Jennifer is a Registered Dietitian with her master’s degree in Foods and Nutrition with a Sports Nutrition emphasis. She has a passion for helping people learn to fuel their bodies well for exercise and for life. She has experience working with athletes of all ages and walks of life, from beginner to collegiate. She loves working with individuals to not only reach their fitness goals but also to improve their health through nutrition and exercise. She has participated in strength and hypertrophy training for the last 10 years and is also an avid hiker.  

Education/Credentials:

• RD – Commission on Dietetic Registration (2016)
• MS – Foods and Nutrition with Sports Nutrition emphasis, University of Georgia (2016)
• BS – Dietetics, University of Georgia (2014)
• Working toward CSSD (Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics) credential

Additional Experience: 

• Nutrition counseling in private practice, 2018-present
• President, Northeast Georgia Dietetic Association (2021-present)
• Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year, Georgia Dietetic Association (2020)
• Clinical Dietitian, Piedmont Athens Regional Medical Center (2016-2021)
• Teaching assistant, Department of Foods and Nutrition, University of Georgia (2014-2016)
• Coauthor of a publication in Scientific Reports based on Master’s research

About me - Living in Athens, Georgia (Go Dawgs!).  I’m married to my husband and best friend, Jake, and we have two sweet, funny pups: a pit bull named June and a Brittany spaniel named Chief. I have been doing some form of weight training for many years now, most recently hypertrophy-focused training, and I’m also a newbie to CrossFit (PSA: it’s hard). I am my happiest when I’m outside, and my husband and I are avid national park travelers. We love hiking, camping, and really anything else that gets us in the mountains! I also have a fairly large houseplant collection in an effort to bring some of the outside into my house. When I’m not working or traveling I’m probably running around our backyard with our dogs.

Why did you start coaching? I started coaching because I have personally experienced how much potential good nutrition has to improve physical and mental health, improve performance, and improve quality of life, and I wanted others to experience that as well. Food has the potential to positively impact us in pretty much every aspect! I especially wanted to help folks who may feel like having a good nutrition plan is out of reach for them because of various barriers work around those barriers and find success. And at the end of the day, I just love nutrition and want to share that love with other people!

What is your coaching style? I would say I lean more towards being an encouraging and supportive coach who cheers my clients on and a little less towards “tough love” (although I do provide as much accountability from clients as they want from me). If there is a barrier to a client achieving success, then I enjoy helping them come up with solutions and ways to work around or through those barriers.  I believe if someone wants to make a change when it comes to nutrition but isn’t then there are often one or more valid reasons for that, so I think it’s important to listen to clients when they talk about barriers and be solution-minded rather than shaming or judging.

What kinds of clients do you work with? I enjoy working with recreational athletes, especially clients who do strength or hypertrophy training and/or CrossFit (but I have plenty of clients who do other types of activity as well!). I also really like helping folks who have medical conditions that may impact their nutrition such as PCOS, hypothyroidism, etc find success.

What is your favorite part of coaching? I absolutely love seeing the shift from nutrition feeling confusing, overwhelming, and stressful to clients feeling confident and excited about their nutrition. I also really love seeing folks who didn’t think they could be successful prove themselves wrong!

What type of client would be the best fit to work with you? Recreational athletes who have performance and/or body composition goals and want a supportive, non-judgmental, encouraging coach would be a good fit to work with me, including those with diagnoses like PCOS, hypothyroidism, etc mentioned above.