Some of the most rewarding opportunities come from paths you hadn’t planned—like my first assignment in Alaska, which began with a simple LinkedIn message. Let your passion guide you, and be ready for the surprises along the way.

One of the biggest opportunities in nutrition right now is that it's becoming easier to get insurance coverage for nutrition services. Nutrition has historically not been easy to be covered by insurance, but now it is. This is something new in our area. At Nourish, we're able to connect patients with registered dietitians and provide affordable, and many times free, insurance-covered nutrition care to people. This is a significant shift because nutrition is often treated as an afterthought in chronic disease care, but now we're bringing it to the forefront and making it accessible. The challenge has been that nutrition hasn't always been prioritized or made accessible due to cost and insurance barriers, but we're working to change that by connecting hundreds of people a month with the nutrition care they need.

The values most important to me are staying centered and grounded by nurturing multiple aspects of myself, and helping others whenever I can. I'm a big believer that humans are not one thing - humans have multiple faces and multiple personalities in a good sense of the word, and are able to develop multiple skills. That's what makes us well-rounded human beings. I think sometimes in the aims of just chasing that one thing, we forget to nurture or nourish other things in our lives. I make sure to have at least one or more hobbies that are not related to my work - moments that are just for me - because that helps me be centered and grounded and not be overwhelmed. Patient care can be overwhelming, and sometimes you take the stories of patients home, or you feel the inability to help sometimes because of economic status and things like that. In terms of helping others, I'm a big believer in just helping people. I try to be generous when I can, whether that's giving a really nice tip to someone who's hustling, or offering nutrition help to friends and family. If I can help in any way, I try. I also have a deep love for animals and a dream to one day create a shelter relief facility where shelter animals can come and stay, have open spaces, and get relief from shelter depression. That's the contribution I want to make.