Board members

Barb Benson, MS, RDN

Chair of Development

Barb Benson is proud to be Alice’s first essay award winner back in 1993 entitled, Fish Farming Project in Tanzania: Women’s Involvement as Key to Alleviating Hunger. While living in Tanzania she started a malnutrition program including the building of a better attendant’s kitchen at a rural hospital. Barb has lived throughout the world following her husband, an international civil engineer. After raising three children in Seoul, South Korea, Barb now resides in her hometown of Bozeman, MT. Currently she is a team member of the Gallatin Valley Packathon which provides shelf stable lunch packets to school children in a small village in Haiti (Future Forward for Haiti Project). She recently attended the December 2024 Global Forum of the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) in Osaka Japan with AWIN’s student travel recipient Lilly Smith.

Dixie Havlak, RDN

Co-Chair of Finance

Dixie Havlak is retired from 30 years as a dietitian in private practice. During that time she made eight trips to Latin America, working to train community health workers in key nutrition issues and providing them with Nutrition Training Kits that she devised. She is one of the founders of the Global Member Interest Group (GMIG) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics which focuses on improving nutritional status in regions with high burdens of malnutrition and nutritional crisis through sharing of information, resources, and ideas. Her interest lies in mobilizing others to volunteer and share their international experiences. Dixie and her husband have taken (and blogged “The Great Journey”) a nine-month 24,000 mile travel tour across the US to visit national parks and family in 37 states. Dixie lives in the Seattle area.

Diane Stadler, PhD, RDN

Co-Chair of Finance

Diane Stadler directs the Graduate Programs in Human Nutrition and the Dietetic Internship at Oregon Health & Science University. Her global work includes training communities in Zambia and Honduras to improve child growth, maternal health, and school meal programs. In Lao PDR, she and colleague Joanna Cummings, MS, RD, launched the Lao Nutrition Education & Research Initiative, which developed the country’s first hospital-based clinical nutrition specialists. Dr. Stadler has received recognition for her writing, including the Alice’s Essay Award in 2010 for work in Honduras and the 2017 award (with Cummings) for their project in Lao PDR. Together, they also earned the 2018 Transforming Vision into Action Award and were honored as Wimpfheimer-Guggenheim International Lecturers for their innovative global nutrition and dietetics collaborations.

Judy Beto, PhD, RDN

Secretary

Judith (Judy) Beto was one of Alice’s early winners (1994) of a Wimpfheimer-Guggenheim Fund for International Exchange in Nutrition, Dietetics, and Management essay for volunteer work in India. Since 1987, Judy has continued to travel and volunteer in the international arena sharing her expertise in chronic kidney disease dietary management. Judy is past-president of the International Affiliate of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (IAAND) which although based in the US serves to connect dietitians globally through resources and mentoring. Judy has also spent decades teaching within a Midwest university nutrition department which sought to acknowledge and integrate international nutrition degrees into Registered Dietitian credential education pathways. She echoes Alice’s belief that experiencing a culture is a true link to lifelong volunteering! Her long friendship with Alice has created the AWIN organization to provide a funding mechanism for international work and travel grants. Judy now resides in the Seattle area after “migrating” from Chicago in 2012 to follow her grandkids.

Laurie Sauerwein, MS, MScPH, RDN

President

Laurie Sauerwein, an international public health nutritionist has been volunteering and working food crisis settings for over 30 years with increasing commitment after retirement in 2019. As an outpatient medical nutrition therapy dietitian during her employment years, her clientele included many recent immigrants. She is one of the founding members of the Global Member Interest Group (GMIG) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics which focuses on improving nutritional status in regions with high burdens of malnutrition and nutritional crisis through sharing of information, resources, and ideas. She has a passion for mentoring Registered Dietitian Nutritionists involved in international work. Overseas, she has raised her family while teaching medical professionals and community health workers. She has also managed contracts for various relief organizations in complex food crisis emergencies both in the US and abroad. Laurie and her physician husband are currently living in Kenya doing a multi-year World Medical Mission Volunteer/Friends of Litein faith-based project.

Sue Landgren, MA, RDN

Chair of Distributions

Sue Landgren has been involved throughout her career and retirement in multi-cultural nutrition education of Spanish-speaking and Middle Eastern populations. Her experiences living on a Native American reservation and in Central America have been foundational in her continuing interest in multi-cultural health and nutrition education. Stateside, her career involved often working with multi-cultural and immigrant populations. She is one of the founding members of the Global Member Interest Group (GMIG) of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics which focuses on improving nutritional status in regions with high burdens of malnutrition and nutritional crisis through sharing of information, resources, and ideas. Sue has lived her adult life in Oregon, Costa Rica, British Columbia, Norway, Denmark and Washington. She and her husband run a popular Oregon cut-your-own Christmas tree farm. She currently resides in Gig Harbor, Washington, where she is a member of many community activities to include volunteering at the local Food Bank, her Church, and rowing on the Gig Harbor Dragon Boat Team.

Margarita Juana (Torres) Cozzan, MSH, RDN, CSCS

Board member

Margarita Juana (Torres) Cozzan (she/her), MSH, RDN, CSCS is a doctoral student and research assistant at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where her work sits at the intersection of food systems equity, cultural food continuity, and urban food policy. Her dissertation stems from her Master’s-level research of food supply chain globalization and dietary acculturation. An RDN since 2009, she has practiced in a variety of settings including long-term care and fitness and wellness. She has served in leadership roles with the Committee for Lifelong Learning and the Global Member Interest Group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. Margarita now lives in the Netherlands with her husband and son, where they enjoy a car-free life filled with stroopwafels and toddler hugs.