Member Spotlight: Jaime Schwartz, M.S., R.D., Account Supervisor, Ketchum

 

Reprinted with permission from The Greater New Yorker, a publication of the Greater New York Dietetic Association.

 

 

I joined Ketchum in March 2006 as a Senior Account Executive and was recently promoted to Account Supervisor. My role as an R.D. working in public relations is to provide strategic nutrition communications counsel to food and wellness clients. The majority of the projects I am involved in focus on outreach to health professionals. For example, I played a key role in the development of www.snacksense.com, a new Web site that Frito-Lay launched to provide resources to help health professionals discuss with clients the role of snacking in the diet. I am currently working on a program that Frito-Lay is developing in partnership with the ADA called License to Snack (Web site of the same name), which has both consumer and health professional elements. All of Frito-Lay’s activities at this year’s FNCE were coordinated by my team, including the “Navigating the Aisles” satellite symposium, “The Skinny on Total Fat: A Matter of Quality versus Quantity” session, a media briefing, spokesperson briefing, the writing and layout of 12 education materials for distribution at the booth, as well as booth design.

 

I love being able to create opportunities for R.D.s to gain visibility as the go-to source for nutrition information. For example, when Wendy’s was looking to launch a program that connects moms with nutrition experts, I recommended to the client a panel of three R.D.s, who were then selected to develop and be featured on the Mom R.D. Web site. I also make recommendations for R.D. spokespeople to appear in TV, print and online interviews on behalf of Ketchum’s clients. I really enjoy being able to “wear different hats” in professional organizations as a member and also as a partner, identifying sponsorship opportunities that are a good match for my clients and the organization. For example, I am not only an active member of the Food and Culinary Professionals (FCP), but I also helped secure a sponsorship for the California Strawberry Commission, coordinating a hands-on culinary workshop in Chicago where FCP members prepared recipes with strawberries to elevate the status of this favorite fruit as more than just a cereal topper or dessert. I even wear different hats in NYSDA, as I am working with the annual meeting coordinators to have “The Skinny on Total Fats” session (which was standing room only at FNCE) presented at NYSDA’s meeting in Albany.

 

I got this position, as well as every other role I’ve had, through networking, seeking out mentors, fine-tuning my skills and having a little patience. On my way back from FNCE 2004 in Anaheim, I was sitting at the airport and met Wendy Weiss, an R.D. who worked for Ketchum. She shared what her job entailed, the clients she worked with and how she applied her nutrition expertise. Although Ketchum wasn’t looking to bring on another R.D. at that time and I had just started at Atkins Nutritionals six months prior and wasn’t looking to leave, I sent my rósumé to Wendy for consideration should a position become available in the future. Ketchum brought me in for an exploratory interview the following month and I was called back in a few months later. When I was looking to leave Atkins Nutritionals, I followed up with Ketchum, but they still did not have the right mix of clients to bring on another R.D., so I accepted a position at Kraft Foods. But the following year when Ketchum called, it was finally the right time for both of us. I was brought in to meet with the team, including Ilene Smith, an R.D. who I had met through my involvement in the Dietitians in Business and Communications (DBC). I was offered the position and was relieved that my passion and persistence had paid off.

 

I am the Mentoring Program Co-Chair for DBC, which is greatly rewarding since I benefited so much from the program when I first became an R.D. — having been paired with a mentor who gave me great advice and also eventually introduced me to my graduate school advisor. Even though I have been in New York City for four years, I am still Co-Editor of the New Jersey Dietetic Association’s newsletter News & Views

(can’t let go of my Jersey roots!). I am a member of GNYDA’s PR committee and Secretary of Penn State’s Nutrition and Dietetics Alumni Society. I am also a member of Sports, Cardiovascular and Wellness Nutritionists (SCAN), FCP, Nutrition Entrepreneurs (NE), and Weight Managements (WM).

 

I was a session speaker at FNCE 2005 on the topic of generational diversity in the workplace and have also presented and published research that I conducted as a graduate student on portion distortion, label reading, and portion size measurement aids. My most recent papers appeared in the April 2006 issue of Topics in Clinical Nutrition and the September 2006 issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. I had great support from Ketchum and Rutgers in publicizing these papers and received national coverage in Elle, Today’s Dietitian, Men’s Health, and an Associated Press story.

 

I have had an amazing two years at Ketchum and am looking forward to the challenges of my new role and future growth opportunities there. I want to continue having an active role in professional activities, especially in the area of mentoring dietetic students and new R.D.s as well as those looking to make a change into business and industry positions.

 

I am definitely a morning person and start my day with either a run, spin class or yoga class. I get into the office around 8:45 a.m. Every day is completely different. But days usually involve planning meetings; client update calls; meetings with team members, partners, vendors, and clients; writing, editing, and delegating responsibilities; brainstorms; budgeting; reading up on the latest food and nutrition news. I aim to leave by 6:30 p.m. but that doesn’t always happen.

 

We were working with a celebrity chef last winter and booked him on local morning shows across the country. He was running late from a segment he was filming in New York and missed his flight to Cincinnati. There were no other flights departing that night and we absolutely had to get him there in time for the live morning show. So we had to hire a private jet to take him there! It was 9 p.m. on a Friday night and we were able to locate a jet that had just delivered a heart to a hospital in Boston for a transplant patient. I don’t think anyone on the team slept that night until we confirmed that he boarded!

 

There are growing opportunities for R.D.s working with supermarkets, both on the corporate level and in-store. This is exciting and such an important place for dietitians to be. However, it will be important to have metrics in place to measure the impact that the education we provide to consumers, store employees and buyers has on sales in order for this area of opportunity for R.D.s to continue to grow.

 

I received my B.S. in nutrition from Penn State and then completed the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey Dietetic internship. After working as a clinical dietitian for about a year, I began my master’s in nutritional sciences at Rutgers, where I was able to tailor my coursework and research projects to focus on communications. I started sending out résumés about five months before graduation to any nontraditional position that interested me. I received a response back from a professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine that although the research coordinator position I applied for had been filled, she knew of another one at Atkins Nutritionals that would be a good fit for me. I got the job as a Technical Writer for the Health and Medical Information Services division and worked closely with the editorial, communications, and marketing departments. Working at a small organization, with all teams under one roof, gave me a good foundation to work at Kraft, a larger operation with many different departments and agency partners, and then at Ketchum, where I had a steep learning curve in the fast-paced world of public relations, but a very supportive team to help me through it.

 

If you are interested in a certain area of dietetics, there are seasoned professionals who are happy to give you advice and get you going on the right track. If you don’t know who to ask, find someone with a job that interests you and contact them. There is such great support from DPG members; join the groups that fit your niche. I am amazed at what a sisterhood (and brotherhood, too) our profession is and am always inspired by the talent, creativity and passion within our association.