B.S. in Dietetics and M.S. in Clinical Nutrition Alumna, Nutrition Lab Assistant

“The spice of life and Life U”

 

Born and raised in Iran, Fatemeh Aliahmadi trained and worked as a scrub nurse in a hospital in her home country for 10 years. However, she wasn’t just satisfied to go with the flow of her work. Aliahmadi was “always eager to learn,” so she went back to school while she was working in the hospital and graduated with her B.S. in French Literature.

Later on, Aliahmadi married and immigrated to the United States in 2000. Fast forward to 2009, she became a staff member for Life University (Life U) with the title of Nutrition Lab Assistant. Aliahmadi has always enjoyed and thrived in the academic and higher education environments, so being able to work at Life U in the Nutrition Department was a perfect fit.

“It goes back to my roots because I grew up with all the spice and herbs, which in our culture is very important. The thing that I love about Life University is that it is holistic and very close to our culture,” Aliahmadi said.

And through tuition assistance afforded to employees, Aliahmadi also achieved her B.S. in Dietetics and M.S. in Clinical Nutrition at Life U, gaining relevant skills and knowledge that help her continue to do great work for the University and beyond. She began to formulate a richer understanding of how food and nutrition can act as a form of medicine, when appropriate.

“With common disease like cold or flu, we [at home] always treated with medicinal herbs and spices before we would go to a doctor. So that was interesting because [Life U’s holistic approach] goes back to our roots,” Aliahmadi said.

“When I came here and studied about the spices, herbs and the science background of what we eat, I can now reconnect them together. I would use these things regularly, but I didn’t know the science behind it.”

Culture, food and nutrition are an ever-changing recipe that must constantly be balanced for personal health and well-being. It is Aliahmadi’s job to assist students in their educational journeys as they strive to learn the science of nutrition and how to use that knowledge to further their career paths in a holistic manner. Day-to-day, this takes many different forms, such as purchasing ingredients, assisting professors in cooking demonstrations and helping to run nutritional diagnostic lab testing for learning and demonstration purposes, as well as showing students how it works.

It’s clear when Aliahmadi speaks about her time at Life U that she is proud of her work and enjoys the connections that she has made here.

“I love the friendship; I love all my colleagues and friends here. We are very close to each other and share our ideas. As a unit, we serve the community,” Aliahmadi said.

 

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