Mary Alice Gettings, MS,RDN,LDN,CDCES

Mary Alice is an educator with Penn State Extension in Beaver County. She is a Registered Dietitian/ Nutritionist and a Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist with a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and a master’s degree in Technical and Science Communications. She provides health and wellness, food safety, and home food preservation education programs for consumers, volunteer organizations, and retail establishments. Mary Alice is a certified ServSafe instructor and proctor and is also trained in home food preservation. She supervises the Nutrition Links program in Beaver, Butler, Crawford, Erie, Lawrence, Mercer, and Venango counties. As State Program Team Co-Leader for the Health and Wellness Team, Mary Alice supports educators and works with statewide initiatives. 

Mary Alice supervises Nutrition Education Advisers for the Nutrition Links program, funded by the federal Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). Nutrition Education Advisers (NEAs) provide research-based nutrition education to low-income audiences. Nutrition Links educational programs help eligible adults and youth with limited resources improve their health through better eating habits and physical activity as well as helping to stretch food dollars. The classes are provided at no cost to eligible participants at housing developments, food pantries, Career Links, and other human service agencies reaching the low-income audience. Classes include hands-on activities and cooking demonstrations to enhance the learning process. One of the main goals is to help participants better manage the resources available to them, such as SNAP benefits, the WIC food package, and items from local food pantries. As part of Penn State Extension Nutrition Links, Mary Alice is helping improve the quality of life for our most vulnerable citizens in Pennsylvania.

Before joining Extension, Mary Alice spent 10 years working in hospitals as an in-patient and out-patient registered dietitian. She also served as the Wellness Manager for Heinz North America and a Food Safety and Quality Specialist with the Giant Eagle grocery store chain.  She has been active in her profession serving as President of the Pittsburgh Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Chair of the Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine, a dietetic practice group of the Academy of Nutrition Dietetics with over 5000 members.  She was awarded the 2009 Outstanding Dietitian of the Year from the Pennsylvania Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 

Mary Alice has a passion for addressing food access issues in low-income areas and has been instrumental in establishing local Food Councils in two towns in Pennsylvania – Aliquippa, and Butler.