Ilene V. Smith

• Ilene has helped the food industry craft stories about the foods they grow, produce, serve, and put on store shelves for 25 years.
• She has won two Silver Anvil awards from the Public Relations Society of America for campaigns highlighting the health benefits of specific foods.
• She is a registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN).

Experience

Ilene has been a writer and storyteller since she got her first typewriter at age ten. She worked as a full-time editor and writer for various publishing companies until her personal passion for food, nutrition, and fitness led her to seek a degree in nutrition and exercise physiology. After graduation, she found a way to combine her writing skills and nutrition expertise working in public relations for the food industry. Working with everyone from small start-ups to large multinational consumer packaged goods manufacturers to ingredient suppliers and restaurants, Ilene developed a deep knowledge of the food industry and culinary arts, from seed to spoon and farm to fork. In addition to nutrition, she now writes about food ingredients, cooking techniques, growing methods, and more. In her spare time, Ilene is a personal essayist and is at work on a book of essays entitled "The Accidental Career Girl."

Education

Ilene has a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communications from New York University and a master's in nutrition and applied physiology from Columbia University.