Barbara S. Correll, MS, RDN, got her first experience in dietetics when visiting her aunt in a nursing home as a child. She got to know the dietitian who would come and see her aunt and was eventually introduced to the hospital’s food service director as well. Between the two of them, Ms. Correll learned about the work of dietitians and the role of food in health. She found the field fascinating and ultimately decided to pursue it as a career. Joining Immaculata University, she took courses in pre-medicine and dietetics and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in medical nutrition therapy, with a minor in business administration, in 1972. During this time, Ms. Correll was introduced to a company called ARA, now known as Aramark, by the food service director and worked as a student dietician for four years during summers in Philadelphia hospitals.
After marrying and moving to North Carolina while working as a dietician and food service director, Ms. Correll sought to continue her education, earning a Master of Science in food science and technology from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1979. She subsequently spent six years working as the food service director for a large school district in Florida before establishing Dietetic Consulting Services Inc. in 1988. First working primarily with corporate clients, she started seeing private patients in 1991 after completing coursework in lifestyle counseling through a program from Johns Hopkins University. Today, Ms. Correll utilizes her skill in health management, nutrition, and pharmaceutical and dietary supplements to treat a wide range of patients. She has developed personalized nutrition plans for more than 45,000 patients recovering from bariatric surgery, gastric bypass, eating disorders and more. She also works with weight loss, diabetes and blood pressure management, and continues to offer corporate wellness programs.
In her role as a dietitian and researcher, Ms. Correll focuses her expertise on using dietary management to prevent the need for more invasive medical interventions. Her duties include writing patient reports, creating diet plans, and monitoring patient health. In 2015, Dietetic Consulting Services began offering virtual consultations, and since then, she has had patients and clients come to her from around the globe. Over the course of her career, she has also served as a researcher for various pharmaceutical and nutraceutical companies and volunteered with the American Heart Association and various diabetes groups. In order to keep abreast of new developments in her field, Ms. Correll maintains professional affiliation with both the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and the South Carolina Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
Furthermore, Ms. Correll has donated her skills as a mentor to young and aspiring dietitians, and she would advise them that there are many different areas of the field that they can specialize in and many approaches they can take. She attributes much of her own success to the trust and loyalty that her patients have for her, which is shown most clearly when she gets new patients who have been referred to her by one of her existing patients. Above everything, she hopes to leave a legacy as a person with integrity who cared deeply about her patients and always tried to do the right thing. As she looks toward the future, Ms. Correll intends to bring on additional professionals to Dietetic Consulting Services so that the company can continue once she retires. She also hopes to write a series of books on nutrition and dietetics to benefit others.
Born to parents John and Anna Shell, Ms. Correll has been married to her husband, Paul W. Correll Jr., for many happy years, and she is grateful for all the support he has given her throughout her career. She is the proud mother of two children, Jennifer Baker and Jonathan Correll, and grandmother to two grandchildren, Spencer Correll and Benjamin Alexander Baker. In 2000, her daughter Jennifer joined her at Dietetic Consulting Services as an administrator. Having accomplished much over the course of her career, Ms. Correll lives her life by the motto, “Never give up, never give in.”
