Bree is a senior vice president at FoodMinds. Her areas of expertise include strategic program planning, health influencer education and outreach, nutrition media relations and issues management. Bree received her bachelor’s degree in mass communications with an emphasis on public relations and a marketing minor from Mansfield University in Pennsylvania and completed an online certificate program in Nutrition Science and Communications for Public Relations Professionals offered by Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy.
How did you become interested in nutrition and dietetics (or nutrition communication)?
Often when you start your career in a big agency like I did, you don’t get to choose your clients or projects. I loved the work I was doing but didn’t feel that it was relevant to my everyday life. About three years in, I was transferred to another sector after we lost a big client. That’s when I was placed on my first food-related client. Now, I was working on issues that I was personally invested in. That made the job much more interesting and rewarding. I decided from that point forth that I would focus on the world of food and nutrition.
What is your favorite part of your job?
Reading, talking and thinking about food all day!
What career would you choose if you had an opportunity to switch jobs for one day?
I heard Professional Cat Cuddler is a thing now. I can provide many references.
How do you stay organized at work?
I keep multiple to-do lists that I organize by deadline. Stop by my desk and you’ll see a variety of sticky notes in different colors. It may look disorganized, but there is a method to my madness. I also organize my notes for each client into separate notebooks, making sure to include the date on each page so I can easily reference past conversations when needed. My husband thinks I’m so old-fashioned with my paper notebooks and planners, but you have to find out what works for you. Tips and tricks for staying organized are a nice idea but if you can’t put them into practice, they are useless.
One thing people are surprised to learn about me is:
I was a cheerleader in high school. I don’t know why everyone is always so surprised by this, but they are. I know I can be very serious and introverted at times, but I also love encouraging those around me and watching them succeed. Go team!