One of the core values of Purdue Dining & Culinary’s mission is to create an inclusive dining experience that is accessible for students of all cultures and diets.

Molly Winkeler, nutrition success manager and registered dietitian for Dining & Culinary, plays a critical role in ensuring students with dietary restrictions have access to healthy dining options. Winkeler assists students who require a special diet, such as students who have food allergies or a medical condition that requires a specific diet. The eight most common allergens, as identified by the US Food & Drug Administration, are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat and soybeans.

“Students come to me and tell me what their diet is,” Winkeler says. “Then I help manage that diet in the dining courts. For example, a student may come to me and say they have Crohn’s disease and tell me the foods that trigger their symptoms. I can help them find options using our resources to manage that.”

Dining & Culinary has a host of resources Winkeler can recommend to students to help them find meals that fit their needs. Students can use the Mobile Menus app – which includes lists of ingredients and allergens, as well as nutritional information – to view menus and decide which dining court to visit. Build-your-own stations, such as pasta and salad bars, offer students additional opportunities to customize their meals. Students can also ask for food to be pulled from a refrigerator or warmer by a member of the Dining & Culinary staff to decrease the risk of cross-contact with foods that may contain allergens.

Some students may need additional resources based on the number or severity of their allergies. These students can work with the Disability Resource Center to request a dietary accommodation. To support these students, Winkeler has worked to refine Dining & Culinary’s Purple Diamond program, which allows students to order food before arriving at a dining court. Food is made to order by a member of the Dining & Culinary staff to reduce the risk of cross-contamination with allergens. Purple Diamond services are now available in three dining courts after a new location recently opened in Ford Dining Court. 

Most often, students find that their initial communication with Winkeler provides all the information they need to effectively manage their diets. In some cases, students enjoy open-ended communication to have questions answered and provide feedback on their dining experiences.

Winkeler’s work to keep nutrition and allergen information updated in CBORD, a food service management system that contains all of Dining & Culinary’s menus, recipes and ingredients, also makes a noticeable impact on students. Updating nutrition fact labels, ingredients and allergen tags is a thorough process that allows students to view the information in the Mobile Menus app to make the best choice for their diets at mealtime.

“I’ve worked hard to make sure we have all the ingredient lists in there so we’re making sure students get the full amount of information they need,” Winkeler says. “That’s something I think I’ve made a lot of progress on. I like making sure the app is up to date because so many students rely on it. People can forget that students have allergies outside the top eight. Someone may be allergic to celery or mustard, for example. If we don’t have the ingredients listed, those students can’t see that.”

Winkeler also oversees all staff allergen training and has hosted special events to raise awareness of challenges students with food allergies or dietary restrictions face. One such event was an Empathy Meal, where each staff member in attendance was assigned a food allergy and had to select food from a buffet according to their assigned allergy. At the end of the meal, participants discussed some of the barriers and challenges they faced.

“We discussed everyone’s different experiences and the challenges of eating how some of these students have to,” Winkeler says. “It really helps put people in students’ shoes to show them how difficult it can be navigating these allergies. I purposely left one of the items unlabeled and put the peanut butter cookies next to the chocolate chip cookies so there was some cross-contamination. We talked about how frustrating that can be and I think it helped people realize why it’s so important that we do things a certain way.”

Working in food service was a significant change from Winkeler’s previous experience at Kansas State University, where she worked in sports nutrition while pursuing a Master of Science in Human Nutrition. Her interest in working in food service was piqued when she received a tour of the university’s new dining court from a dietitian to assess healthy options for student-athletes.

“She took me on a tour, showed me everything and told me about her job managing allergies and special diets,” Winkeler says. “It was one of those lightbulb moments where I knew it was something that would be cool to do.”

Winkeler has been a part of the Dining & Culinary team since 2018 and says her decision to pursue a career in food service has been a rewarding one.

“I like being around people in food service,” Winkeler says. “It’s a different pace of life and it takes a unique type of individual to work in it. I like working with them.”

With an estimated 10.8 percent of adults in the U.S. possessing a food allergy, Winkeler’s work with students will remain an important part of Dining & Culinary’s work to craft an inclusive residential dining experience where every student has a seat at the table.

Christopher Cayari (far left) with students at Rainbow Callout, an event hosted by the LGBTQ Center.

For many students, relationships with faculty members are built primarily in academic settings. Attending office hours, asking questions during a lecture or staying after class for a conversation are some of the common ways students interact with faculty. In University Residences, however, faculty are engaging students where they live as part of the Amelia Earhart Faculty in Residence (FiR) program.

