Hall of Fame, 2013 Inductees
Tara Timpel Gidus, MS, RD, CSSD
Tara Timpel Gidus graduated from Purdue with a BS in Dietetics/Nutrition, Fitness & Health from this department and a Masters in Health Promotion from the Department of Health & Kinesiology. She is a Registered Dietitian and is a Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics.
Tara is a nationally recognized spokesperson on nutrition, fitness and health promotion and is quoted in a variety of media including television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and websites. She is a past National Media Spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and appears regularly as the "Diet Diva" on the national morning television show, The Daily Buzz. She is the author of Pregnancy Cooking & Nutrition for Dummies (2012).
Tara owns Tara Gidus Nutrition Consulting in Orlando, FL. A dynamic speaker, she motivates groups large and small on various topics, such as achieving a healthy weight, preventing disease, maximizing energy, aging well, enhancing sports performance, pregnancy nutrition, and creating a positive body image. As a nutrition and movement performance coach at the prestigious Human Performance Institute, she teaches senior executives to manage their energy. She has worked with numerous companies including Walt Disney World, Rodale Publications, Tupperware, Canyon Ranch Spa, Rosen Hotels, United Behavioral Healthcare, and others. Her portfolio for improving the diets of senior executives was established in her work with the Rippe Health Assessment at Florida Hospital Celebration Health. She has also overseen numerous weight loss research projects.
Currently the team dietitian for the Orlando Magic NBA team, she is also the nutrition consultant to University of Central Florida (UCF) Athletic Department. As the official nutritionist for runDisney, she offers nutrition tips to runners on the runDisney blog as well as at the EXPO for all Disney races. She is the nutrition advisor forAmerican Baby magazine. Tara was a health blogger and the Healthy Eating Expert on
www.healthline.com for five years. She appears frequently on television, including ivillage Live, Orlando NBC, CBS, ABC, and Fox stations, Central Florida News 13, CW Network, Ivanhoe Broadcast News, and The Golf Channel. She has been quoted in over 1000 print and online publications such as Associated Press, New York Times, and the Orlando Sentinel, as well as various magazines: Women’s World, Self, Fitness, Shape, Women’s Health, Her Sports, Men’s Health, People, Vegetarian Times, Runner’s World, Club Business International, Cooking Light, Family Circle, Fit Pregnancy, American Baby, Prevention, as well as many websites.
Volunteering is important to Tara as evidenced by a commitment to Restoration Ministries for Women, where she gives a biweekly lecture to women in a six-month rehabilitation program after release from prison. She teaches them healthy eating and exercise to feel their best as a tool to beat addictions and get their lives on track. Tara served as Co-Chair of the Silent Auction for the American Cancer Society-Orlando Chapter. She is Past President of the Dietetic Association in Orlando and active in the Florida Dietetic Association. She was named Recognized Young Dietitian of the Year from the Florida Dietetic Association, among numerous awards. Tara is an avid runner and has completed eight marathons including the prestigious Boston Marathon. Tara lost her husband Stephen to cancer in 2012 and is busy raising her two young sons, Basil (5 years) and Levi (3 years).
Eva L. Goble
Few Purdue women have been as widely known throughout the state of Indiana as Eva Goble. Born in 1910, a native of Jasonville, IN, she was in college when the stock market crashed and the Depression began, so she had to leave college and find work. After a few years she returned to school, with some help from her father, and finished coursework to get a teaching license. She taught in a rural school for four years and between teaching in the winter and going to school in the summer she received her BS in 1941 at age 31.
After finishing her degree, the home demonstration agent in her county suggested contacting Lella R. Gaddis at Purdue. Through this contact and others, for which she is very grateful, she worked her way through the ranks of the Cooperative Extension Service, serving as a home management specialist, state leader of home demonstration agents, to assistant director of extension. Under her leadership, the Extension Homemakers Clubs in Indiana enjoyed the largest enrollment of any state in the nation. During these years she also earned a Masters in home management from Purdue and a PhD from the University of Chicago.
Her career has been marked with firsts. In 1947, Lella Gaddis encouraged the Indiana Home Demonstration Association to sponsor a Cooperative house at Purdue. Eva Goble, her successor, implemented the plan. From 1947-1952 she initiated the purchase and renovation of a house at 322 Waldron St and Twin Pines Cooperative House became a reality. In 1952, she was the first consultant involved in establishing a school of home economics in Viscosa, Brazil, which would be the first such program in South America to grant a bachelor’s degree. She had a strong team with her and they worked to build the school, get the students, and hire the staff. Eventually graduates from the school in Brazil would come to Purdue for graduate work! What a great job!
