Meet Our Team
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 Stacey Antine, MS, RD is the founder and CEO of HealthBarn USA, Inc., the leader in proven hands-on healthy-lifestyle education for children and their families. HealthBarn USA opened its first location in partnership with ABMA’s Farm & Market of Wyckoff, New Jersey in April 2005. She is a registered dietitian with a Master’s of Science in Food, Nutrition and Dietetics from New York University. Stacey has over 20 years of experience as a nutrition counselor, speaker, writer and media spokesperson -- including 18 years in public relations.
During her dietetic training at Beth Israel Medical Center, New York City she became familiarized with the types of traditional programs available for overweight and at-risk youth. She combines her passion for nutrition and health with her public relations experience creating educational campaigns for children and adults on behalf of big name food companies to make HealthBarn USA a distinctive model for behavioral change for families' long-term health.
Stacey was honored on The Rachael Ray Show in March 2008 as part of Ray's Incredible People & Healthy Eating series sponsored by the American Egg Board, click here to watch the TV segment. She writes Food Confessions with Stacey Antine, MS, RD that regularly appears in EveryDay with Rachael Ray magazine, click here to read more. BusinessWeek Online selected Stacey as Entrepreneurs to Watch for HealthBarn USA in "She Did it Her Way" in March 2007, click here to read more. Stacey and HealthBarn USA have been featured on CNN, House Calls with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, click here to watch the segment; Families First with Cindy Hsu, CBS-TV, New York click here to watch the segment; FOX-TV Good Day, NY; PBS/Nickelodeon and over 200 televsion networks across the country through Medstar TV, click here to watch the WFLA-TV (NBC) Tampa/St. Petersburg video clip. Women's Health magazine named Stacey their Action Figure for Fighting for a Good Cause: Nutrition, click here to read more. Among nutrition professionals,Today's Dietitian featured HealthBarn USA in Community Matters.
She is appointed to the advisory board of the master’s degree program in nutrition communication at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. Stacey is an adjunct teacher at Speyer Legacy School in New York City where HealthBarn USA educators developed and teach HealthBarn USA's optimal health curriculum for students. She is a member of the American Dietetic Association (ADA), Nutrition Entrepreneurs, Diabetes Care Educators and the Society for Nutrition Education (SNE), a certification in childhood and adolescent weight management from the American Dietetic Association. Stacey was accepted into the Class of 2010 for Bergen LEADS, a leadership program for people who have the desire to learn more about Bergen County and how to make it a better place to live and work, click here for more information. In addition, she wrote the nutrition commentary for celebrity chef and HealthBarn USA advisory board member Curtis Aikens’ book, Cooking is a Family Affair.
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 Jill Pettit, MS has a master’s in art education and is a certified New York State (NYS) teacher Long Island University, C.W. Post. She is general manager and handles all scheduling and daily activities at HealthBarn USA and booking our wildly popular school assemblies. She started teaching the Seedlings and Sprouts at HealthBarn USA in September 2005. Jill is our resident artist who brings fresh, natural creative ideas to the curricula and always has a warm smile and enthusiast attitude as she takes part in the development of the children's healthy behaviors!
Prior to joining the HealthBarn USA team, Jill was teaching private art classes for children and adults in addition to maintaining a career in painting original works of art. Some of her accomplishments include a painting featured on Isaac, a nationally broadcast television show; and designing and creating all of the artwork for Sonic Fuel, a music production studio in Venice, CA. She continues to paint and create on her days off from teaching the Seedlings and Sprouts at HealthBarn USA . |
 Rachel Meltzer, MS is the manager of nutrition and health promotion at HealthBarn USA. Her experience in public health, media and education adds tremendous value to the HealthBarn USA experience for children and their families.
Rachel holds a master’s in nutrition communication from the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, and a bachelor of arts in journalism from the University of Maryland. While at Tufts, she was awarded an Albert Schweitzer Fellowship. The fellowship project she designed and ran focused on communicating health and nutrition messages to parents of children enrolled in the community-based Shape Up Somerville childhood obesity-prevention intervention. She also completed an internship at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Science in the Public Interest where she researched an extensive report on food and beverage advertising aimed at children entitled Pestering Parents.
Rachel co-authored a content-analysis study on food advertising aimed at children that, the results of which she presented at the International Society for Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity in June 2004. The study is currently awaiting publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Her other professional affiliations include the American Public Health Association and the SNE.
Prior to pursuing her master’s degree, Rachel was the research assistant at Fast Company magazine. She continues to write and research on health and nutrition topics for consumer magazines.
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 Jessica Hermansky also known as "Jess" at HealthBarn USA is an important part of the HealthBarn USA team because she can do everything and knows where everything is! The Seedlings love Jess because she always makes trying new foods and recipes fun for them. She is a big help with the Young Harvesters and Sprouts, especially when cooking and planting in the garden. She joined the team as a nutrition intern from Montclair State University and never left! When friends ask what she does for work, Jess tells everyone that she's a kids' bartender because at the HealthBarn USA school assemblies she makes the best Rainbow Swirleys (fruit smoothies!). She starts her dietetic internship in Fall 2008 -- we are so proud of her for her passion about food, nutrition, gardening and having fun! |
 Kay Truckenmiller is the ultimate master gardener and spends her time looking after the Seedlings and the HealthBarn USA team. Cooking is a family affair at the Trunkenmiller home, she is always whipping up healthy recipes for us to try at lunch-time, since there is no such thing as "take out" at HealthBarn USA! You can also spot Kay at school assemblies all over New Jersey either at the whole grain tasting station or busy making the Rainbow Swirley for eager students who can't get enough of the fresh, all-natural food! Kay has been with the HealthBarn USA team since Fall 2005 and comes to us with high marks from Joel Flagler, Rutgers University. |
 Joel Flagler, MS is a full professor with Rutgers University and serves as the agricultural agent for Bergen County, NJ. He has been a registered horticultural therapist since 1984 and has investigated people/plant relationships for over 25 years. Joel is the editor of two books and author of many professional journal articles. He has received numerous national and regional awards for his work in agriculture and horticulture and has garnered several million dollars in grants and funding for his horticultural therapy programs. Joel received his bachelor of science from Rutgers University Cook College and his master’s degrees from Yale University. |
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 Debra Palmer-Keenan, PhD is the Associate Director of the Nutrition and Food Security Program at the Food Policy Institute and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutritional Science and Extension Specialist in nutritional science. Her research is geared toward household food security and educational issues encountered when delivering nutrition education to the public, most specifically limited resource urban populations.
Dr. Keenan is the director of the New Jersey Food Stamp Nutrition Education Program (FSNEP), a program established in 1997 to provide nutrition education to increase the food security of New Jersey’s limited resource population. She also heads the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP). EFNEP began in 1968 and strives to improve diets and nutritional welfare for families by educating them on how to identify and purchase food that satisfies nutritional needs, safely prepare and store food, and manage food budgets and related resources such as food stamps.
Dr. Keenan received a BS in Secondary Science Education in 1984 from the University of Cincinnati and her Masters of Education in 1991 and 1992 in Community Health Promotion and Nutrition Education. She received her Ph.D. in 1994 from Pennsylvania State University in Nutrition.
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