Students, Gear Up for the SNEB Conference 2023! | Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB)

Students, Gear Up for the SNEB Conference 2023!

Posted by: on Monday November 21, 2022

The Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) held its 2022 Annual Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the first hybrid experience after 2 years of online conferences. During the annual division meetings, we dis- cussed the successful activities of all divisions during the past year. The Student Division officially started functioning in 2018. The Student Division remains a relatively younger division and has been successful in organizing 2 conference sessions in the past 2 years, with student members serving as writers, moderators, and speakers. The conference was a great opportunity to network and connect with other members with whom we have been working for the past couple of years. The Student Division currently manages the Instagram channel of the society and has captured several highlights of the conference.

The 2022 Annual Conference started by recognizing all of the SNEB awards and scholarship winners.1 Several student members were awarded Student Research Awards, Food and Nutrition Extension Education Division scholarships, and SNEB Foundation scholarships. Several student members and non-members also presented oral and poster presentations and those abstracts are available in the JNEB supplemental issue.2 The Research Division collaborated with the Student Division to organize the conference session, “The Zoom Dissertation: Building Capacity for Research in Nutrition Education and Behavior with Technology.” The Higher Ed Division also has an ongoing active collaboration with the Student Division for the SNEB mentorship program. I had a chance to speak to several student members and nonmembers, and everyone appreciated the mindfulness and integrity of the conference organizers in taking care of certain things that often go overlooked. The attendees pointed out specific characteristics of the conference that intrigued them. For example, all attendees were required to wear masks throughout the duration of the conference, there were no signs of plastic waste at the conference, and the distribution of wooden pens had to be a key highlight. The Student Division also did an informal meet-up and announced its agenda for the upcoming year.

The Student Division plans to submit a conference session proposal for the upcoming conference. The Division has committed to its collaboration with the Higher Ed Division to continue the SNEB mentorship pro- gram and get more involved in the Higher Ed Division’s working groups like the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. The Tech Playground at the conference consisted of around 20 exhibitions featuring technology prototypes and products focused on nutrition education and behavior, which is a rare sight at a national conference. The Student Division looks forward to collaborating with other divisions that present great personal and professional development opportunities for all its members.

At the conference, President Barbara Lohse discussed nutrition educator competencies, which is one of her primary foci this year.3 Past President Jasia Steinmetz highlighted success stories of the society over the past year, and President Lohse congratulated her for the same. President-Elect Yenory Hernandez-Garbanzo announced the theme for the SNEB 2023 Annual Conference, “Empowering Food Citizens: Together for Nutrition and Food Systems Transformation. Re-connect, Re-nourish, Re-inspire  ” This is an international conference and will be held in Washington DC from July 20 to 23, 2023.4

I would like to invite all our student readers to explore the SNEB student membership benefits. As a student member, you are automatically enrolled in the Student Division, and membership in another division is provided at no additional cost.5

The society is one of the primary stakeholders at the 2022 White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health and submitted its recommendations in July, 2022.6 Hashtags #SNEB and #SNEB2022 on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram give us insight into the success of the conference.

Kritika Gupta, PhD University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS Student Representative, SNEB Board of Directors


REFERENCES

  1. Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. SNEB awards. https://www. org/awards/. Accessed August 22, 2022.
  2. Journal of Nutrition Education and Re-engineering nutrition education and behavior − designing tech competence in your digital world. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2022;54:S1–S96.
  3. Lohse B. Nutrition educator competencies require reasonable adventurers. J Nutr Educ Behav. 2022;54:705.
  4. Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. SNEB Annual Conference 2023 in Washington DC. www.sneb.org/2023-annual-conference. Accessed August 22, 2022.
  5. Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Become a member of SNEB. https://www.sneb.org/become-a-mem- ber-of-sneb/. Accessed August 22, 2022.
  6. Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Recommendations from the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior for the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and SNEB; 2022. https://www.sneb.org/wp-content/ uploads/2022/07/SNEB_WHCN_7.15. 2022.pdf.