Janice M. Dodds, where do I begin?  I met Jan, actually I saw Jan speak in 1992 to the incoming UNC Masters in Public Health Nutrition class after arriving home from a three-year stint with the U.S. Peace Corps.  I was ready to change the world, and Jan spoke about hunger in America.  Frankly, I was shocked.  I met with her after she greeted our class, as I was a Maternal and Child Health Trainee and Jan was my advisor.  Jan’s enthusiasm about learning, and all of the possibilities that she saw in me was infectious.  She described all kinds of courses that I could take and internships that I could participate in -- she was a wealth of knowledge and experience.  Her passion for vulnerable populations was evident in all of our conversations.  We learned in class about the controversy when the Society for Nutrition Education, for which Jan was the president, debated working with McDonald's on a Saturday morning commercial featuring Willie Munchright.  The whole class entered into the debate, and we began to slowly learn the complexities and paradoxes that the field of nutrition holds.

Over her career as a state public health nutritionist and as a faculty member, Jan has worked hard at issues of hunger, poverty, child care nutrition services, improving maternal and child health, community-based participatory research, food policy, and above all, on mentoring incoming public health nutritionists.  Jan was a pioneer when she designed and implemented an executive program for a Masters in Public Health Nutrition, having to rise above and jump over a number of hurdles that were put in her way, but ultimately 10 students were graduated.  Her love for mentoring and her concern about advancing the field of public health nutrition has driven her to succeed in these sometimes-daunting tasks.  When Jan became a full professor, she was so proud and relieved, and she quickly shared her success with her mentees saying that she “couldn’t have done it without us.”  Obviously she did, in a way she was saying that she did it for us.  In a period when public health nutrition practice is taking a back seat to research in many of our academic institutions, Jan became an example for us to follow.  As a role model, Jan focused on areas of research, prioritized mentoring, and always supported the practice of public health nutrition.  As a field, we struggle with integrating research and practice, but this integration must stay central to our collective learning.  Janice M. Dodds retires this year.  I encourage you all to sit down and talk with her, and get ideas of how we can be mentors for each other.  She remains my most important mentor.