Student Spotlight
Penny Fauber-Moore, Ph.D. in Holistic Nutrition Candidate
For the last 17 years, Penny Fauber-Moore, RN, has worked as a nurse educator. Her life-long interest in nutrition evolved into a real hunger to learn about holistic nutrition after pregnancy triggered gestational diabetes.
And then…
“We have a family history of coronary artery disease as well as diabetes. When I was diagnosed with heart disease in my early 40s I knew, as a nurse, that the standard medical interventions would only go so far. So I started focusing on complementary alternative methods, initially to avoid progression of the disease.”
When Penny decided to further her education, a search for online graduate programs in holistic nutrition led her to Clayton College.
Intrigued by our Master of Science in Holistic Nutrition program, she enjoyed the coursework and learning methodology enough to set her sights on advancing to the doctoral level.
“I am highly motivated, so the challenge of distance learning has been quite ‘do-able’ for me. Independent study fits my lifestyle, as a full-time nurse and teacher, with an active family life. The CCNH staff is supportive, and I am finding this to be the ideal education for my needs.”
Penny earned her M.S. degree in 2000, and is close to completing her Ph.D. Having finished all doctoral coursework, she is well into her dissertation.
Feeling healthier than ever before, she observes that her husband and teenage son are also reaping the health benefits. “Our mealtime philosophy has shifted from ‘Different can be good’ to ‘Different is usually better’,” she adds. She is pleased to report similar changes in attitude within the healthcare field.
“I find that modern nursing is becoming more attuned to nutrition in general, and holistic nutrition in particular. There is acceptance and a growing interest, and I can see that my students and their patients benefit from these approaches.”
These days Penny has plenty of opportunities to teach nutritional approaches to health, as School of Nursing Director with Stonewall Jackson Hospital and with Rockbridge County Schools, VA. Her CCNH dissertation is on Web-based methods of teaching children the hazards of junk food.
Somehow, this educator also finds time to work as a practitioner. “Working as a nursing nutritional consultant for a busy cardiology group, I speak from my own heart when telling patients what healthier food choices can do for them.
“Each client faces unique considerations, based on individual diagnoses and personal needs. That’s what makes holistic nutrition so rewarding – finding the most effective dietary choices and supplements for each person’s needs, not a cookie-cutter approach.”
It’s a message she also sends into the community, as guest speaker for her regional Diabetes Association and local Heart Association support groups.
Penny’s passion for holistic nutrition also touches future generations of nurses. For the past several years she has worked with Assessment Technologies Inc. in developing a nursing review book that helps new graduates prepare for their State Boards (RN licensing exams).
CCNH has shifted her approach to teaching and practicing nursing, she concludes, “from being a strictly traditional nurse in my thoughts and opinions of how nursing and medicine should treat patients, to a more modern nurse who knows the value of alternative and complementary therapies.”
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