New Faculty Chair’s Advice: Stay on Your Path and Eat Veggies!
By Mira Radovich, Senior Contributing Writer
Beth Siwek brings a love of compassionate care and healthy living to her new role as faculty chair for public health programs at Rio Salado College. She also brings a love of higher education.
“College changed my life, is now my life’s work and has been a constant for me since I started my undergraduate degree,” Siwek said during a recent “Conversations about College” video chat with Dr. Michelle Traveler, Rio Salado’s faculty chair for computer information systems.
“It’s given me my purpose. I am a lifelong learner. I value everything I learned in college, as well as the people, the connections and the experiences it provided me.”
Siwek began her college career at Purdue University intending to pursue a degree in engineering.
“The transition from high school day-to-day life to college life was a big adjustment for me,” Siwek said. “Adjusting my study habits was the biggest challenge that first year.”
She changed her major and earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, with an emphasis in education.
“I was a teaching assistant during my time at Purdue and loved teaching at the collegiate level,” Siwek said. "I always knew I would some day come back to higher education.”
Siwek followed that up by earning a master’s degree in public health with an emphasis in nutrition from the University of North Carolina.
“I have always loved the sciences and also loved working with people one on one, so when I discovered nutrition science, I knew it was my calling,” Siwek said. “It allowed me to apply evidence-based science into practice for people with chronic illness such as cystic fibrosis or heart disease.”
After moving to Phoenix 15 years ago, Siwek earned an associate degree in applied science in nursing from Gateway Community College. She has more than 20 years of clinical dietetics practice working in many healthcare settings, including 10-plus years at Phoenix Children’s Hospital.
Her life’s work has been devoted to providing compassionate care to patients and their families, supporting optimal nutrition and health, and more recently, educating the next generation of health professionals.
In 2019, Siwek began the next chapter of her career by becoming an assistant professor of nutrition in the College of Science and Health at Benedictine University in Mesa.
“I love sharing my professional stories with students and incorporating them into case studies and discussion threads,” Siwek said. “I found that students are engaged when real-life examples are woven into their coursework.”
In August 2023, Siwek was named Rio Salado’s faculty chair for public health.
“I am ecstatic to be here at Rio Salado College,” Siwek said. “The college has a unique and innovative education model. I value working collaboratively with my colleagues and look forward to advancing current programs and developing new ones.”
Today, Siwek hopes to improve access to college for Rio students, especially working adults.
“My advice for students attending college as a working adult is to be flexible,” Siwek said. “Whether you do one class at a time or five, be flexible and stay on your path. It’s your journey. There’s not a one size fits all experience.”
Programs that fall under Public Health at Rio Salado include:
Associate in Arts, Emphasis in Community Health
Associate in Arts, Emphasis in Exercise Science
Associate in Arts, Emphasis in Nutritional Science
Associate in Arts, Emphasis in Speech and Hearing Science
Sustainable Food Systems