07/02/2026
A new partnership between TWU and Dairy MAX is heating up through a collaboration that aims to elevate evidence-based nutrition education within TWU’s Nutrition and Food Sciences dietetics degree track, while reinforcing dairy’s role in health, sustainability and food-as-medicine frameworks.
“The future of healthcare begins at the table,” said Angela Griffin, a TWU assistant clinical professor. “By teaching fellow students that food as medicine — such as whole dairy is a functional food — dietetic students become catalysts for healthier communities.”
The partnership supports interdisciplinary workshops conducted in the Neva Hudiburgh Cochran Wellness Kitchen, located in the new Health Sciences Center on the Texas Woman's University Denton campus. These learning experiences align with the center’s teach, train and treat philosophy. Ten dietetic students will lead the workshops, teaching fellow students from other disciplines how to incorporate different food groups, including dairy, into their diets in a healthy way.
The partnership kicked off in April with its first workshop, bringing together seven students from speech, language pathology, occupational therapy and nursing. Participants left with practical nutrition knowledge and some healthy snacks.
Braelyn Bowles, an incoming senior nutrition student, moderated the initial workshop. She guided the group through three recipes: cottage cheese based ranch dressing, homemade crackers with sliced vegetables and homemade hummus. While participants sliced and blended ingredients, Bowles shared nutritional information and dairy facts.
For Bowles, the partnership offered a perfect opportunity to get involved on campus. A practicing aesthetician who attends TWU full time, she became more interested in dietetics after seeing a connection between nutrition and skin health.
“I've noticed that your skin, how you age and all those different things are really rooted in what you eat,” Bowles said. “And that's kind of what made me circle back around to dietetics.”
