Polly Harris

About Polly

My name is Polly Harris and I am a registered dietitian with a doctorate degree in adult and community education. I have over 25 years of experience in the nutrition field and my specialties include community nutrition, bariatrics, diabetes, and weight loss. Awards: The Mildred Clark Award "Youth Educational Programming in Shelby Co. in 2000, The Mildred Clark Award "Outstanding Program Impact" in 2001, The Debbie Award "Dynamic Leadership" in 2002, and FCS Career Edge Award "Teaching Excellence" in 2004.

Approach to care

It is my desire to connect with patients as individuals, to provide for differentiated learning styles and ultimately facilitate self-motivated, life-long healthy eating. By connecting with patients, I hope to understand and to be understood. To connect I must always be aware of my patient's needs. Each patient is a unique person. I will by no means stereotype a patient by race, religion, or socio-economic background. I acknowledge that there are multiple learning styles, and I will provide for all styles without partiality towards my own learning style. Rather than simply informing of skill or information through lecture, I will find and develop ways to facilitate or “make easy” the learning process, so that patients may understand foreign concepts. I will encourage self-motivated learning. Learning that is moved to action with internal incentives. This will help patients want to make changes for their own well-being.

Your first session with Polly

In my first session I expect to make mistakes and learn from those mistakes on how to improve my communication skills with patients. I expect to enjoy getting to know my patients and figuring out how best to help them understand their nutritional needs.

Location

📍 Memphis, Tennessee

Education

Doctoral Degree in Adult Education 2004 Master of Science Degree in Dietetics 1998 Bachelor of Science Degree in Nutrition/Dietetics 1997 All 3 degrees from The University of Memphis

Hobbies

I love to travel and immerse myself in other cultures by reading novels about the places, by authors from the places, exploring the education systems of the places, and eating and learning about the foods from the places.

Licenses and Certifications