Details
Director of Nutrition Services, Torrance (Calif.) Unified School District
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Age: 27
Education: B.S. in Nutritional Science, California State University-Riverside
Years at organization: 2
Why Selected?
According to the now-retired director of nutrition services, Lynette Rock, Leeza has made a difference at Torrance by:
- Chairing the district’s wellness committee and guiding it to create a new wellness policy
- Planning menus for the elementary schools that balance nutrition and foods that help drive participation
- Putting together a breakfast program that netted the department $7,000 in profit.
Get to know
I was recently promoted to director of nutrition services. Thanks to my two mentors, Lynette Rock and Evelyn Zarzosa, I have been able to accomplish more than I ever could have imagined.
Q. What would you say you excel at over more seasoned colleagues?My ability to adapt to change and embrace it. Since I am relatively new to school foodservice, I don’t know anything but constant change.
Q. What's the best career advice you've been given?Whatever happens, don’t take it personally.
Q. What's been the biggest challenge you've had to overcome?My age. Earning the respect and trust of those who are older than me and who have many more years’ experience is tough, but I think I’ve managed to bring down those walls.
Q. What's been your most rewarding moment?Working with our dietetic interns and seeing them get excited about school nutrition. I love showing them how much fun my job is and getting them really involved in the department.
Q. What's been your funniest on-the-job disaster?We have “share tables” in some of our elementary cafeterias. At one school, the students leave whole pieces of roasted chicken on the table, even though we instruct them to only leave pre-packaged items. I noticed a student taking a chicken leg off the table and recommended he not eat it since others had touched it. He snatched up the chicken and slowly began to back away as if I didn’t see the chicken in his hands. He kept backing up until eventually he turned around and took off running, chicken leg in hand!
Q. What can you look back at now and laugh at?How much I’ve learned in the last two years. There have been so many changes in what we do, it’s almost comical!
What would you like to accomplish in your career short term?
I would like to follow in my previous director’s footsteps and successfully run the Nutrition Services department.