Our History

by Debi Buchanan Bryant

Dr. Nina Lamb, professor of Food and Nutrition at Texas Tech University, encouraged me to be the organizational chairman of the Texas Tech Student Dietetic Association in the Fall of 1973. In working to establish such an organization at the university level, I began to see the merit of establishing such an organization at the state level. The idea of a state student dietetic organization was presented to and approved by the Executive Board of the Texas Dietetic Association (TDA) in the spring of 1974. During the 1974 State Dietetic Association annual summer meeting in Dallas, students from North Texas State University and Texas Tech University met with Mrs. Kathy Alders, TDA Education Section Chairwoman, to discuss the possibilities of establishing a state association for students majoring in dietetics. We decided to have an organizational meeting in conduction with the annual fall TDA meeting in Waco. Letters announcing the fall meeting were sent to each Texas University with dietetic majors. Approximately forty students representing six universities attended the first state organizational meeting of the Texas Student Dietetic Association (TSDA). At this meeting a constitution was proposed and plans were made for spring officer elections. Dr. Helen Brittin, the 1975 TDA Education Section Chairwoman, became advisor for TSDA and supervised the tabulation of election returns. The officers elected included: President – Nanci Cline, NTSU; Vice-President – Kathy Lust, Texas Tech; Secretary – Anita Bowman, NTSU; and Treasurer – Sharon Sims, University of Texas. These capable officers assumed their responsibilities during the 1975 annual summer TDA meeting in Houston, and TSDA was on its way.