Kate Agnew, APD

DIETITIAN CONNECTION

for something nutrishus

As part of the duo at Dietitian Connection, Kate was recommended to the series and was happy to share her story. I love what she and Maree are all about as my purpose with this series is around inspiring people to become dietitians and inspiring dietitians to aspire to achieve great things. They have created a very unique and international business (based in Australia) to inspire dietitians and provide valuable resources and tools.

Why did you become a RD?

I’ve always been fascinated by science, business and working one-on-one with people. I first started studying a science degree at university and quickly realised that nutrition and dietetics was my calling.

What area of dietetics do you work in?

Communications and marketing at Dietitian Connection (with Maree Ferguson).

How would you explain what you do?

I wear many hats in my job! Essentially, I lead most of the professional development resources and activities at Dietitian Connection. Our mission is to inspire and empower you (dietitians) to realise your dreams (more from Maree Ferguson - our founder and director in her interview).

What are your ‘typical’ daily/weekly tasks?

My role includes co-ordinating and collaborating with nutrition leaders to bring you webinars, podcasts, e-newsletters, events, online magazine and overall support in our community of dietitians. Our founder, Maree has the most amazing, ambitious ideas so I’m here to help execute and install a bit of creativity into our world.

What has been your career path?

I dabbled in research and private practice for the first year after leaving University (in addition to a part-time role at Dietitian Connection). When I realised my strengths lay in team and project-based work, working creatively and toward a shared vision and communication, pursuing a larger role at Dietitian Connection was a no-brainer. I’m so grateful to now have a full time position at Dietitian Connection and I love it because I get variety (I’m at my best in dynamic environments), responsibility, the ability to collaborate with other dietitians and quite often: thrown out of my comfort zone!

What advanced education or special training do you have?

I don’t have training outside of a BSc and Masters in Dietetics. A lot of my “training” is self taught from conferences, online modules and of course my career role models!

In an ideal world, what does the industry look like 5 years from now?

I think (and hope) dietitians will OWN the gut health space and will be using personalised medicine (nutrigenetics, nutrigenomics and epigenetics) and lifestyle medicine approaches.

I think the increased use of automation (from technology and AI) will change the role of the dietitian - it’ll take care of the routine tasks and leave us to do the higher level work: complex thinking, problem solving and personalisation.

What tip(s) would you give to our readers?

I recently shared a post that really resonated with our community. The post was about “overthinking” and what I was hearing from dietitians is that it is really common in our profession; it plays on our confidence and can thieve us of opportunities to be amazing. As a recovered chronic over-thinker, my advice for any dietitian struggling with this is to catch yourself when it happens and talk to your mentor or coach about your career-related worries.

And on that note: surround yourself with leaders who inspire you, push you to realise your dreams and support you. When we work together, we can achieve incredible things.

More about Kate:

LinkedIn: Kate Agnew

Website: Dietitian Connection

Instagram: @dietitianconnection

Thanks Kate!