Today we chat with Angela Tella who is a registered dietitian, life coach, and author. Although Angela started her journey in Medicine, she recognised that she would be more effective in Nutrition & Dietetics, where food could be a part of medicine.
Why is diversity important in Nutrition & Dietetics?
Angela Tella, RD
Where you can find her:
Facebook: @AngelaTellaRD
Instagram: @angelatella1
Twitter: @angelatella1
Websites: angelatella.com | www.illuminalifestyle.com
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your current role?
I am the founder and principal consultant at Illumina Lifestyle Consulting. We provide nutrition consultancy, media & speaker services, training, healthcare, ethnic services and workplace nutrition & health services to organisations. We also work with individuals to help them achieve their nutrition, health and wellbeing goals. I studied at King’s College London and my areas of interest include healthcare catering, ethnic-specific health & wellbeing and wellness coaching.
When did you first know you wanted to pursue nutrition and dietetics?
I was encouraged to pursue Nutrition & Dietetics by a tutor when I realised that a degree in Medicine wasn’t for me. Interestingly I still had to study medicine as part of my degree!
What’s your favourite meal, snack or drink?
That’s a difficult question – I have many favourites!
What are your thoughts on diversity in N&D?
In the UK, there is still a long way to go to ensure ethnic diversity in the dietetic profession. Ethnic diversity needs to begin at the top of the profession and on boards of professional associations in order to subsequently drive ethnic diversity across the rest of the profession. Additionally, there is a need to move beyond tokenism to actually valuing professionals from ethnic minority backgrounds for their contributions as well as acknowledging that the negative experiences they have had are valid and very real. Finally, there needs to be a genuine move away from just trying to be seen to promote ethnic diversity to taking actual, effective action to make the necessary changes happen.
Black or Blue ink pens?
Blue for personal use but I have to use black for official documentation.
If you could summarise your career as a nutrition professional in 3 words, what would they be?
People, Mentoring and Excellence.
What advice would you give to black youth considering nutrition & dietetics as a career?
Always be professional and never apologise for being good at what you do or for being in a room. Also seek out mentors who believe in you and from whom you can learn.
