We are excited to introduce you to EDRDpro member, Elizabeth Davenport, MPH, RDN, LD! You can connect with Elizabeth on Facebook @sunnysideupnutritionists or @pinneydavenportnutrition, on Twitter @SunnySideUpNutr, on Instagram @sunnysideupnutritionists or @pinneydavenportnutrition. 

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If you didn’t do what you do professionally, what other job or field would you have pursued, and why?

I cooked and baked professionally for a long time between undergraduate and graduate school. I still love to cook and bake.

With the blog I co-own with Anna Lutz, MPH, RD, LDN, CEDRD-S, called Sunny Side Up Nutrition, I am now doing a lot of the things related to cooking and baking that I had begun to miss working in private practice. While I was still cooking professionally, I went through I phase where I wanted to be a food writer (I think I wrote two articles!). I wanted to work for someone like Sarah Moulton who was the chef at Gourmet Magazine at the time.

Just for fun, tell us something most people don’t know about you!

I was a professional line cook and baker for about seven years before going to graduate school to get my Masters of Public Health in Nutrition and become a Registered Dietitian.

Where do you work?

On the days I’m working on Sunny Side Up Nutrition, I work from home and develop recipes, take photos, and post on social media.  Anna and my goal is to provide sound, practical nutrition and cooking advice to families. We want to guide people to feel empowered to promote positive relationships with food and bodies in their homes.

I also co-own Pinney Davenport Nutrition, a group private practice in Washington DC, where I specialize in treating eating disorders and family feeding concerns.

What do you enjoy most about what you do?

I wear so many hats with both jobs! A few things I love about my work around Sunny Side Up Nutrition are reaching so many people we don’t reach in our office and empowering parents in feeding their children. I also love the creativity and collaboration with Anna!

At Pinney Davenport Nutrition, I enjoy being part of a group of like-minded dietitians. I appreciate that all of us in the practice are guiding our clients toward making peace with food.

Why eating disorders treatment? What drives you?

Connecting with others and guiding them toward freedom, peace and joy around food.

Who are your favorite social media influencers in the non-diet, recovery, body liberation space?

There are so many people doing great work out there these days. Maria Peredes @with_this_body, Anna Sweeny @dietitiananna, Haley Goodrich @hgoodrichrd, Christy Harrison @chr1styharrison, Fiona Sutherland @themindfuldietian, Marci Evans @marcird, and Virginia Sole-Smith @v_solesmith are some of my favorites.

What are your favorite books and resources that have made a difference in the way you work?

First, EDRDpro is an incredible resource!  We are lucky to have so much information and support available here.

What I learned in graduate school was very grounded in diet culture. Reading Ellyn Satter’s books, Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Evelyn Resch, and Linda Bacon’s books shortly after graduating are what really opened my eyes to how I want to work with and support my clients. This been an evolution for me as opposed to a single ah-ha moment. My favorite books and other resources are:

• Jessica Setnick’s Eating Disorder Boot Camp and Molly Kellogg’s Counseling Intensive: I took these two courses together 13 or 14 years ago. They were instrumental in how I worked and still work with clients.
• Life Without ED by Jenni Schaefer
• Intuitive Eating by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch
• Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon
• Body Respect by Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramour
• Love Me, Feed Me by Katja Rowell.
• There are also some wonderful podcasts out there. Christy Harrison’s Food Psych and Julie Duffy Dillon’s Love, Food are two of my favorites.

In my mind, the most important resource is working with an experienced dietitian for supervision at all stages of your career.

What is one non-diet, Intuitive Eating, or Health at Every Size® pearl of wisdom you’d like to share? 

This isn’t a pearl of wisdom, but it’s incredible that there are so many dietitians (and others) spreading accurate, non-diet, Intuitive Eating, HAES, and fat positive messages out there. It often feels like we’re always swimming against the tide, but the tide is definitely shifting!