FiR integrates faculty members into residential communities to encourage relationship building, provide experiential education opportunities and help students find meaning in their experiences at Purdue. The program honors the legacy of Earhart, who lived among students in the Women’s Residence Hall for three years during the 1930s and gave her time and talents to the residents of her community. Her personal touch and mentorship changed the lives of many women at Purdue.

Christopher Cayari, associate professor of music in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts, and Patrick Mosher, a lecturer in the Krannert School of Management, currently serve as FiRs for University Residences. Cayari and Mosher each use their experiences, perspectives and interests to connect with Boilermakers.

Cayari’s interest in an FiR position stemmed from a simple desire – to “do life” with students. Cayari’s initial exposure to residential learning came as a learning community instructor in the Musical Theatre Learning Community. He then became part of the Faculty Fellows program with the Gender Inclusive Learning Community at the recommendation of a colleague. Serving as a FiR was a logical next step for Cayari, who wanted to build even stronger connections with students and connect with campus life. 

“The thing I missed most about being a college student was living on campus,” Cayari says. “There’s the energy and bustle of living on campus that appeals to me.”

Mosher, a three-time alumnus of Purdue and a five-time participant in University Residences’ Executive-in-Residence (EiR) program, is attuned to the areas in which he can make the biggest impact. His current venture, Wisdom for Humanity, takes people to sacred places to re-envision their life and share wisdom to build a better world for future generations. The seed for Mosher to serve as a FiR was planted during his most recent EiR visit during spring 2021 and finalized with his appointment as a lecturer in Krannert School of Management. Mosher, who is currently battling stage 4 chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), saw the opportunity as serendipitous to his life’s work.

“I have a mortality necessity that other people don’t have and I look at that as a blessing – it’s actually a gift,” Mosher says. “I’m very conscious now of the decisions that I make and where I have the most impact. My work is about building a better world for future generations and then I was asked to teach students. I believe the universe is perfect and this was the universe telling me that this is what I needed to do.”

The FiR program doesn’t simply bring a classroom setting to the residence hall. Faculty engage students by actively participating in events and their residential communities alongside students.

Cayari uses his passion for music, theatre and the performing arts to engage with the residents of Parker Halls, Honors College and Residences, and Meredith South – though all students are welcome. Cayari collaborated with colleagues from other universities who were visiting Indianapolis for a drum conference to engage students through “Drum as You Are,” which invited students to participate in music-making and learn music on drums. He has also taken students on trips to Chicago and other universities to watch musical theatre shows and meet members of the cast whom Cayari knows.

Diversity, inclusion and belonging are significant emphases for Cayari as well. Once a month, he invites students, faculty and staff to meet with members of the Faculty of Color Network over lunch.

“The great thing is that we see students and faculty of all races and ethnicities at these events,” Cayari says. “We’re promoting cross-cultural networking as well as talking about our respective experiences at Purdue.”

He has also hosted several events focusing on the LGBTQIA+ community at Purdue, including a collaboration with Drag Artists of Purdue and the Gender Inclusive Learning Community called “reverse trick-or-treating,” where participating students handed out candy in residence halls.

“Reverse trick-or-treating was a wonderful experience for the students in that group who were able to find a community of people that they and I have similar identities to,” Cayari continues.

These events often serve as catalysts for relationships with students that blossom through subsequent interactions. Cayari says he often finds himself interacting with students who attended an event when he sees them elsewhere on campus.

“The students and I start to see each other all over campus,” Cayari says. “We start to build recognition and then we start to find each other. There were people from URBA [University Residences Boiler Apartments] who I met at the CoRec last year. Now, I seem to seem five times in a week. I know them now and we were able to build a relationship. I think that’s exciting.”

For Cayari, being a FiR is about more than hosting events – it’s including students in his daily life and actively participating in the residence hall community. Cayari invites students to join him for daily workouts out the CoRec and enjoys meeting students for meals in the dining halls. He also regularly attends events hosted by RAs, including a karaoke night and a game night. He also enjoys stepping into his “backyard” to check out events happening on Krach Lawn.

“The fun part about being a Faculty in Residence for me is getting to know people, getting to hear students get excited and them being curious,” Cayari says. “I think that’s why students are going to the gym with me – they’re curious about why I do the things that I do. It’s fun to feed their curiosity as well. As they’re asking questions, I get more connected with them, get to know them and hear about their interests.”

Patrick Mosher with members of UR Global during an Executive-in-Residence visit.

