Evelyn Ford Crayton Elected to ADA Board of Directors

Evelyn F. Crayton, assistant director of family programs for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, is one of 18 national leaders in nutrition, medicine, industry and public health elected to serve on the board of directors of the American Dietetic Association. She will serve a two-year term.

ADA is the nation’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. The board is responsible for strategic planning, policy development and fiscal management for the association.

Crayton, a registered dietitian, recently completed a three-year term in the ADA’s house of delegates. She served as president of the Alabama Dietetic Association in 2000 and was named ALDA Outstanding Dietitian of the Year in 1985. She has been a member of the ADA for nearly 40 years

Crayton‘s years of service as a leader in the Nutrition Education for the Public, and the Hunger, Environment and Nutrition dietetics practice groups have prepared her for this leadership role in the organization of nearly 69,000 members. She is a leading authority in the areas of community nutrition, nutrition education, home food preservation, and nutrition and health literacy.

She has authored many monographs, a book chapter and articles in the field of community nutrition and working with limited resources audiences. She has served on the editorial board of the Journal of Ethnicity and Diseases: The International Society on Hypertension in Blacks.

She has also presented papers throughout the United States and in Israel; the Philippines; England, Jamaica, St. Thomas, St. Croix and West Africa.

The American Dietetic Association through research, education and advocacy, is committed to advancing the profession of dietetics. As a member of the house of delegates leadership team, Crayton serves as a voice of the members of the ADA. She will represent the ADA at a pre-presidential debate session Sept. 11 at the University of Mississippi. The focus of the session is prevention strategies of obesity and chronic diseases versus treatment. The first presidential debate is Sept. 26 at that university.

The house of delegates governs the profession of dietetics, and develops policy on major professional issues as well as the position of the ADA on issues such as child and adolescent food and nutrition programs, food insecurity and hunger in the United States, the impact of fluoride on health and issues related nutrition across the spectrum of aging. Other issues to be addressed by the leadership team, are health disparities, the code of ethics and future directions of the profession .

The board of directors also works with the Commission on Accreditation of Dietetics Education which oversees the dietetics education programs at Auburn, Tuskegee, Samford, Alabama A&M, Oakwood and Jacksonville State universities and the University of Montevallo.

Posted by dreynold at July 11, 2008 08:48 AM | TrackBack