How To Become A Public Health Dietitian: What It Is and Career Path

What is a public health dietitian and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

John Coupland Ph.D.,

Janet Colson Ph.D.

A public health dietitian is a dietitian who uses their nutritional expertise to design food plans for the public instead of working with individual clients. Like any other dietitian, a public health dietitian is knowledgeable about nutrition and different diets. They use their knowledge to influence public policy or create diet plans for specific populations. For example, a public health dietitian could work with a school district to create healthy school lunches, develop a diabetes educational program targeting low-income communities, or work with local government leaders to address community health issues. Public health dietitians need to be excellent communicators to teach about complex nutritional topics in an accessible way. They also need to be passionate about helping people improve their health.

Like any other dietitian, a public health dietitian needs to have a bachelor's or a master's degree in dietetics. They also need to be licensed by the state to practice as dietitians.

To specialize in public health, a public health dietitian could take additional courses in health education or look for relevant internships. With some relevant experience on their resume, a public health dietitian can earn $52,761 a year.

What general advice would you give to a public health dietitian?

John Coupland Ph.D.

Professor of Food Science; Undergraduate Program Coordinator Chair of the Ingredients as Materials Impact Group, Pennsylvania State University

First, keep learning. You have a good background in the vital science, now you need to make it work in your particular job, and that's going to be a learning curve that never ends. Second, keep connections and make new ones. The industry is a relatively small world, and you're going to keep coming across the same people in different roles as you move through your career. Stay connected with your peer group, and grow your network through mentor programs and professional society meetings.

ScorePublic Health DietitianUS Average

Salary

4.8

Avg. Salary $60,855

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.2

Growth rate 7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.87%

Asian 9.18%

Black or African American 9.56%

Hispanic or Latino 11.55%

Unknown 3.68%

White 65.16%

Gender

female 94.85%

male 5.15%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

7.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

9.8

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.9

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a public health dietitian

Explore public health dietitian education requirements

Most common public health dietitian degrees

Bachelor's

71.2 %

Master's

22.9 %

Certificate

3.4 %

Start to develop specific public health dietitian skills

Skills	Percentages
Public Health	28.39%
Patients	14.61%
WIC Program	7.49%
Nutrition Services	4.85%
Medical Nutrition Therapy	4.59%

Complete relevant public health dietitian training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New public health dietitians learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a public health dietitian based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real public health dietitian resumes.

Research public health dietitian duties and responsibilities

Manage the anemia status of patients by reviewing necessary lab data and initiating or adjusting medication doses.
Partner with certify diabetes educator on consulting gestational diabetic patients on glucose monitors and diabetic eating guidelines.
Provide diabetes education to community groups.
Implement and develop diabetes information newsletters.

Get public health dietitian experience

Generally, it takes 1-2 years to become a public health dietitian. The most common roles before becoming a public health dietitian include clinical dietitian, dietitian team lead and dietetic internship.

Prepare your public health dietitian resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your public health dietitian resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a public health dietitian resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable public health dietitian resume templates

Build a professional public health dietitian resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your public health dietitian resume.

Apply for public health dietitian jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a public health dietitian job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do public health dietitians rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Public health dietitian reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2022

Cons

No room for upward mobility in most healthcare areas. Pay is bad. Still the lowest paid healthcare professionals for the amount of education required to become a RDN. For that much education better off becoming a PA or RN that becomes a NP.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020