For more than 20 years, Midwest Dairy has partnered with Dr. Linda Snetselaar through the Midwest Dairy Endowed Professorship at the University of Iowa. This long-standing investment continues to make an impact by helping future physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, and public health professionals understand the connection between nutrition science and the foods patients eat every day – including dairy.
Over the past year, Dr. Snetselaar has taught graduate and undergraduate students across the University of Iowa’s College of Public Health, Carver College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, and College of Nursing. She also works with students preparing for careers in medicine, physical therapy, exercise physiology, and biological sciences.
Many of her students are already preparing for careers in health care, creating an opportunity for nutrition education to influence patient care for years to come.
In her courses, Dr. Snetselaar focuses on more than the latest nutrition research. She helps students understand how that research translates into practical food choices that support health. Students examine the role of nutrition in preventing and managing chronic disease while learning how foods produced by Midwest farmers, including dairy, can be incorporated into patient counseling through evidence-based recommendations.
Interest in her courses continues to grow. In Fall 2024, 36 graduate students enrolled in Nutrition in Public Health. When the course returns in Fall 2026, enrollment has already increased to 45 students. During Spring 2026, Dr. Snetselaar also taught four graduate-level courses covering nutrition policy, nutrition epidemiology, and clinical nutrition interventions, reaching nearly 60 additional student enrollments.
Her classes give students the opportunity to learn from real-world research and experiences. Drawing on more than a half-dozen National Institutes of Health-funded clinical trials, her service on the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and her leadership as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, Dr. Snetselaar helps students see how sound nutrition science can translate into better patient outcomes.
That influence extends beyond the University of Iowa. Dr. Snetselaar has served on National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine review groups examining topics including alcohol and health and the role of artificial intelligence in nutrition. As AI becomes a more common source of health information, she has worked to ensure dairy foods are accurately represented in evidence-based responses. She brings those experiences back into the classroom, giving students a broader understanding of how nutrition information is developed and communicated.
Looking ahead, Dr. Snetselaar is preparing presentations for University of Iowa Endocrine Grand Rounds and expanding nutrition education within the university’s medical student learning communities. She also collaborates with researchers at institutions including Harvard and Tufts universities, helping advance nutrition research that considers whole foods, not simply individual nutrients, and appropriately represents dairy’s role.
The Midwest Dairy Endowed Professorship demonstrates how dairy checkoff investments can create lasting impact beyond the farm. By supporting nutrition education for more than two decades, Midwest Dairy and dairy farmers are helping prepare the next generation of health care professionals to have informed conversations about food, nutrition, and dairy. That investment is not only reaching students today, but it has the potential to influence the patients and communities they will serve for decades to come.