Isabella Paz Baldrich ’19 Works for U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor

Isabella Paz Baldrich received a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition and Food Science with a concentration in dietetics in 2019, graduating magna cum laude. During her time as an undergraduate student, she did community service hours at The Center of Excellence for Latino Health at Clara Maass Medical Center. Here she provided nutrition education to lower-income Latino communities and realized how important nutrition education is as well as how diet and chronic diseases negatively impact Latino health. Food insecurity is something Isabella is passionate about because although food is a fundamental human right, not every person has equal access to affordable, nutritious food. She then earned a Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetic Internship from Saint Elizabeth University in 2021.

Isabella was selected as a fellow through The Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s (CHCI) graduate fellowship program. As the CHCI PepsiCo Nutritional Graduate Fellow, she was placed with the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor and works specifically with the child nutrition team. They are currently working on Child Nutrition Reauthorization, which is legislation that authorizes all of the federal child nutrition and school meal programs.

She also received hands-on experience working in a school district that participated in the School Breakfast Program, the National School Lunch Program, and the Summer Food Service Program. Additionally, she conducted an audit of the school menus from all the school districts served by a specific foodservice management company. This was done to determine if schools were complying with the national standards for meal patterns in order to obtain federal reimbursement. Isabella found that as a nutrition professional, “having a strong food and nutrition background [was] very advantageous when it comes to drafting nutrition-specific policy.”

Isabella is also very appreciative of her background. She noted, “as a Latina and an immigrant to this country, I have worked hard to get to where I am. I have not had the same privileges as my peers, but I’ve had a strong support system that has helped me in every way. The sacrifices my parents have made to open doors for education and opportunity are more than I could ever repay. Being a Latina is something I am proud of, and being an immigrant means I have two homes: here and in Colombia.”

Isabella aspires to expand her healthcare and nutrition policy knowledge and understand how those policies directly affect individuals. She hopes to diversify her network of individuals from different sectors of the public health, healthcare, and foodservice industries to develop creative ways to address Latino health.