From a personal health journey to public health impact

Beth Racine’s career wasn’t born from a childhood dream or a clear-cut path — it evolved from an unexpected moment of personal transformation.

As a sophomore in college struggling with her weight, Racine joined a nutrition program and discovered firsthand the profound impact nutrition could have on confidence and quality of life.

“When you go through something that changes how you feel about yourself, you think, ‘I’ve found the secret! I have to tell everyone,’” Racine, DrPH, a registered dietician, reflected. “That’s what first sparked my interest in nutrition and education. It felt like something I could share to empower others to take control of their health, just as I had.”

That personal breakthrough led Racine to a career spanning public health, academia and nutritional programs, where she has consistently championed better systems for community nutrition.

From her early days managing local Women, Infants and Children, or WIC, programs to her current role with Texas A&M AgriLife Research as director of the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at El Paso, Racine has dedicated her career to understanding and improving the connections between socioeconomic status, community resources and healthy living.

In 2022, in addition to taking on the directorship duties, Racine became a professor and associate department head for Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service programs in the Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Department of Nutrition. In this role, she’s found a new home with special community needs that guide her work in research and extension.

Economics to dietetics

Racine’s journey into nutrition was far from linear. After earning a degree in economics from Boston University, she quickly realized that the field didn’t spark her passion.

“I had no idea what I could do with an economics degree,” she admitted. “I ended up working as a recruiter for a temp agency in Los Angeles. It was fine, but it wasn’t enough.”

That all changed when Racine decided to pursue a master’s in nutrition and dietetics at California State University at Los Angeles. Through coordinated internships, she explored clinical nutrition, community health and food service management, and saw a range of new career paths open up to her.

Hoping to make a real impact, she took on a job as a manager at a WIC agency in Washington, D.C. There, she’d face the harsh realities of many trying to lead healthy lives while juggling other big life challenges.

Lessons from the real world

In her role as a WIC coordinator, Racine managed a caseload of over 1,500 clients and a small team of nutritionists. Her daily work involved certifying clients for benefits, providing nutrition education and assigning food packages tailored to each family’s needs.

Despite the challenges, Racine found the experience deeply rewarding.

“The most important part was making the nutrition advice relevant to their lives,” she explained. “If I saw a child still using a bottle at age 3, I’d use that as a teaching moment to talk about baby bottle tooth decay and how to transition to cups.”

Working with WIC clients offered Racine an intimate look at the realities faced by low-income families.

“Many of the women I worked with were the same age as me, in their 20s, but their lives were so different from mine,” she recalled. “They were juggling multiple jobs, caring for young kids, and dealing with chronic family health issues — all while living paycheck to paycheck.

“I came to see that nutrition wasn’t the top priority to a lot of the people I was working with,” she said. “And it wasn’t because they didn’t want to be healthy, or they didn’t care about their children getting proper nutrition. It’s because it’s hard to focus on the details of how to make a balanced plate when you’re worried about your electricity or water getting shut off.”

Compelled by a desire to address the systemic issues underlying these health disparities, Racine began to focus more on community health and the ways public health lessons apply to nutrition.

“I wanted to address the bigger picture of why communities experience the health challenges they do — and how to fix it.”

Pursuing big picture solutions

With new insights and a clearer goal than ever, Racine pursued a doctorate in public health from Johns Hopkins University, and she began to immerse herself in efforts to understand the underlying factors affecting community health.

One of Racine’s notable experiences during this time was her internship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service, where she worked on evaluating programs like WIC and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

After graduation, she combined her teaching experience as a nutrition counselor in WIC with the research practice from her doctoral degree in an academic setting at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

There, Racine’s research interests converged with her desire to improve nutrition outcomes for specific populations.

One of her early projects was an assessment of the Farmer’s Market Nutrition Program, which is designed to encourage low-income families to purchase fresh fruits and vegetables. This project allowed Racine to investigate the effects of food access on dietary habits. Her findings emphasized the value of making fresh produce available in underserved communities.

Another data-driven research project she led involved linking student’s anonymous dining purchases with other university data, such as class schedules and recreational activities, to assess dietary patterns, revealing insights into students’ nutritional choices and potential avenues for targeted nutritional interventions.

Racine considers this project one of her proudest achievements and hopes to explore similar research opportunities at Texas A&M University to benefit the large student population.

“College students make up a nutritionally at-risk population,” she said. “For many, their college years are the first time they’re having to make regular decisions about daily factors that affect their health.”

Racine’s ability to translate research into actionable solutions for populations with unique circumstances and challenges has always extended to the communities she serves. This commitment has seamlessly carried into her work in El Paso — a region unlike any other in which she’s previously worked.

A new chapter in El Paso

In El Paso, one of the projects that Racine leads is oversight of the Rio Grande Colonias Regional Food Business Center. This collaborative initiative with the USDA and Texas A&M AgriLife aims to support small food businesses by providing resources and guidance for growth to make high-quality food and agricultural products available locally.

“Public health isn’t about telling people to eat more vegetables — it’s about changing the environment so that healthier choices are easier and more affordable for people where they are,” Racine said. “In El Paso, we’re looking at how to create lasting improvements that reflect the needs of the community.”

She’s also conducting research on larger trends extending beyond the area with nationwide and global impacts, such as evaluating food assistance programs to understand their effects on diet quality, child weight and food security.

The questions in these research studies, and the many others that Racine has asked, showcase her curiosity-driven approach and determination to uncover meaningful solutions with the potential to make a difference in people’s lives.

“For me, it’s always been about asking the right questions,” she said. “Why do people make the food choices they do, and how can we help them make healthier ones? That’s the heart of my work. I’ve found that the answers are rarely simple, but they’re always worth asking.”