Holly N. Bandy, Extension Educator, M.Ed, CHES (Certified Health Education Specialist), Ohio State University Extension, Stark County. Her specializations include health and wellness, prevention education, and community health. She is passionate about health and wellness and helping people understand and experience how it can positively impact one’s physical and emotional well-being. In Holly’s free time, she enjoys spending time with her four children and husband, exercising, crafting, cooking, and going on adventures.
Lisa Barlage, Extension Educator, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Ross County. Her specialization is health and wellness. She enjoys working with diabetic groups, workplaces, youth wellness programs, and extending community programs by working with other agencies. She is married and has a grown daughter who is a teacher. In her free time she enjoys attending her local farmers market, Ohio State Buckeye sports, and reading.
Alisha Barton, Extension Educator, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Miami County. Alisha’s specialization is nutrition and family wellness, and she focuses her teaching on strengthening families through healthy cooking, managing household finances and relationship skills. She enjoys teaching youth independent living skills such as cooking and encouraging them to try/prepare new foods. Alisha is married with four daughters. She enjoys traveling with her own family, and doing home projects.
Amanda Bohlen, Extension Educator, M.Ed., Ohio State University Extension, Washington County. Her specialization is nutrition, health and food safety. Her teaching efforts focus on diabetes education, worksite wellness and healthy eating. Her passion lies with cooking and teaching others that good food doesn’t have to taste bland. Amanda is married and has three children and enjoys having them help in the kitchen. In her spare time she bakes and decorates cakes.
Shannon Carter, Extension Educator and Assistant Professor, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Fairfield County. Her specialization is health and wellness. She focuses on workplace wellness, youth wellness and food safety. She enjoys spending time with her husband, daughter, and son.
Sofia Carter, Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Champaign County. Her specializations include health and wellness. She is passionate about teaching nutrition and food safety programs in her county, and she enjoys leading wellness activities with her county’s senior population. In her spare time, she enjoys all the chores that small farm life yields. This includes helping her father-in-law with raising and marketing beef cattle, improving livestock wellness and nutrition, growing healthy produce in her garden, and constantly planting and re-planting all the farms flower beds. When there is a break from chores she likes to spend time with her two children, and husband, watching their sports, cooking, and planning family trips.
Zoie Clay, Extension Educator, M.A., Ohio State University Extension, Lawrence County. Her areas of specialization include community nutrition, youth development, and mental health and wellness. She is passionate about prevention education and embracing the intersection of nutrition and mental health. She also strives to bring new and unique opportunities to Appalachian Ohio while embracing the strong cultural dynamics. Her background is in peace studies and conflict resolution and she’s always looking for ways to positively impact her community at the grassroots level. In her free time, you can find Zoie sitting on her back porch with a good book or trying out a new recipe in the kitchen!
Jami Dellifield, Extension Educator, M.A., Ohio State University Extension, Hardin County. She loves to teach and encourage others to try something new! She is a Mental Health First Aid and Youth Mental Health First Aid Instructor and the co-author of the nationally award winning 4-H project book, “Your Thoughts Matter: Navigating Mental Health”. Her favorite hobbies are traveling with her family, dancing, laughing until her belly hurts, and reading a good book.
Lorrissa Dunfee, Extension Educator, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Belmont County. Her specialization is health and wellness. Lorrissa focuses her teaching on physical & mental health, successful aging, family wellness and healthy relationships. She is passionate about helping others to live their best life. Lorrissa loves spending time with friends and her teenage daughter traveling, playing games, or doing pretty much anything involving water. She is a huge buckeye fan and is an OSU football season ticket holder.
Jennifer Eggleton, Extension Educator, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Fayette County. Jennifer specializes in food safety, nutrition education and prevention and community health that spans all ages. She is passionate about bringing healthy opportunities to her community through Policy, System and Environmental (PSE) changes and the increase of local food use. She has extensive knowledge of program-related curriculum, state and national standards and policies and curriculum development. Jennifer lives in Fayette County with her husband Brian and their twin daughters Annabelle and Emma. In her free time, she enjoys being a soccer mom, gardening, food canning and preservation and spending time with the cats and chickens.
Shari Gallup, Extension Educator, Assistant Professor and Certified Health and Wellness Coach, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Licking County. Shari specializes in health and wellness and has been making a difference in lives of ordinary people for over 20 years in the areas of diabetes and using food to fight disease. Shari is a passionate and mindful speaker who is creative in her writing, teaching and research approach and enjoys motivating and educating others while having fun.
Laura Halladay, Program Specialist, M.Ed., NDTR., Ohio State University Extension. Her specializations include nutrition, health, and wellness. She enjoys working with audiences of all ages and sharing her passion for nutrition and health throughout the community. Laura grew up near Buffalo, NY, before spending the beginning of her career in the NYC metropolitan area prior to becoming a Buckeye State transplant. She is an avid sports fan and enjoys exploring the outdoors with her rescue dog.
Misty Harmon, Extension Educator and Assistant Professor, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Perry County. Her programming focuses on individual and community health and wellness. She is passionate about exercise and incorporating movement in to our daily lives. She also helps people gain the knowledge and skills to make better financial decisions. She is married and has 2 sons and 1 daughter. Spending time with her family, running, traveling, boating, and gardening are some of her favorite ways to spend her free-time.
Emma Horstman, Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Paulding County. Her areas of specialization include human and child development, with a strong passion for fostering healthy relationships from an early age. She believes that the early childhood years are the most influential in shaping a person’s life. Outside of her professional interests, Emma enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends, and she finds relaxation and adventure in kayaking and fishing. Whenever possible, she loves embracing the outdoors and the peace it brings. However, if she is not outside, you can find her curling up with a new soup recipe and a good movie, enjoying a cozy, quiet moment.