Mosher’s varied background gives him a unique perspective to share with Purdue students. Mosher holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering as well as master’s degrees in organizational communication and human resources management from Purdue. He was also a dancer and choreographer with the Purdue Repertory Dance Theatre while a student, has been a tai chi instructor and spent 25 years participating in Lakota ceremonies on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. At the heart of Mosher’s interactions with Boilermakers is helping them make sense of their journey at Purdue and craft a compelling story to share with future employers. 

“A good resume tells a good story,” Mosher says. “You’re here to create your story. You’re here to find out who you are, explore and discover things and make mistakes.” 

Mosher hosts storytelling workshops, where he shares his own stories while helping students craft theirs. With nearly 30 years of consulting experience at Accenture, Mosher has a keen awareness of what catches the eye of employers.

“My view is when you build your resume, every bullet point on the resume should be a 20-second story, a two-minute story and a 30-minute story, and you should be ready to dive into any of those,” Mosher says. “Your job here at Purdue is to create a great Purdue story resume because your life is going to be on one sheet of paper when you go to apply for a job. That one sheet of paper should scream who you are.”

 Mosher encourages students to not only discover and pursue their passions beyond the classroom but celebrate them as central to their own story. He notes his own experience in Purdue Repertory Dance Theatre as an undergrad might not seem relevant to a chemical engineering degree, but sharing that aspect of his life presents a fuller story of who he is and has opened up opportunities to engage with that passion later in life. He currently serves on the board for the Cowles Center for Dance & the Performing Arts in Minneapolis, which exposes every eighth-grade student in the Twin Cities to the performing arts.

Mosher says he enjoys looking for people who are what he calls “positive deviants,” whether that’s through his work with students or his personal endeavors.

“Being a deviant means you know who you are and you know your uniquity,” Mosher says. “You know your unique talents and you’re putting them out into the world.”

Mosher says finding and encouraging these unique individuals is both rewarding and helps define the significant impact he can have on students.

“Impact is the energy imparted from one object to another and its kinetic energy that is transferred,” Mosher says. “My definition of significance is statistical. Statistical significance is deviating from the norm or expectation. If you look at a bell curve, the significance is at the tails. When I talk about significant impact, that means I like to work with people who have an impact on the world that deviates from the norm or expectation.”

Previous iterations of FiR have emphasized connection within a single residence hall community. This year, the program is working to engage with students of multiple residence halls within a neighborhood. For example, Cayari surveyed students from Winifred and Frieda Parker Halls as well as Honors College and Residences, and Meredith South to gauge interest in events. He received 560 responses, demonstrating the demand students have for these types of interactions and events. The goals of expanding the FiR program to the neighborhood level are to meet this demand and carry on the legacy of Earhart, who connected with students across campus.  

“Chris and Patrick are two very different individuals from Amelia Earhart, but it’s about impacting students who are not just in one building – but across campus,” says Mark McNalley, assistant director of Residential Academic Initiatives. “The students they’re connecting with just happen to be part of their neighborhood.”

McNalley and Residential Academic Initiatives are working to create more FiR positions in additional residence halls. Interested faculty are encouraged to apply online.

Whitney Wood’s journey to her current role as CBORD coordinator for Purdue Dining & Culinary has been one of persistence, covering a move from out-of-state, inspiration from Purdue students, attaining a degree and pursuing her professional interests.

Wood originally came to the Greater Lafayette area eight years ago when she and her husband, Cory, moved from Tennessee to be closer to family. Within two weeks of the move, she was hired as the supervisor at Port Café, located in Lawson Computer Science Building.

Though the move was made easier by having family in the area, Wood says that her new colleagues helped her transition to the campus environment. Her supervisor, Wanda Woodhams, helped introduce Wood to the processes, expectations and community of Retail Dining.  

“It was an easier transition than I may have had if I was moving to another state or doing another job because I felt completely welcomed,” Wood says. “Retail Dining was my home away from home. We got really close really fast.”

Wood also quickly discovered that she loved working with students.  

“I felt like I had this great team of students,” Wood says. “When I’d come in, it would instantly put a smile on my face to see them diligently working and inspiring each other.”

As a supervisor, Wood closely observed the challenges students face while balancing their coursework with a job. Seeing them navigate these challenges provided the inspiration for Wood’s next step – the pursuit of a degree.

“I saw the students and thought if they can come to work and go to school at the same time, I can too,” Wood says. “I don’t think I would have been able to complete college or have the motivation and drive to go back and get my degree until I had seen the students doing it. Seeing all their struggles and how they were able to manage it I thought was really inspiring.”

