You are what you eat. We've all heard this saying. In fact, eating well helps to reduce the risk of physical health problems like heart disease and diabetes. If you want to be one of the key drivers in improving the health of others, a good way to do that would be to become a nutrition educator.
Nutrition educators promote health by teaching nutrition techniques and designing nutrition education programs. They work in a variety of settings, including colleges, corporations, hospitals, long-term care facilities, outpatient clinics, and community centers. To do their jobs, these educators need to have a thorough understanding of human nutrition, physiology, and metabolism, along with public health.
As a nutrition educator, you'll have a chance to implement and market nutrition education programs and services, assess family and patient nutritional needs, and work one-on-one and in group settings to educate at-risk patients about nutrition.
If you're interested in becoming a nutrition educator, you'll need to obtain a Bachelor's degree, preferably in nutrition, nutrition science, dietetics, or a related field. Many positions also require a graduate degree, such as a Master of Science in Nutritional Science.
How to Become a Nutrition Educator
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a nutrition educator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $15.95 an hour? That's $33,185 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 155,000 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Nutrition Educator Do
There are certain skills that many nutrition educators have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed critical-thinking skills, writing skills and interpersonal skills.
How To Become a Nutrition Educator
If you're interested in becoming a nutrition educator, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 73.7% of nutrition educators have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 11.3% of nutrition educators have master's degrees. Even though most nutrition educators have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a nutrition educator. When we researched the most common majors for a nutrition educator, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or master's degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on nutrition educator resumes include associate degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a nutrition educator. In fact, many nutrition educator jobs require experience in a role such as internship. Meanwhile, many nutrition educators also have previous career experience in roles such as volunteer or research assistant.
Nutrition Educator Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a nutrition educator can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as clinical dietitian, progress to a title such as consultant and then eventually end up with the title assistant principal.
Average Salary for a Nutrition Educator
What Am I Worth?
Top Colleges for Nutrition Educators
1. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
2. Ohio State University
Columbus, OH • Private
3. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Private
4. University of Washington
Seattle, WA • Private
5. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI • Private
6. University of Maryland - College Park
College Park, MD • Private
7. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
8. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
9. New York University
New York, NY • Private
10. University of Florida
Gainesville, FL • Private
Top Skills For a Nutrition Educator
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 10.4% of nutrition educators listed public health on their resume, but soft skills such as critical-thinking skills and writing skills are important as well.
Choose From 10+ Customizable Nutrition Educator Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Nutrition Educator templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Nutrition Educator resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Nutrition Educator Demographics
Nutrition Educator Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among nutrition educators, 87.9% of them are women, while 12.1% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among nutrition educators is White, which makes up 69.1% of all nutrition educators.
- The most common foreign language among nutrition educators is Spanish at 61.0%.
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Best States For a Nutrition Educator
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a nutrition educator. The best states for people in this position are Oregon, Utah, Alaska, and Hawaii. Nutrition educators make the most in Oregon with an average salary of $64,524. Whereas in Utah and Alaska, they would average $60,042 and $55,142, respectively. While nutrition educators would only make an average of $53,990 in Hawaii, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Alaska
$55,142
Avg. Salary
2. Washington
$52,217
Avg. Salary
3. Nevada
$49,115
Avg. Salary
How Do Nutrition Educator Rate Their Jobs?
Top Nutrition Educator Employers
Most Common Employers For Nutrition Educator
| Rank  | Company  | Average Salary  | Hourly Rate  | Job Openings  |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of Saint Joseph | $59,808 | $28.75 | 6 |
| 2 | Washington State University | $43,267 | $20.80 | 6 |
| 3 | University of Wisconsin System | $43,024 | $20.68 | 22 |
| 4 | Harlem Children's Zone | $37,011 | $17.79 | 13 |
| 5 | The Food Trust | $36,742 | $17.66 | 9 |
| 6 | Adagio Health | $34,781 | $16.72 | 9 |
| 7 | LA State University Continuing | $34,650 | $16.66 | 26 |
| 8 | Florida Dept. of Health | $33,185 | $15.95 | 43 |
| 9 | University of Florida | $33,185 | $15.95 | 19 |
| 10 | Ramsey County | $33,185 | $15.95 | 17 |