Tara Tyler

I started my career as a registered dietitian in 2013 at the VA hospital in Tampa, Florida, where I did my internship and all of my clinical training. I was fortunate enough to get hired on, which was amazing. Regardless of what anyone's political lean is around the VA, it was a fabulous place to work. I learned a lot and had opportunities from a clinical perspective that you just don't get everywhere. I was able to work in everything from weight management and diabetes to oncology and women's health, and I feel like I got a really beautifully well-rounded background. Now I work in the pharmaceutical industry as my primary job with Eli Lilly, and I do some nutrition consulting on the side. I'm a bit limited because I work for a pharmaceutical company and have restrictions about compliance. My primary role is in pharmaceutical sales in the cardiometabolic arena, and I believe in what we're doing there because there's a lot of great advancements happening. I still see patients one-on-one, although that's not the bulk of my work. I do a lot of consulting and curriculum development. I'm working on a project with the University of South Florida right now on a program called Good Affordable Foods, which is geared towards low-income seniors. Those kinds of projects are where my heart is. My pharmaceutical job pays the bills and is in a field that allows me to discuss things that are interesting, and I'm one of the fortunate ones who gets to do both things. I'm currently working on my doctorate in functional nutrition, and I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of doors open through those avenues. I'm at a position in my career where it's not so much about resume building - I have a strong resume and I'm good at what I do. I have a strong skill set and I bring value to the organizations and the people I work with. I really believe that relationships are bi-directional, and I've never worked on a project that I didn't learn and grow from.