Wood enrolled in Ivy Tech Community College and earned an Associate of Science in Business Administration in 2019. She plans to complete a bachelor’s degree through Purdue Global at a future date. 

“I started to like the idea of exploring business management because it opens doors and relates to the skills I was already using with Dining,” Wood says. “I decided to go in that direction and realized that this is how my brain works. This is something I’m really interested in doing and I should pursue it.”

In addition to the inspiration provided by students, Wood received financial assistance through the John C. Smalley Memorial Grant. The grant is given twice each year to University Residences and Dining & Culinary staff to provide educational opportunities, recognize excellent service and encourage individuals to pursue education that can lead to advancement with the university. Wood says the tuition assistance was helpful in her pursuit of the degree.

“It really did take a chunk off what I owed at the end of the year, so it was very beneficial,” Wood says.

Wood’s supervisor position in Port also opened the door to her next opportunity with Dining & Culinary when she met Sally Baugues, then the CBORD coordinator for Dining & Culinary, and Joan Berryman, who was the CBORD process assistant. Through conversations with Baugues and Berryman, as well as working in the CBORD system on inventory, ordering and other administrative tasks, Wood discovered she enjoyed and was good at using the software. After the process assistant role opened up, Wood applied and obtained the position, which she held for about two and a half years.

During this time, Wood says Baugues served as an important mentor in helping learn more about the CBORD system as well as providing personal guidance in how to slow down, take her time and pay attention to details. When Baugues retired, Wood applied for and obtained the CBORD coordinator position in October.

Wood’s behind-the-scenes work with CBORD, a food service management system that contains all of Dining & Culinary’s menus, recipes and ingredients, helps streamline processes for management and allows students to make decisions regarding their diet. The system allows Dining & Culinary to construct and forecast menus, create orders, find ingredients, share nutrition information and more.

When Dining & Culinary purchases a new ingredient, Wood and her team enter data such as weight, vendor, price and other information relevant to a recipe so when that recipe is used, CBORD can generate nutritional information and share it through Dining’s Mobile Menus app. Special care has to be taken for units of measurement, serving size, allergens and other considerations. The system has years of data and recipes stored, which sometimes need to be accessed and updated with new nutritional information as required by the USDA. For example, Wood’s student intern recently completed a significant project that involved adding information on added sugars to each recipe.

In addition to the behind-the-scenes impact she makes, Wood also serves as an enthusiastic advocate for Dining & Culinary students and staff. She encourages staff to nominate students for honors such as the Above and Beyond the Call of Duty (ABCD) Award and publicly supports initiatives such as Purdue Day of Giving. She says the late Amanda Adams, former employee success manager for Dining & Culinary, served as an inspiration for her work ethic and commitment to staff and students. 

“Amanda was Dining’s cheerleader and I’ve carried that with me,” Wood says. “I always participate on social media for Purdue Day of Giving, making videos and sharing photos. It’s an easy way to participate and maybe it will help someone take time out of their day to donate or participate and be silly for a minute. I would really like to carry that spirit forward.”

Over the last two years, Dining & Culinary has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic to provide uninterrupted meal service to students on campus. This has involved pivots to take-out and hybrid service models at various points, delivering food to students in quarantine and meeting all the ensuing challenges involved with procuring products and navigating supply-chain issues to craft a residential dining experience that supports students. Wood says she has found the inspiration to persist through this adversity in her coworkers throughout Dining & Culinary. 

“I think Purdue Dining employees are probably the people who have the most grit on campus because they can roll with the punches,” Wood says. “They are very hardworking and that inspires me to be at their level. I have to make sure that I’m working just as hard, if not harder, to make their lives easier. I’ve been heavily influenced by almost everybody that I interact with at Purdue because it really does feel like it’s a place where everybody understands that we’re in this together and we’re all here to support each other. I just love being a part of that.”

After overcoming these challenges, Wood says she is looking forward to returning to an environment that allows for more creativity in Dining & Culinary operations, including the creation of new recipes. She’s also working on using CBORD to improve the processes for forecasting need, building menus and more.

Wood says a journey like hers is possible for anyone in Dining & Culinary.

“There’s different ways to advance just by showing an interest in what you like,” Wood says. “I showed interest in a food service system and that’s what got me to where I am.”

No matter what challenges or future opportunities may come Wood’s way, she says she’s happy to be part of the Dining & Culinary team.

“Not all of us may have graduated from here, but we’re all Boilermakers,” Wood says. “Everyone supports each other and that’s the most important thing for me. I love seeing everyone work together and take their careers different places.”