Eat to Treat: Utilizing Our Food Networks to Support and Improve Health in Rural Arizona
“Eat to Treat” is a University of Arizona Center for Rural Health webinar scheduled for January 21, 2027, from noon–1 p.m. It focuses on culinary medicine, nutrition education, and the community partnerships that can strengthen health and workforce development in rural Arizona.
What the webinar covers
The session connects food, health, education, and rural workforce development rather than treating nutrition solely as individual behavior. Its three stated learning objectives are to explain training future practitioners in community-based culinary medicine, discuss building community/clinical/academic stakeholder networks, and show how student experiential learning and nutrition projects can have greater impact.
Presenters
Lily Y. McNair, PSM, RDN, CCMS, FAND, is the SALUDABLES Coordinator and adjunct faculty member at Arizona Western College, with work emphasizing nutrition and health-career opportunities in rural and border communities. Ashlee Linares-Gaffer, EdD, RDN, FAND, is an Associate Professor of Practice in the University of Arizona School of Nutritional Sciences and Wellness whose teaching includes career preparation, leadership, and agricultural and food literacy for future health professionals.
Why the rural focus matters
A distinctive feature is its emphasis on networks: colleges and universities, health-care settings, schools, Tribal Nations, and other community partners can collectively support nutrition education and rural health. The webinar also treats students’ hands-on community work as a way to simultaneously develop the future health workforce and deliver community-responsive nutrition initiatives.
Part of a broader series
The event belongs to the Arizona Center for Rural Health Webinar Series, which provides technical assistance and shares research, policy updates, best practices, and other rural-health information with stakeholders across Arizona. That context makes “Eat to Treat” particularly relevant to public-health practitioners, dietitians and nutrition educators, educators training future health professionals, and organizations developing community-based food and health partnerships.