This July, we spoke with Alicia Fogarty MS, RDN, CSSD, LDN,
based in the Charlotte, North Carolina area.
Primarily, Alicia provides sports nutrition intervention and education
to high school athletes through a partnership between Atrium Health (formerly
Carolinas Healthcare System) and Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools. She also offers support to other area high
schools and middle schools in which Atrium provides Athletic Training coverage.
Finally, Alicia assists with providing community nutrition intervention and
education to support another dietitians on her team.
What is your
educational background and how long have you been an RD?
My undergraduate degree
is from Ithaca College with a major in exercise science and a minor nutrition.
I obtained my masters in clinical nutrition at NYU and became a registered
dietitian in 1997. I also became a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics in
July 2013.
How did you
achieve your position/ how did you get started with your current position?
I have been working
with Atrium Health for the last ten years. Initially my position was contracted
with the YMCA’s of Greater Charlotte to provide nutrition education and support
to all the Y locations in the area. We provided services including sports
nutrition education, and I used these to earn part of my CSSD hour minimum. It
took the first five years to obtain the hours. Our team began providing sports
nutrition education during a yearly event, Heart of a Champion Day, which
offers sports physicals, a cardiac evaluation, and at minimum, 12 lead EKG
evaluation. I worked closely with our sports medicine team to provide sports nutrition
education and intervention to any athlete they deemed necessary.
In January of 2016, my
position evolved from only working at YMCA to contracting with Charlotte
Mecklenburg Schools. It was my goal to introduce sports nutrition into this
population as I saw it as a community wellness and sports nutrition initiative.
What key areas
of knowledge/experiences did you need to have before this job?
During our transition, I
continued to take CEU’s on sports nutrition and began learning what I could
from respected resources on adolescence and adolescent athlete nutrition. The
sports nutrition care manual gave a general review of age group guidelines that
was helpful. Fellow sports dietitians are always a great resource. I have used
Tavis Piatolly and Heather Mangieri to name a few resources.
What are the
highs and lows of your position?
For nutrition
intervention, generally, it is a thankless job because you may see a client/patient
once or twice depending on the structure of your job. Since my team and I are located at schools,
we are beginning to gain more visibility, and student athletes are coming up to
me and saying, “Wow, this actually works!” They are gaining muscle, having
energy at the right times, and having many other positive responses. Also, we are trying to do something that is
not available in many areas, which is provide sports nutrition coverage to
athletes as part of the medical team, essentially providing a service that if
obtained privately, would be fee based.
Battling misinformation
is the biggest low! With many public/community-based
education programs, people obtain information from the internet, and this age
group in particular is very in tune with social media resources. Often times,
the social media voice is the loudest voice they are listening to, not
necessarily the correct voice. We try to meet the students where they are, but
it is a slow process. We are also
working against years and years of coaches and parents providing information
and resources themselves, and some of that information is not accurate.
What is a
typical day for you?
Our department, in
general, is less than typical, but usually, the morning is reserved for
clerical/paperwork type activities. That may consist of developing programs,
reviewing food journals, and checking email. My afternoon, starting around 1 pm, is when we
are in the schools. We try to get to our
primary schools around 2pm to talk with the ATC’s, coaches, etc. since school
lets out around this time. Once the students are out of school, we host a
session or group with a specific team. This can include what we refer to
“sports nutrition rounding,” which is when we are available for Q and A for any
athlete, coach, or parent wanting to ask questions. On busy days, we may have multiple teams or
schools to attend.
What advice
would you share with an RD (or RD2be) that is interested in a similar career
path?
Since I had a very
roundabout way to become a sports dietitian, I wish I had a great answer. In general, do not hold back from realizing
what drives you and what you are passionate about. I had a passion for helping student athletes
become the best version of themselves and wish I had that guidance when I was
their age. Because of my interests, it
led me to look at ways to provide those services to our area student
athletes. As an RD/RD2Be, if working
with high school athletes interests you, connect with the coaches and trainers
to see what their needs are and see what types of relationships you can
form.
What is your
greatest strength/weakness as a dietitian?
I love what I do and try to be empathetic to each person I
work with in their goals to become whatever they define as healthy. What works for one person may not work for
another. I feel that I do well with
helping each person as an individual.
For this population, I feel I can relate to them in that I have been in
their shoes, wanting to be a collegiate athlete, and doing whatever it takes to
achieve that.
A weakness is I talk too fast. I also feel that sometimes I
can’t stay ahead of the newest developments in science and nutrition, but I try
to read as much as I can to avoid falling behind on the evidence.
What are some of your
interests outside of work?
I enjoy reading, exercise, cooking, art, soccer, and family time. I have
a husband, 4 kids, and 2 golden retrievers.
What aspect of sports
nutrition interested you to pursue it as a career/ decided to work with athletes or similar groups?
I played college soccer and had challenges with injuries and weight gain
my first 2 years, so I did not see the playing time I wanted. My junior year, I took my first nutrition
class as I explored through my liberal arts program (originally went to school
for Art), and it all clicked. It made
sense, I improved, became a starter for our team, and I knew what I wanted to
do with my career.
Prior to getting your
credentials, did you have any experience in nutrition (ie. food service,
volunteering, etc.)?
No, originally I went to school for art and ended up a dietitian. I also come from an Italian family and LOVE
food and cooking.
What do you love about your
career/job?
Our team is fantastic, and I have had the most amazing experiences as we
have evolved and grown over the past 10 years.
I love that I am now able to put my passion into practice.
Is there a course you took in
undergrad or grad school that has helped you in your current role?
I feel like I draw on my counseling classes often. Of course, they are all important, but the
ability to connect with people is so important in our field.
What are some
of the unique nutritional considerations you must consider for the group(s) you
work with?
When we first started this program, I was asked why I was educating the
“healthy kids” since we were focusing on a subset of high school students. I have never encountered a group of people in
my life that have worse eating habits as a whole as high school athletes. Teenagers are prone to transitioning to
making their own choices about food compared to that of a younger child, and in
today’s society, unhealthy food has never been more accessible than it is now.
They can have it delivered to the school if they want! They are also notorious for not eating
anything either for breakfast or both breakfast and lunch for a variety of
reasons, and it does not matter who or where I am talking to athletes, at least
50% of them don’t eat enough. The reality is only 6 – 8% of high school student
athletes will continue on playing sports in college competitively. We also see this as a way to help those 95%
of athletes not making that transition to learn how to become healthier eaters
overall, which will hopefully shape their health and wellness patterns in the
future.
