UA’s Garner to Receive American Dietetic Association’s Highest Award

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Margaret Pipkin Garner, assistant dean for health education and outreach in The University of Alabama College of Community Health Sciences, has been named the 2011 recipient of the American Dietetic Association’s highest honor, the Marjorie Hulsizer Copher Award.

Garner will receive the Copher Award on Sept. 24 at the opening session of ADA’s Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo in San Diego, Calif. An ADA member since 1971, Garner is a leading authority on nutrition education for physicians, residents and medical students, and the training and mentoring of registered dietitians.

The Marjorie Hulsizer Copher Award is named for an early 20th-century pioneer in dietetics who was recognized by the British and French governments for her service in World War I and was chief dietitian at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis. After her death, a gift from her husband to ADA established the award in her honor.

In addition to serving as an assistant dean at UA, Garner is the director of health promotion and wellness at the student health center, director of nutrition and education services in the department of family medicine, and an adjunct assistant professor in the department of human nutrition and hospitality management’s coordinated dietetics program.

Garner helped establish and was the first chair of the Alabama Food and Nutrition Exposition, a unique partnership of the Alabama Dietetic Association, Alabama Dietary Managers Association and Alabama School Nutrition Association.

Garner is a graduate of Georgia Southern College. She began her career in education first as a UA instructor and then as an assistant professor in what is now the UA College of Human Environmental Sciences.

The American Dietetic Association is the world’s largest organization of food and nutrition professionals. For more information on the ADA, go to www.eatright.org.