RDBA Announces 2019 Retail Dietitian of the Year: Emily Parent, RD, LD, Coborn’s Inc.
The Retail Dietitians Business Alliance is thrilled to announce that Emily Parent, RD, LD, is the winner of the 2019 Retail Dietitian of the Year award. As one of three RDs for Coborn's Inc, Emily supports in store efforts, employee wellness, and the e-commerce division of the company, allowing her to creatively target health and wellness towards Coborn's guests.
In her position she teaches nutrition classes throughout the community including local businesses, schools, and gyms; performs cooking demonstrations; leads grocery store tours; and provides personal consultations that include meal planning and personal shopping assistance. Emily collaborates with Coborn's Corporate Wellness team to design, implement, and execute a 6-week wellness program that is available for all 9,000+ employees in the company year after year. Within the last year, Emily has made it a priority to take advantage of vendor connections and create promotional excitement in stores and online to help support our dietitian services as well as better-for-you brands. She created a Digital Shopper Marketing Guide, which organizes the ways the team partners with vendors. In the world of E-commerce, Emily has been a key player in creating Dietitian’s Choice Meal Kits as part of our Meal Solution program. The meal kits have changed seasonally, and Emily is continuously looking at recent trends to see how she can incorporate new and exciting meals for our guests.
“Emily has taken her role as an RD in a for-profit business to the next level while maintaining her science-based integrity in promoting better-for-you-options throughout Coborn’s,” says Phil Lempert, CEO and president of the RDBA. “She has helped increase store sales, communication between departments and overall employee health. Emily is a shining example of how an RD works in a retail setting and is well deserving of this award.”
Based on Emily's partnership with category managers and vendors, the RD team can show and communicate ROI in more meaningful ways. The team has seen an increase of more than 100% month over month in multiple product sales and Facebook Live segments have reached more than 52,000 shoppers. With Emily as vendor relations lead, the team quadrupled their vendor support between 2017 and 2018, and in first quarter of 2019 have tripled their support as compared to all of 2018. Given the omni-channel approach to promotions, the team is creating more traffic to the company's website and exposure of more guests to online resources, recipes and availability of dietitians at select Coborn's stores.
"Emily is willing to take risks which is a huge part of working in retail. She truly has learned the world of retail and is continuously talking with mentors, listening to webinars, and connecting with co-workers to be more knowledgeable about how enhance her role," says Ashley Kibutha, RD, LD, Supermarket RD Manager at Coborn’s. "I truly believe she has found her niche as a retail RD."
Emily received her award last night at the Retail RD Exchange in Chicago, Il. The RD of the Year award recognizes a retail dietitian who shows leadership in utilizing business skills and industry knowledge to positively impact consumer behavior through the retail sector.
