Employers

Nutrition educators are employed by community-based organizations (including religious and civic groups, food banks, and related entities); tribal nations; local, state, and federal nutrition education and food assistance programs (including cooperative extension agencies and public health departments); home health care agencies; and colleges and universities that operate nutrition education programs. They also work for regional and international health organizations such as the World Health Organization’s Division of Family Health and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. Some are employed as private consultants.

Starting Out

College and high school students can learn about job openings by attending career fairs, checking out job leads provided by their school’s career centers, utilizing contacts made through internships or volunteer and part-time positions, using job-search sites such as LinkedIn, and by contacting potential employers directly to learn about available positions.

An experienced community nutrition educator with strong leadership abilities may be promoted to a supervisory position. Educators who pursue additional education may become program managers, who are responsible for overseeing their organization’s nutrition education program, hiring and managing staff, working with policy makers, and developing new programs or initiatives. Some educators choose to become high school health teachers or nutrition consultants, while others earn graduate degrees in order to be eligible to teach at the college level.

Read the Journal of Nutrition Education & Behavior (https://www.jneb.org) to learn more about the field.

Visit the following Web sites for job listings:

• https://jobs.sneb.org
• https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/nutrition-educator-jobs
• https://www.usajobs.gov
• https://publichealthjobs.org

Be willing to relocate—especially to rural areas. It may open more opportunities.