Associate Professor of Practice, Nutritional Sciences
Ashlee Linares-Gaffer is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and an Associate Professor of Practice. She is committed to fostering inclusive classrooms and learning opportunities for students and integrates experiential learning to build students' leadership and soft skills. She currently teaches graduate courses focused on agriculture and food systems, professional ethics, leadership, cultural responsiveness, and dietetics job readiness in the Professional Science Masters in Applied Nutrition. In 2019, she was accepted into the 2nd cohort 2019-2020) of the Hispanic Serving Institution Fellows, a program which is aimed at developing “the scope and depth of work around our HSI designation and provide a venue for community-building and career development for faculty and staff through a project-based leadership experience, mentoring and coaching, and a series of targeted workshops. Ashlee is currently a Project Director on 3 USDA Grants, including 2 Hispanic Serving Institution Education Program grants located in Yuma, AZ, and a Multicultural Scholars Program grant based out of Tucson, AZ in partnership with the Tucson Village Farm. Her professional experience includes undergraduate teaching and mentoring, post baccalaureate internship coordination, academic advising, supervision and management, designing and implementing student recruitment and retention initiatives.
Ashlee Linares-Gaffer and Kayle Skorupski, both Registered Dietitian Nutritionists and Associate Professors of Practice at the University of Arizona, have been awarded a grant by the USDA for the 'NOURISH' project. This initiative aims to:
- Provide experiential learning in agriculture and food systems to Nutritional Sciences students pursuing dietetics or other FANH professions.
- Address the lack of formal food systems education and mentoring in the curriculum by offering ongoing culturally responsive mentoring, leadership workshops, and professional organization involvement.
- Enable students to complete eight units of experiential learning focused on food systems, extension, and food science and safety.
- Address the challenges of access to graduate and professional school preparation and mentoring, as well as the complex issue of malnutrition through increased access to healthy and sustainable diets.