She became Dean of the School of Home Economics in 1967 and her first task was to institute an evaluation and revision of the curriculum. During her tenure as dean, the enrollment in the school nearly doubled. In 1972, she was selected as one of the first Frederick L. Hovde Awards for Excellence in Educational Service to the Rural People of Indiana. She retired the same year. Purdue's College of Consumer and Family Sciences established the Eva Goble Lecture Series twenty years later in 1992, and she was awarded an honorary doctorate from Purdue in 1999.
Dean Goble’s work has had enduring impact on this department in many ways. One example is an initiative she remembers well: reuniting the School of Home Economics and the Home Economics Extension staff (at that time in the School of Agriculture). There were many challenges, but she says in the long run it was the Extension specialists who made it work because they realized the value of having all the home economists in one place. It strengthened the school and improved the knowledge of the specialists. This long-ago-reuniting made way for our current Extension structure.
A quote from a 2007 oral interview expresses well why her life has had such impact. She said, "Doing things well is important. I think everyone should try something hard every year." She seems to have lived this over her almost 103 years and her memories are marked with a quality of great character….. gratitude. As she remembers, she gives much credit to those who helped her or worked with her to accomplish these hard things.
Roselyn Franta Kulik
Rosalyn Franta Kulik holds an MS degree from this department. She later completed Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program (AMP). Her BS is also from Purdue in vocational home economics education.
She was hired by Kellogg as a consumer specialist, but quickly moved to manager positions of advertising to children and then business development. In 1979 she became vice president/director of chemistry and nutrition and she directed the worldwide program in food chemistry, analytical testing, nutrition, and the technical information center. She was promoted to corporate vice president of quality where she led worldwide quality, sensory, and nutrition sciences. In this position, she introduced the implementation and culture of Total Quality Management throughout Kellogg. The change was key to a three-fold increase in net profit per employee between 1983 and 1994. Her last four years at Kellogg were as vice president for special international and domestic marketing, profitability, and business development projects, reporting directly to the CEO and as general manager of Fearn International, Inc, a multi-plant food service company.
For the next 17 years, she was an industry consultant, pausing first to do the Harvard AMP. She served also as adjunct faculty to the University of Tampa, where she taught nutrition (4 years). Throughout her 34-year career as a consultant and in executive positions at Kellogg, her varied assignments resulted in directional shifts in marketing, quality, and operations. As a management consultant, she helped organizations develop and reposition food products to benefit both consumers and clients. She analyzed and interpreted the health benefits of foods and addressed audiences around the world on how to leverage those benefits in meaningful ways. In the 1980s, she played a key role in promoting the National Cancer Institute’s "high-fiber, low-fat" message on Kellogg’s fiber-rich cereal brands. The campaign demonstrated her commitment to presenting responsible messages about health benefits of foods.
In 1998, she co-founded the Nutrition in Complementary Care (now, Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine) group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and was its Chair in 2002-2003. While a consultant in private practice, she authored the Academy’s 2005 position paper on nutrient fortification and supplements.
She has served on diverse boards in her community and been involved with the Culinary Institute of America, as a Member of the Corporation and a Fellow. While at Kellogg, she chaired the Technical Committee of the Grocery Manufacturers of America, and was a Trustee on the Executive Committee of the International Life Sciences Institute.
In 1994, she moved to Florida with her husband, Daniel. She continues to enjoy the performing arts and fine cuisine, cooking, traveling, and golfing. Through the years, she held leadership positions at her church. Upon her retirement in 2008, she and Dan discovered the joy of training their first dog, a corgi, for pet therapy, agility, and nose work.
Rosemary Rodibaugh
Dr. Rosemary Rodibaugh is a native of Indiana and received her BS in Dietetics and PhD in this department also. She began as an Extension specialist at University of Arkansas in 1989 and is now a Professor with the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture Cooperative Extension Service. She is also an adjunct faculty member with the UA Fayetteville School of Human Environmental Sciences and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), Department of Dietetics and Nutrition. She serves as a preceptor for the UAMS Dietetic Internship and the University of Central Arkansas Dietetic Internship. Dr. Rodibaugh chairs Extension’s Nutrition and Food Safety Initiative Team and is the project director for the UA Division of Agriculture’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education project (SNAP-Ed).
