Former and Current Local Child Nutrition Program Directors/Supervisors

Printing is not supported at the primary Gallery Thumbnail page. Please first navigate to a specific Image before printing.

Switch View to Grid View Slideshow

Mary Nix

Mary Nix and Institute of Child Nutrition

Mary Nix grew up in Gordon County, Georgia during the late 1930s and 1940s. She started work in the School Lunch Program in the ninth grade, washing pots and pans at her high school. After graduating she went on to become School Food Service Supervisor for Gordon County, and later, after graduating from the University of Georgia in 1969, she became Bartow County’s first School Food Service Director. She worked for Georgia’s Department of Education for a number of years and then served as Assistant Director of School Food Services in Cobb County Georgia, where she resides. Nix was President of the American School Food Service Association from 1981 – 1982.
Helen Phillips

Helen Phillips and Institute of Child Nutrition

Helen Phillips is a dedicated school nutrition advocate. Her current work involves projects relative to enhancing the good work of school nutrition professionals across the country. As a retired director of school nutrition after more than 25 years working in school nutrition administration, she has extensive program knowledge and experience. During Helen’s successful career she served in numerous state and national leadership roles with the School Nutrition Association of Virginia and the national School Nutrition Association, serving as president of each. She has worked on various projects with allied organizations including the Pew Charitable Trusts, American Heart Association, Share Our Strength, and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation to name a few. Helen has also worked on school nutrition issues with the White House, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Commonwealth of Virginia. Helen has a passion for school nutrition and enjoys working to promote program integrity.
Vivian Pilant

Vivian Pilant and Institute of Child Nutrition

Born in 1941, Vivian Pilant grew up in Martin, Tennessee. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Home Economics from the University of Tennessee at Martin, a master’s degree in Institution Management and a doctorate in Nutrition from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She began her career as Director of School Food Services and Nutrition Education for Weakley County, Tennessee. In August 1970, she went to work as a Coordinator of School Food Services in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, where she remained for five years. In 1975, Dr. Pilant began work with the South Carolina Department of Education Office of School Food Services as a consultant or “state supervisor.” Two years later she took a position as a registered dietician with the South Carolina WIC program. From 1979 until 2009, she served as Director of School Food Services for South Carolina. Dr. Pilant served as president of the American School Food Service Association (ASFSA) (1994 – 1995). She has testified five times before Congressional committees on matters concerning food and nutrition education training. During her time as ASFSA president she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent treatment. Dr. Pilant died March 29, 2010, at the age of 69.
Kevin Ponce

Kevin Ponce and Institute of Child Nutrition

A native of Hawaii, Kevin Ponce left the islands after high school to join the US Air Force. After a 20-year career in the Air Force Ponce retired. Having earned a degree in hotel and restaurant management he took the position as an area supervisor for the Oklahoma City Public Schools. This was followed by a position overseeing the procurement of food and equipment. Eventually he took a food service director position, where he moved up to larger and larger districts. Kevin up running a district with over eighty schools before eventually retiring again after another-plus year career.
Eleanor Pratt

Eleanor Pratt and Institute of Child Nutrition

Eleanor Pratt began her career in the child nutrition profession as food service director for Clarksville, Tennessee, schools in 1957. With a master’s degree in Home Economics she went on in 1960 to a career with the USDA Southeast Regional Office as Home Economist. She retired thirty-four years later in 1994. Ms. Pratt died at the age of 88 on August 18, 2014.
Tommy Ramey

Tommy Ramey and Institute of Child Nutrition

Tommy Ramey worked for 34 years in the State of Alabama beginning as a teacher/coach and retiring in 2000 as State Director of the Child Nutrition Programs for the Alabama State Department of Education. His major accomplishments include developing and instituting a commodity processing program that saved local education agencies (LEAs) $1.5 annually; being recognized by the USDA for having the most efficient method for delivery of USDA donated food; initiating the development of the State Nutrition Policies and Procedures Handbook; and initiating and assisting in the development and passage by the State Board of Education, certification standards for local child nutrition directors. Since his retirement, he has continued to be active in the child nutrition field by presenting programs on a variety of subjects throughout the nation.
Beth Rice

