Angelina Caradonna
Work Experience
The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Currently I am employed at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, where I am a Clinical Research Assistant at the Institute for Behavioral Medicine Research, in Dr. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser's Stress & Health Lab. I provide support with organization, execution, and maintenance of stress and health studies, with an emphasis on a particular research study involving marriage/ long term relationships in the impact of the gut microbiome, cancer, and nutrition. My primary responsibilities include working on the front end of research, by interacting with participants, though recruitment, eligibility screens, scheduling visit appointments, leading visits in data collection, and follow up correspondence.
I also work behind the scenes in developing protocols, supervising undergraduate students, and act prominently in the lab's data entry.
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One major role I have is overseeing nutrition data entry into the NDSR (Nutrition Data System for Research) database. This includes entry of 24 hour diet recalls from our participants based on macro & micro nutrients, and caloric level. I train undergraduates and staff in this entry process and conduct a quality assurance statuses to assure accuracy. From this data I create diet reports from the specific food recalls the subject completed, which include how their average food group intake compares to the USDA MyPlate guidelines. I also train undergraduates and staff on conducting the participant food recalls, and have implemented strategies to ensure data validity. This includes creating serving size guidelines and working with the Clinical Research Center's Dietitian in utilizing the NDSR Food Amounts Binder.
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Children's Hunger Alliance
Children's Hunger Alliance is an Ohioan non-profit organization with headquarters located in Columbus, focused on their core purpose of "ensuring that children without access receive healthy food, nutrition education and physical activity." They are the largest sponsor of home-based child care providers in Ohio, providing meals and snacks to children. They increase easy access to nutritious food by helping guide school breakfast programs and assisting Ohio Summer Food Service sponsors by providing meals and snacks at summer feeding locations.
During that summer I worked as a Nutrition and Physical Activity educator, teaching children aged five to thirteen lessons about healthy food and exercise. Monday through Friday I went to St. John's Community Kitchen and Moler Elementary Summer Camp on the south side of Columbus, to teach and play with the kids. The number of children at these sites ranges daily from 1 child to 70 children a day. I developed my own lesson plans based on the CATCH program, incorporating themes such as MyPlate and Go Slow Whoa. This experience opened my eyes to food insecurity and sparked my interest in community nutrition, where I saw directly how nutrition education can not only positively influence one person, but can better a whole family.
Miami University Demske Culinary Support Center (CSC)
Miami University's Demske Culinary Support Center is known as the "mastermind" behind all the dining halls on Miami's campus. This job allowed me to wear many hats as a Dietetic student worker. I operated CBORD Food Service Suite (FSS) to update and manage information regarding food items and recipes in the dining halls. I aided in accommodating students with diet restrictions by planning and purchasing special food items suited to their needs, including students with celiac, galactosemia, and kosher items. In collaborating with fellow student employees, we developed events and themed meals for the dining halls such as Homecoming and Chinese New Year. Through this job I have learned firsthand how a large food establishment works, having moved up from working in the dining halls to working in CSC.
Old Bag of Nails Pub
At this Irish pub-restaurant in Columbus, I worked as a server. Through this job I learned how to serve customers not only though waitressing and hosting, but how to address their needs through developing listening and communication skills. I discovered the nuts-and-bolts of food service, and experienced a "behind the scenes" look into what keeps a restaurant flowing.
Miami University Dining Halls (Harris & Bell Tower)
Through working in Harris and Bell Tower dining halls my freshman and sophomore year as a student employee, I prepared various food items for customers ranging from sushi to coffee. I learned the importance of maintaining and regulating proper food storage, by regulating temperature every two hours. This experience allowed me to move up in Miami's dining hall services, where I was later hired to work as a Dietetic student employee at the Demske Culinary Support Center.
Figlio's Wood Fried Pizza
At Figlio's Wood Fried Pizza restaurant in Columbus, I worked as a table busser and dishwasher. In this experience I learned how to work under a chef and carry out proper kitchen sanitation methods. I also learned how a small business food service establishment is run.