Nutrition | Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University

Welcome to the Nutrition Division!

Visual diagram of the Nutrition Division

Greetings from the Director Josephine Connolly-Schoonen, PhD, RD:

The Nutrition Division faculty and staff welcome you to our Division. The mission of our Division drives development and implementation of our programs and services.

The mission of the Nutrition Division is to provide quality, evidence-based and integrative nutrition services to our patients, students, and community, so as to be a driving force in attainment of optimal health and sustainable community food systems.

We strive to develop, implement, evaluate and revise nutrition programs for patients, students and community members to as to provide cutting-edge and evidence-based programs that make a difference in people's lives and careers. Our faculty and staff provide a diverse and extensive array of nutrition services, including nutrition support in critical care, nutrition therapy for chronic disease prevention and treatment, nutrition education and support of women, as well as their infants and young children, development of policies and physical environments that support healthy food choices and nutrition education and training programs. Whether we are working on our rooftop micro-farm, calculating a tube feeding for a malnourished trauma patient or infant in the NICU, conducting a cooking class or supermarket tour, teaching carbohydrate counting to a patient with type 2 diabetes, or teaching micronutrient metabolism to our students, we are passionate and committed about nutrition and empowering the people we serve.

Registered Dietitians/Nutritionists at Stony Brook University Hospital provide medical nutrition therapy services in our approximately 600 bed tertiary care facility. Such services are described in Department's Scope of Services and the individual registered dietitian/nutritionist's scope of practice. Read more here.

Our registered dietitian/nutritionists provide professional nutrition therapy and personalized strategies to support patient's health and wellness goals.

Our team works closely with the athletic department on west campus to ensure all athletes are consuming an optimal intake of nutrition and therefore, helping to maximize performance. We also provide nutrition counseling to all graduate and undergraduate students at the Student Health Center.

Stony Brook WIC Program is a nutrition education and supplemental food program for low-income pregnant, postpartum, and breastfeeding women, infants and children, up to 5 years of age. The WIC Program prides itself in serving Long Island families in four different locations; Lake Grove, Bay Shore, Hauppauge and Farmingville. For more information about WIC click here.

Stony Brook Heights Rooftop Farm

Stony Brook Heights in an innovative micro-farm located on the third floor of the Health Science Center at Stony Brook Medicine. With a "farm-to-bedside" concept, the farm utilizes organic gardening methods to produce an abundance of vegetables and herbs, which are then used to supplement patient meals at Stony Brook Hospital. To learn more about the farm click here. For any questions regarding the farm, please email Annemarie Ng, MS, RD or Cara Cohen, MS, RD.

Stony Brook Medicine Food Farmacy

The Food Farmacy, a food pantry, helps Stony Brook Medicine patients who are impacted by food insecurity. Donations from the Stony Brook Nutrition Amazon Gift Registry are accepted at any time.

Master of Science in Nutrition

Fully online Master of Science in Nutrition degree program (36 credits).

Master of Science in Professional Nutrition Practice

The 16-month Master of Science in Professional Nutrition Practice (MS-PNP) program prepares students to sit for the national registration examination to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN).

Dietetic Internship

Stony Brook Dietetic Internship Program is offered as an on-site full-time or part-time program and has an emphasis in clinical nutrition therapy. This program prepares students to sit for the national registration examination to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN).

Click here for our 2018-2023 strategic plan.

Find more nutrition tips and videos on the Nutrition Division YouTube Channel.

Faculty

Josephine Connolly-Schoonen, PhD, RD
Clinical Professor and Head of the Department’s Nutrition Division and the Executive Director of the Nutrition Service for Stony Brook Medicine.
Interests: Nutritional management of obesity and related chronic illnesses, such as diabetes, hypertension and heart disease, from both the individual and public health perspective; research interests include the impact of the built environment and policies on public health.

Lorraine Danowski, PhD, RD
Clinical Instructor and Dietetic Internship Associate Director
Interests: Nutrition management of obesity and related co-morbidities; research interests are with the ALS (Lou Gehrig’s) population and health care team effectiveness and efficiency.

Lauren Brand, MS, RD
Clinical Instructor and Director of the WIC program
Interests: Nutrition counseling and breastfeeding support to prenatal and postpartum moms, as well as children under five years of age; promotion of positive change in the NYS WIC program through State-level committee work; collaboration on research with the WIC population.

Sotiria Everett (Tzakas), EdD, RD
Clinical Associate Professor
Interests: Sports nutrition, lifestyle and integrative medicine, gut microbiome health, clinical trials/feeding studies, medical nutrition education, and hands-on children’s nutrition and cooking education.

Leah Holbrook, MS, RD
Clinical Instructor and Graduate Nutrition Program Associate Director
Interests: Maternal and child nutrition, local, sustainable food systems, and graduate nutrition education.