Janet Fox and the rest of FCS are excited to welcome new faculty member, Kristin Riggsbee on August 28, 2023. Dr. Riggsbee will be joining FCS as an assistant professor in nutrition and food safety. She began her career as a nurse working in long-term care in rural areas of Tennessee. She got her LPN from Tennessee Technology Center of Nashville. This experience ignited her passion for rural health and food security.

She went on to get her bachelor’s degree in human ecology/food, nutrition and dietetics from Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville and then her doctorate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. While in her graduate program at UT Knoxville, she worked with a national USDA research obesity prevention program, targeting healthy lifestyle behaviors in adolescents. As a component of the larger obesity program, her dissertation addressed food access issues among high schoolers at a downtown high school in Knoxville. One of her favorite research projects was working directly with high schoolers in the classroom, co-creating maps of their food environments. She also completed a block field internship experience with Janie Burney, professor emeritus in family and consumer sciences, sparking her interest in Extension. During her Extension experience, she researched healthy food retail programs and how this may translate for Tennessee FCS agents.

Following the completion of her doctoral degree, Kristin worked as assistant professor of health and wellness promotion at Maryville College. During this time, she developed courses in health policy, community health, and Appalachian food studies. She is well known at Maryville College for her first-year seminar about cornbread, biscuits, and Southern food. She won the Outstanding Teacher of the Year in 2021, awarded by the dean’s office for excellence in teaching hybrid courses during the pandemic as voted by the student population. One of her favorite parts about her job at Maryville College was working with her students, whether it was in the classroom or working with them on independent research projects to address food insecurity on campus.

Riggsbee found her passion for nutrition by reading cookbooks and talking to people about food. Thus, one of her favorite things to do is travel, experience new foods, and bring back a cookbook to try new recipes at home. A recent trip to Costa Rica taught her all about the process of growing cacao beans and making chocolate from indigenous tribes (see picture below). Along with her love for food, she also enjoys reading, bringing her Kindle with her nearly everywhere. Along with cookbooks, Riggsbee’s reading interests are varied from psychological thrillers, science fiction, food history, and even Elvis biographies. Last summer, she read the most comprehensive Elvis biographies written after seeing the Elvis movie. She currently lives in Maryville with her husband (Jonathon) and two sons (Jack and Desmond). One fun fact is that they visited all three United States Disney properties in the last year, and they are already planning the next Disney trip.