PNPG Grants and Awards

Outstanding Member of the Year

The Outstanding Member of the Year recognizes outstanding leadership contributions to pediatric nutrition and/or maternal and child health. The following are criteria for award selection: (1) PNPG membership for three or more years, and (2) outstanding service, accomplishments, and community outreach in pediatric nutrition or maternal and child health as exemplified by research, publication, or program development. Nominate a deserving colleague for this award. The nomination should include a cover letter stating why the person is deserving of the award and curriculum vitae or resume that outline the nominee’s accomplishments and commitment to pediatric nutrition. Click here to submit an application.

Published Research Award

The award recognizes outstanding research in pediatric nutrition and/or maternal and child health by a PNPG member published in a peer-reviewed journal. Selection criteria are as follows: (1) PNPG membership for at least two years, (2) being first author or having a primary role in the research and manuscript development of a peer-reviewed publication during the previous calendar year describing research applied to pediatric nutrition and/or maternal and child health. The recipient will receive $500 and be recognized during the PNPG member meeting at FNCE. Click here to submit an application.

Research Grant Award

One PNPG Research Grant awards will provide $25,000 each to support research in the area of pediatric nutrition. Preference will be given to emerging researchers to encourage research within their institution. To be eligible for the grant, at least one of the investigators must be a member of PNPG. Data collection must be started within one year of the award. Any manuscripts or materials resulting from the supported research will credit PNPG with the support provided. Award recipients will be required to present a webinar to PNPG members and/or submit a report to Building Blocks for Life The funded project must receive Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects approval or granted exempt status before May 15^th of the year of application in order for funds to be distributed. Click here to submit an application.

Creative Nutrition Education Award

Eligibility criteria for this award are as follow: (1) applicants must be PNPG members for at least two years prior to applying;(2) the educational approach is used in the practice where the applicant is affiliated or will be implemented within a year of receipt of award, (3) applicants may not win the award more than once in a three-year period; and (4) a commercial firm or a national organization may not have developed the education approach. To be considered for the award, the applicant should prepare a summary or outline of no more than two typewritten pages describing the project (objective, methods, budget, and effectiveness/evaluation). Applicants will be considered for this award based on originality, appropriateness, quality of content, pediatric nutrition application, effectiveness, learner participation, and aesthetics and technical quality (for tools only). The recipient will receive $500 and be recognized during the PNPG member meeting at FNCE. Click here to submit an application.

Recognized Neonatal RDN Award

The Recognized Neonatal RDN Award recognizes clinical, research, education, and service contributions to the area of neonatal nutrition. The following are criteria for award selection: (1) Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (2) Employment in a level 3 or 4 NICU setting equivalent to >10,000 hours. (3) PNPG member for at least program year of nomination. Prior recipients of this award are not eligible to apply. Nominate a deserving colleague for this award. The nomination should include a curriculum vitae or resume of the person you are nominating that outlines their accomplishments and commitment to neonatal nutrition. Nomination must also include a letter of sponsorship from the nominee’s institution from an RDN or professional contact outside the field of dietetics which includes specific examples of the nominee’s accomplishments. Self nominations are accepted. Click here to submit an application.

Dietetic Internship/Pre-Professional Scholarship

PNPG is again proud to offer the Dietetic Internship/Pre-Professional Scholarship to current members who are enrolled in an ACEND-accredited program (Dietetic Internship, Future Education Model Graduate Program, or Coordinated Master’s Program). The scholarship is for those intending to pursue a career in pediatric nutrition after completion of their current training program and will be awarded for the 2022-2023 academic year. The amount of the scholarship is $1000. Awardees will be connected with the PNPG mentoring committee to provide tools on how to seek out pediatric experience. Qualifications: (1) Intent to pursue a career in pediatric nutrition after completion of the current program; (2) Member of PNPG.  Preference will be given to a candidate with pediatric experience. Click here to submit an application.

2024-2025 Award Winners

Research Grant Award

Congratulations to Wan Shen, PhD, RDN, LD who was selected to receive the PNPG Research Grant Award for her research titled “The Impact of Diet on Gut Health and Building Tolerance Post Oral Food Challenge in Children.” This research will investigate the impact of diet, through the reintroduction of food, on the diversity of the gut microbiota composition and functional changes, while ensuring food tolerance among children who had successful oral food challenges. Dr. Shen is an Assistant professor in the Department of Public and Allied Health at Bowling Green State University (BGSU). She is passionate about research in food allergies and believes optimal nutrition care for people with food allergies is extremely important. She teaches undergraduate courses in Food and Culture and Advanced Nutrition and graduate courses in Micronutrients and Special Topics. Dr. Shen is the winner of BGSU’s Elliot L. Blinn Award that recognizes innovative basic research/creative work conducted by individual faculty members in collaboration with undergraduate students. She is also the College of Health and Human Services’ Clyde R. Willis Faculty Development Award for her balanced performance of teaching, scholarship, and service, with particular emphasis on accomplishments in research. We congratulate her and her research team and look forward to seeing the results of her study!

Recognized Neonatal RDN

Congratulations to Clare McLaughlin, RDN, who was selected to receive the PNPG Recognized Neonatal RDN Award! Clare has been a member of AND and PNPG since 1982. Clare currently works as a neonatal and pediatric dietitian at Riley Children’s Hospital, Indiana University Health, a level IV NICU. Her expertise and experience include neonatal nutrition, and pediatric nutrition including malnutrition, neurological and muscular diseases, oncology, and gastrointestinal diseases. Clare is active in professional organizations and has held offices in Central Indiana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (CIAND), Indiana Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (IAND), and the Indiana Society of Enteral and Parenteral Nutrition (ISPEN). She is also an avid teacher and educator of neonatal nutrition. In addition to teaching dietetic interns, she teaches neonatal nutrition to physicians and residents and has won an award from The Riley Children’s pediatric residency program for non-md teaching, recognizing all the education on pediatric nutrition that she has done. Clare is extremely grateful to all her mentors, and for all the support she has received from PNPG. We congratulate Clare on her tremendous contribution to neonatal nutrition and improving the lives of preterm infants!

Published Research Award

Congratulations to Jennifer Lerman, MPH, RDN for receiving the Published Research Award for her publication titled “Evaluation of the Healthy Eating Index-Todders-2020.” This research is extremely important, as it demonstrates that the new HEI-Toddlers-2020 has similar validity and reliability metrics to the HEI for those over 2 years of age. Psychometric properties of any new tool must be tested for validity and reliability before it is used for research or in a clinical setting. Jennifer’s current research includes the identification of factors associated with the trajectory of diet quality in infants and toddlers in the United States, as well as the exploration of methodological solutions for utilizing dietary indices to track diet quality longitudinally over time. Currently, she is a program analyst in the Risk Factor Assessment Branch of the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute, where she collaborates with a team of scientists to develop, evaluate and utilize the 2015 and 2020 Healthy Eating Index, as well as the new Healthy Eating Index-Toddlers-2020. Congratulations to Jennifer and her colleagues on this important research publication which demonstrates the validity and reliability of the HEI-Toddlers-2020 so that researchers and clinicians alike can utilize this novel metric. 

Past PNPG's Recipients of Grants and Awards

(awarded in spring for next academic year)

(awarded in spring for next academic year)

Note: members whose names vary from Academy and PNPG membership information may have been unintentionally excluded from this list. If you have historical knowledge of past PNPG grant and award winners, please contact the Website Monitor at inquiriespnpg@gmail.com with corrections/additions.