Feed Your Career

CAREER CHANGE SUCCESS STORY

Cynthia Ann Chandler, MS, RD, LD, CDM

Instructor in the Culinary Division of the National Center for Hospitality at Sullivan University

I am a registered dietitian and have been for years but did not practice for 15 years. I was an office manager for my husband's (at the time ) medical practice and after a divorce went back into dietetics. It has been invigorating as a career and has allowed me to bounce back relatively fast.

My Full Career Change Story:

I had always worked either in clinical nutrition as a research assistant focusing on diabetes primarily. My jobs have always been wonderful and flexible. The two physicians I worked under treated me as colleagues and we always had a team approach to health care. After a 15 year hiatus for raising children, I was ready to re-enter the nutrition arena. Not knowing quite what to do first, I took a temporary position with the University of Louisville, working on a grant with the Division of Family Medicine. I was seeing patients and involved in education of medical students. The nutritionist who hired me once again gave me great flexibility in my work and we enjoyed working together for a short five months. I needed health care benefits at this junction in my life and had to make a decision if I was going to stay in health care or not. I knew there was a culinary school in Louisville and decided to give them a call. The director immediately asked me to come in for an interview. They just so happened to be opening a new division and needed additional faculty. I was told I could have the job if I could start right away. I took a quick vacation with my teens to the beach and came back for work. For almost four years I have been teaching nutrition and food safety to culinary and hospitality management students. It has been very different than past jobs but very fulfilling. It has also intrigued me enough to enroll in culinary classes! I have also been able to work with the wellness division of the university on outside the classroom projects.

This is not something that would have crossed my mind just out of a master's degree program in clinical nutrition years ago. It is just something that fits me at this point in my life. I enjoy my work and my involvement with my students very much and find that I can study and update myself as I work on my lectures.

Thank you for sharing Cynthia

Back to Career Change Now? article