Margaret Jenkins, Extension Educator and Associate Professor, M.Ed., Ohio State University Extension, Clermont County. Margaret’s specializations are health and wellness, financial wellness, and youth and children. She is a champion of local partnerships that offer programming to address the work of the family in contemporary society.
Ryan Kline, Extension Educator, M.A., Ohio State University Extension, Ross County. Ryan’s specializations are financial wellness, youth development, mental health and wellness. He divides his time between 4-H and Family and Consumer Sciences allowing him to teach throughout the life span. In his career, Ryan has worked in public education, Appalachian community development, business development, and youth development programming. When not working, Ryan enjoys working in the garden, reading, exploring other amazing Appalachian communities, and on occasion raising feeder lambs.
Jennifer Little, Extension Educator, M.S., R.D., L.D., Ohio State University Extension, Hancock County. Her areas of specialization include nutrition, health/wellness and aging. Jennifer spent several years working in long term care and public health settings, and she enjoys helping people gain the knowledge and skills to reach their potential and live their best lives at every age and stage. She also likes connecting organizations with resources that allow them to better assist the individuals and communities they serve. Jennifer has lived in NW Ohio for over 20 years with her husband, and they have 2 grown, married children, living in Columbus and Michigan.
Jessica Lowe, Extension Educator, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Pickaway County. Her specialization is nutrition, health, and wellness. She enjoys teaching classes to all ages and working with individuals in the community. In her free time, Jessica can be found in her garden, taking walks around the neighborhood, or knitting.
Alexus Masterson, Extension Educator, M.P.H., Ohio State University Extension, Muskingum County. She is passionate about healthy relationships as well as health and wellness and how lifestyle choices can positively impact physical and emotional well-being. Alexus enjoys weightlifting, spending time with friends, riding horses and trying new recipes in her free time.
Daniel Remley, Field Specialist in Food Nutrition and Wellness, M.P.H, Ph.D. Dr. Remley specializes in developing nutrition education programs using health behavior theory and coordinates evaluation for OSU Extension’s Dining with Diabetes program. He is married, has three active children, and enjoys hiking and kayaking.
Heather Reister, Extension Educator, M.A., Ohio State University Extension, Butler County. Her specializations are early childhood education and parenting. Her passion is working with families, teachers, and administrators to create safe and equitable environments for all children. In her free time, Heather enjoys spending time outdoors and experimenting in the kitchen with new recipes she tests on her family.
Erin Ruggiero, Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Medina County. Erin’s specialization is in child development, parenting, and family wellness. She enjoys working with families at all stages and often teaches aging programs, managing finances, and nutrition. Erin enjoys spending time with her husband, son, and daughter and in her rare free time can be found listening to or attending a musical!
Melissa J. Rupp, Extension Educator and Assistant Professor, M.Ed, Ohio State University Extension, Fulton County. Her specialization is Family Resource Management focusing on financial well-being, homebuyer education, and food safety. Her passion is working with families and communities for engaging quality of life, with a special interest in rural communities and families. Melissa and her husband live on their family farm where they raise row crops and cattle. They are the proud parents of two daughters, one married (to the best son in law ever). She enjoys spending time with family, animals, cooking, quilting and kayaking.
Katie Schlagheck, Extension Educator, C.F.L.E. (Certified Family Life Educator), Ohio State University Extension, Ottawa and Sandusky counties. Her interests focus on the well-being of families and relationships through the range of Family and Consumer Sciences topic areas. She specifically is interested in the risk and resilience of children and families, parenting, prevention science, and program evaluation. Born and raised in Washington State, Katie now lives in Northern Ohio with her husband and three young children.
Kate Shumaker, Extension Educator, M.S., RDN, LD, Ohio State University Extension, Holmes County. Her specializations are food safety, nutrition, health, and wellness. Kate loves teaching cooking classes and cooking for her family and friends. In her free time, she can usually be found reading a book surrounded by her three spoiled rescue cats.
Laura Stanton, Extension Educator, M.S., M.A., Ohio State University Extension, Warren County. Her specialization areas are family life education, diversity, and wellness. She and her husband have two teenagers and a menagerie of family pets. In her free time, Laura enjoys reading and exploring the great outdoors.
Megan Taylor, Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Union County. Megan enjoys teaching both adults in children. In her spare time she enjoys cooking, baking, canning, hiking and spending time with friends and family.
Kathy Tutt, Extension Educator and Assistant Professor, M.S., Ohio State University Extension, Clark County. Her specializations are family life, food safety and wellness. Kathy enjoys working with families throughout the life span to help them achieve the highest quality of life. Kathy’s other main interest is her family; she is mom/stepmom to five children.
Susan Zies, Extension Educator and Assistant Professor, M.Ed., Ohio State University Extension, Wood County. Her specialization is nutrition, health and wellness. Her teaching efforts focus on diabetes education, childhood obesity and wellness. She enjoys running, has completed four marathons and enjoys spending time with her husband and high school age son.
Former Authors
Jenny Lobb, M.P.H., R.D., L.D., Former Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Franklin County. Her specialization was health, wellness and nutrition. Jenny left OSU Extension in 2025 to stay home with her school-aged son.
Roseanne Scammahorn, Ph.D., Extension Educator, Ohio State University Extension, Darke County. Dr. Scammahorn left OSU Extension in 2023 and now works for Mississippi State University Extension.
Beth Stefura, Retired Extension Educator, M.Ed, RD, LD., Ohio State University Extension, Mahoning County. Her specialization was nutrition, health and food safety. Her efforts focused on working with groups and communities to educate and empower people to create healthier lifestyles. As a self-proclaimed foodie, she enjoys shopping at farmers’ markets, cooking and exploring new food venues.