Beth Rice and Institute of Child Nutrition

Beth Rice is a native of Tennessee and studied at University of Tennessee Martin and University of Tennessee, Knoxville, before entering the field of child nutrition. Beth worked in a residential child care institution, for the Tennessee State Department of Education, and as a child nutrition director for Lake County, Tennessee, before joining the Fulton County School District in western Kentucky, from where she retired. Beth now works as a consultant for the Institute of Child Nutrition, instructing other directors in a course called Orientation to School Nutrition Leadership.
Pat Richardson

Pat Richardson and Institute of Child Nutrition

Pat Richardson was born in Kansas and grew up in Arkansas before moving to Mississippi to attend Ole Miss. She is a former child nutrition director for Oxford City Schools and is now retired from the Institute of Child Nutrition as an Education and Training Specialist.
Dora Rivas Oral History

Dora Rivas and Institute of Child Nutrition

Dora Rivas has dedicated more than thirty-five years of service to child nutrition and related programs. A Texas native, she grew up in the small town of Los Fresnos and attended collage at Texas A & I University (now Texas A & M) where she received a degree in nutrition and dietetics. She first entered the field of school nutrition in 1977 as a school dietitian and eventually promoted to Assistant School Director and then School Director in Brownsville, Texas. In 2005, she moved to Dallas, Texas to work as the Executive Director in the Dallas Independent School District until 2015. She is currently working with the Army and Air Force Exchange on child nutrition on military bases. Mrs. Rivas is also a former president of the School Nutrition Association in 2009-2010.
Cynthia Ruffin

Cynthia Ruffin and Institute of Child Nutrition

Cynthia Ruffin began her school nutrition career in Louisiana more than 35 years ago. She received a B.S. in Dietetics from Louisiana State University and an MBA from Southeastern Louisiana University. Cynthia has worked at the local school level, with the Louisiana Department of Education, and as the Director of Child Nutrition in St. Charles Parish Public Schools near New Orleans. Some of her career highlights include developing the Louisiana School Lunch Cycle Menus; expanding Breakfast-on-the-Go programs, implementing The Main Course, a culinary training program for food service technicians; and contributing significantly to district recovery after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. She was the recipient of the SNA of Louisiana Child Nutrition Director of the Year award in 2013. Cynthia often says that once you’ve been bitten by the school lunch bug, you’re infected forever! Her desire to remain involved with the school nutrition profession has led her to training in her post-retirement career. Cynthia is a consultant trainer for the Institute of Child Nutrition.
Wanda Salley

Wanda Salley and Institute of Child Nutrition

An Alabama native, Wanda Salley holds degrees from Auburn University and Mississippi State University, and is also a Registered Dietitian. After beginning her career in hospitals she transitioned into school food service, first becoming a food service director in Houston, MS, followed by stints in Greenville, Pass Christian, and Harrison County, MS schools.
Becki Schreiber

Becki Schreiber and Institute of Child Nutrition

Becki Schreiber has worked in many different food and nutrition management arenas that include schools, restaurants, hospitals, long term care, and businesses. She has also taught at the college level.

She received a Bachelor’s degree in Food, Nutrition and Institution Administration from the University of Maryland and a Master of Adult and Occupational Education from the University of New Hampshire.

Becki has worked or consulted in over 40 kitchens and in one large edible school garden during her 40-year career. She was Director of School Nutrition for 15 years in the state of Maine, becoming a passionate advocate for child nutrition.
Adrianne Schwartz

Adrianne Schwartz and Institute of Child Nutrition

Adrianne Schwartz is a food service supervisor in Juneau, Alaska.
Danny Seymour

Danny Seymour and Institute of Child Nutrition

Danny Seymour has been involved with school nutrition programs since 1971, beginning with a small suburban Philadelphia school district. His career path led him to direct four different school nutrition programs and to become director of the second largest school district in Pennsylvania - Pittsburgh Public Schools. Throughout his career in schools, Danny built each program on strong fundamentals of procurement as well as human resource management. While in Pittsburgh he developed the department’s Standards of Operations, outlining almost every policy and procedure for implementing a successful school nutrition operation. From 2007 to 2015 Danny held a position with the School Nutrition Association as Dean of Education. The newly created position afforded the opportunity to create professional training programs for both school nutrition employees and industry colleagues. Danny has a passion for dogs and in particular, Pointers. Danny is approved by the American Kennel Club to judge seventeen different breeds of sporting dogs. When not involved with the professional development of school nutrition programs, you can most likely find him at a dog show. Danny is a consultant trainer for the Institute of Child Nutrition.
Wanda Shockey