As a Registered Dietitian, she is active with the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and with her state and local organizations. She is a member of the Arkansas Coalition for Obesity Prevention, Arkansas Child Health Advisory Committee, Arkansas Action for Healthy Kids Coalition, No Kid Hungry Campaign, Folic Acid Coalition, and the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior.
Her Extension work has been consistently funded for "make a difference" initiatives. Beyond the basic programs funded by USDA, various foundations such as WK Kellogg Foundation, Blue & You Foundation, Action for Healthy Kids and Arkansas HOPE (Healthy Options for People through Extension) have provided grant support. She has won numerous awards, including Distinguished Mentor in Dietetics, AACES Jeanette Roberts Memorial Award, the John White Outstanding Extension Educator Award, Outstanding Dietitian of the Year (Arkansas Dietetic Association), Nutrition Advocate Award by the Arkansas Public Health Association, Extension Excellence Innovation Award and the Gamma Sigma Delta Extension Award. In addition to these individual awards, she has many team awards with her colleagues.
She does well what Extension is supposed to do….educate the public. She has created 12 innovative programs, such as "Noonlifting/Reshape Yourself," a healthy weight management program. This 15-week weight management program focuses on making lifelong behavioral changes and has had good impact. Since 1996, almost 4100 people have completed the program with significant outcomes beyond weight loss and increased exercise: half of participants report improved blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose and 1 in 5 reports medication reduction.
She has had over 150 Extension publications, educational materials, peer-reviewed publications, abstracts/posters, and teaching guides. She has 160 print articles and more than 100 interviews for print articles. She serves regularly on many professional and service committees and often is on the leadership team or chair, working to fulfill the community mandate of a land grant university.
Robert B. Rucker
Dr. Rucker is Distinguished Professor Emeritus from both the Department of Nutrition and the School of Medicine at the University of California Davis. He earned a BA from Oklahoma City University in Western Civilization and Philosophy, with a minor in Chemistry, then came to Purdue where he earned both a Masters and PhD in biochemistry. Immediately after a three-year post-doc at University of Missouri, he began his career at UC Davis. He has exhibited strong leadership in the Department of Nutrition, as he chair of the department from 1981 to 1988, vice-chair from 1999-2007, then acting chair in 2007-2008.
His current research interests are focused on extracellular matrix assembly, the role of copper in early growth and development, and the physiological roles of quinone cofactors derived from tyrosine, such as pyrroloquinoline quinone. The ultimate goal of the work is to define chemical or biochemical mechanisms for biological and nutritional phenomenon related to extracellular matrix assembly or quinone cofactor function.
Dr. Rucker has over 40 years of experience in nutrition from both agricultural and medical perspectives. His work and research combines the disciplines of biochemistry, molecular biology, nutrition, and medicine. His primary areas of expertise are: trace mineral metabolism, vessel wall or vascular tissue disease, vitamin metabolism, quinone cofactors, nutritional supplements, growth and connective tissue metabolism, developmental nutrition and use of animal models to study disease and nutritional relationships.
Among his many honors and activities: past president of American Society for the Nutrition and appointment as a Fellow in both the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society for Nutrition. He served as chair or co-chair for FASEB Summer Conferences on Micronutrients Trace Elements; on program committees for American Society for Nutritional Sciences and FASEB and was past plenary speaker for numerous events: International Nutrition Congress; Twentieth Chinese Nutrition Congress; various Gordon Conferences; American Society of Veterinary Nutrition; International Conference on Vitamins, Coenzymes, and Biofactors; and the International Symposium on Vitamin B6, PQQ, Carbonyl Catalysis, and Quinoproteins and numerous other leadership positions and journal boards. He was recipient of the UC Davis Medical School Oettinger Research Award and the American Society for Nutritional Sciences Bordon Research Award. In 2012 he was awarded the Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship.
Dr. Rucker still maintains an office and laboratory in the Center for Health and Nutrition Research as UC Davis. Though partially retired, he is still actively pursuing research for the next level of nutrition discovery. He says, "Foods don't just contain vitamins, carbohydrates and proteins, but thousands of other ingredients called biofactors, which are biologically active compounds the body uses. Understanding what biofactors do in our bodies could ultimately lead to personalized medicine, where nutrition-based treatments are tailored to the particulars of each person's biochemistry."
