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. She volunteers with her church leading a mobile soup kitchen and as a team member for Future Forward for Haiti, helping provide school lunch to children in Bois Negresse, Haiti. She attended the December 2024 Global Forum of the Global Child Nutrition Foundation (GCNF) in Osaka, Japan with AWIN’s student travel recipient Lilly Smith. Barb will attend GCNF again in Lusaka, Zambia in November 2026 and will meet AWIN/GCNF summer intern Sarthak Agarwal.

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 recently retired after 45 years as a Registered Dietitian, having spent the majority of her career in outpatient medical nutrition therapy and with the WIC program where her clientele included many recent US immigrants. She has been involved in international volunteer work for more than 30 years, most recently volunteering in Kenya for two years with her physician husband at a Christian mission hospital. Her volunteer work has included collaborating with local nutritionists in community and hospital settings to care for patients, write curriculum, and teach principles of nutrition assessment to medical staff. She has also managed World Food Program contracts during complex humanitarian crises. Laurie is a founding member of the Global Member Interest Group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and enjoys mentoring RDNs and dietetic students interested in international work. She is currently collaborating on development of an AI-enhanced nutrition program and an ICU course for low resource hospitals. Her favorite pastimes are being grandmother of eight, along with hiking, biking and camping with her husband.

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

Chair of Organizational Development & Program Review

Margarita (she/her) is a doctoral student and research assistant at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research explores the intersections of food systems, culture, health equity, and urban food policy, with a focus on how communities sustain culturally meaningful foodways amid urban change. Her broader interests include food justice, cultural foodways, and how community knowledge and priorities inform food policy and practice. A registered dietitian nutritionist since 2009, Margarita has worked across long-term care, fitness, and wellness, and has held leadership roles with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Committee for Lifelong Learning and Global Member Interest Group. As a board member of the Alice Wimpfheimer International Nutrition Fund, she contributes to organizational development, program review, and website management with an interest in supporting thoughtful, equitable practices that value local knowledge and expertise. Margarita relocated from Southern California to the Netherlands with her husband and son, where they enjoy a car-free life filled with stroopwafels, outdoor adventures, and toddler hugs.