Wanda Shockey and Institute of Child Nutrition

Wanda Shockey, a native of Monroe, Louisiana, began her child nutrition career in Bastrop, Louisiana, first as the home economics teacher and then becoming the child nutrition director. After moving to Arkansas, Shockey was child nutrition director for Little Rock School District for nine years and had fifty schools. Later she moved to the Arkansas Department of Education where she has been director of child nutrition for the past fifteen years.
Lou Simoneaux

Lou Simoneaux and Institute of Child Nutrition

Lou Simoneaux spent twenty years traveling the world with her military family before returning to her home state of Louisiana and beginning a new career in school food service. She spent several years in the Panama Canal Zone and then moved to France. When her husband finally retired they returned to Lou’s hometown of Napoleonville, Louisiana, where she spent the next twenty-nine years providing healthy, nutritious meals to the children of Assumption Parish.
Barbara Smith

Barbara Smith and Institute of Child Nutrition

Barbara Smith taught Home Economics for six years before becoming Food Service Director in Russellville, Arkansas, for four years. She then worked for the Arkansas Department of Education until her retirement is early 2008.
Marcia Smith

Marcia Smith and Institute of Child Nutrition

Marcia Smith was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Florida when she was two years old. Ms. Smith graduated from Florida State University with a degree in food nutrition specializing in school lunch administration. She later earned masters and Ph.D. degrees from Webber College and Kennedy Western University. She started her career in school foodservice in Polk County, Florida, working with Helen Walker, School Food Service Director and President of the American School Foodservice Association (ASFSA) at that time. “Within the first two weeks of being on the job, I was going to Chicago to the national conference where she was national president,” Ms. Smith said. Ms. Smith became the School Food Service Director for Polk County, Florida, when Helen Walker retired, and has served in that position for over 21 years for a total of over 31 years in the profession. She served as president of ASFSA in 2001.
Lynda Snow

Lynda Snow and Institute of Child Nutrition

Lynda Snow is a native Alabamian and has worked in school nutrition for thirty-five years in Birmingham and Bessemer, Alabama. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Alabama A&M University. She is currently Child Nutrition Director for Bessemer City Schools.
Barbara Songy

Barbara Songy and Institute of Child Nutrition

Barbara Songy is a native of London, England, but has spent many more years in Louisiana feeding that state’s children than she ever spent in the United Kingdom. Barbara came to the United States as a war bride, having met and married a Louisiana airman during World War II. Displeased with what her first child was being served for lunch, she set about not only improving the menu, she raised the funds to build a new cafeteria. When the person who was supposed to manage the new cafeteria suddenly had to resign she agreed to take on the job temporarily. She retired fifty-five years later.
Theresa Stretch

Theresa Stretch and Institute of Child Nutrition

Theresa Stretch is a native of the State of Illinois. After working as a food service director in both rural and metropolitan districts in Illinois, Theresa accepted a position as an Education and Training Specialist at the Institute of Child Nutrition, where she has been for the past twenty years. Theresa will retire on March 31, 2020.
Rodney Taylor

Rodney Taylor and Institute of Child Nutrition

Rodney Taylor is the Director of Food and Nutrition Services for Fairfax County, Virginia, Public Schools. He was formerly Director of Nutrition Services for the Riverside Unified School District in Riverside, California. He holds a B.S. degree in Public Administration from California State University. A noted pioneer and expert in farm-to-school salad bars, Rodney is known for establishing the “Farmers Market Salad Bar” program in 1997 while working as Director of Food and Nutrition Services in the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District. Rodney served on the California State Board of Food and Agriculture, the University of California President’s Advisory Commission for Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Network for a Healthy California Executive Committee. He is the recipient of numerous honors and awards. Rodney is a consultant trainer for the Institute of Child Nutrition.
Sebasthian Varas – Covid 19 Oral History Project

Sebasthian Varas and Institute of Child Nutrition

Since 2009, Sebasthian Varas has worked for Canyons School District in Utah as the director for Nutrition Services. He is responsible for providing leadership and direction in matters pertaining to child nutrition programs for 33,000 students. He manages 43 schools and 275 employees.
Rene Weber

