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Toby Amidor ’96 has made a career from something she initially would’ve shied away from. At ��ñ��, as much as she loved being a Hebrew major, Amidor realized she’d have a more promising future in nutrition. After taking the only two courses ��ñ�� offered in that field, she pursued a master’s degree in clinical nutrition and dietetics.

“Those two courses really piqued my curiosity for the field of nutrition,” Amidor says. “I did not have any experiences in media or communication. I was actually scared of public speaking when I was in college. But, once I attended nutrition conferences, I found myself saying ‘I can do that’ when I watched cooking demos and other presentations on nutrition.”

Amidor is a registered dietitian (RD) and certified dietitian nutritionist (CDN) in New York state with her own firm in Westchester County. The person who once feared public speaking is a spokesperson for food commodity boards and food companies, does cooking demos and numerous weekly media interviews, and has written 10 cookbooks.

At the start of her career, Amidor taught at a culinary school in New York, and was asked to do TV, print and online interviews. She wrote for a diet website that went bankrupt, but was purchased by the Food Network’s parent company.

Amidor was a founding contributor when the FoodNetwork.com site added its Healthy Eats blog and has also been the nutrition expert for FoodNetwork.com for the past 17 years. Her career took off from there: a food science textbook chapter, writing for Forbes.com and Shape.com, weekly media interviews, books and more. Amidor also serves on ���s Alumni Media Advisory Council.

“My favorite book is always my new ‘baby,’” she says. “My newest cookbook, Up Your Veggies: Flexitarian Recipes for the Whole Family, will be released this fall. As only one in 10 Americans take in the recommended daily amount of vegetables, I hope it will make eating veggies simple, nutritious and delicious.

“I have worked with a lot of commodity boards like the National Dairy Council, California Strawberries and Grapes from California that represent all the farmers, growers and shippers in that specific industry. I enjoy promoting the food that farmers work so hard creating for all of us.”