Rene Weber and Institute of Child Nutrition

Rene Weber became Director of Lunch Program for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, Ohio, in 1978, after working as a teacher for eleven years, and remained in this position for 22.5 years, starting with five schools and ending with 119. An active member of both the Ohio School Food Service Association and American School Food Service Association, she served as Legislative Chair for Ohio for eighteen years and three terms on the National Advisory Council for the USDA.
Debby Webster

Debby Webster and Institute of Child Nutrition

Debby Webster is currently the Nutrition Services Director for Rainier School Districts in Rainier, OR. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Food Science and Nutrition from Central Washington University, and has had a passion to feed students her whole career. Debby has worked in all sizes of districts from large to small, and had the pleasure of working as a consultant for the state agency doing nutrition analysis for SMI reviews. Debby is a member of the Oregon USDA Foods and Procurement Advisory committee and is active in several professional organizations. She has been training School Nutrition Professionals for over 27 years, and provides training for the Institute of Child Nutrition.
Craig Weidel

Craig Weidel and Institute of Child Nutrition

An Ohio native, Craig Weidel spent his first ten years there, before his family relocated to Phoenix, Arizona. He started out in child nutrition as warehouse supervisor for Mesa Public Schools, before becoming an area supervisor. He currently works with inventory management is cost control, and is very active in the School Nutrition Association.
Gene White

Gene White and Institute of Child Nutrition

Gene White grew up in Ohio and attended Miami University of Ohio, graduating with degrees in Home Economics Education and Nutrition, which was called Dietetics at that time. She then continued her graduate education at Ohio State University. She worked more than twenty years as Food Service Director in China Lake, California. She went on to become that state’s Director of Nutrition Services in the late 1970s and while in that position she served as President of the American School Food Service Association from 1977-1978. Currently she is involved with international feeding programs.

Gene White’s oral history interview was updated on May 15, 2013, by Jeffrey Boyce. The update can be found at the end of the original interview.

Gene passed away on June 23, 2021, at the age of 99.
Don Williams

Don Williams and Institute of Child Nutrition

Don Williams is a retired school nutrition director, having worked for twenty-six years in the State of Georgia. He is now involved in a second career working in school nutrition software.
Joan Williams

Joan Williams and Institute of Child Nutrition

Joan Williams has many years of experience in school nutrition and education. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in education from Georgia Southern College, a Master’s in education from Georgia College, and an Education Specialist degree from the University of Georgia. After teaching home economics for seven years, Joan served for 27 years as the school nutrition director for Carroll County Schools, a 15,000-student district in Georgia. Joan helped build an effective team that received many awards for increased participation and innovation. She received the USDA Best Practices Award for the Southeast Region twice, was recognized by the state of Georgia for high employee retention, and mentored future leaders within her program and region. Joan has been actively involved with the School Nutrition Association in various capacities at the state and national levels including serving as a trainer, conference presenter, board member, and state president. Joan is a consultant trainer for the Institute of Child Nutrition.
Walter D. Williams, Jr.

Walter D. Williams, Jr. and Institute of Child Nutrition

Born in Alabama and reared in Florida, Walter D. Williams, Jr., then joined the U.S. Air Force and served twenty years all over the world before retiring and settling in Alaska. He now works as a nutrition specialist in rural Alaska.
Emma Jo Williamson

Emma Jo Williamson and Institute of Child Nutrition

Emma Jo Williamson’s first job after college was in social work before making a career change and teaching Home Economics at Plaquemine High School in Iberville Parish for thirteen years. She then decided to go into school food service. She began her new career as an Assistant Director of the parish for two years before assuming the position of Director. Emma Jo is finally retired after twenty-seven years of serving the children of Iberville Parish.
Susan Wood

Susan Wood and Institute of Child Nutrition

Susan Wood, a Nebraska native, has spent her entire working career in Alabama. She is a Registered Dietitian and spent a number of years working in hospitals and nursing homes, as well as teaching at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. In her current position Susan is the Director of Child Nutrition Programs for Hoover City Schools, where she has served the district’s children for the past twenty-two years.
Mary T. Wroten

Mary T. Wroten and Institute of Child Nutrition

Mary Wroten, a native of Mississippi, worked in the East Baton Rouge Parish Child Nutrition Programs for twenty years. Among her many accomplishments while there was to greatly improve the procurement procedures for the district. Mary’s legacy will continue in Dietetics when her daughter graduates in the same field in May 2009.