Learn more about Desiree Baptist

How long have you worked for the NTA? What is your role? I started working for the NTA in October 2018.  I am an Admissions Advisor, so I get to answer people’s questions about our programs and get them enrolled! 

What attracted you to work at the NTA?  I had just moved back to the US from Belize and was looking for a job, however I did not want just any job.  I was looking for a place that I felt good about working for.  A place that was doing something impactful and positive, and I have found that working with the NTA.  I had never heard of the NTA before I saw the job opening, but was immediately drawn to it, after doing some research and finding out more about it.   

What do you love about working for the NTA?  I love that the NTA truly practices what they preach.  The work life balance is encouraged and promoted.  It is a very supportive environment, that is filled with some of the most compassionate people. 

What are you most proud about accomplishing in your time at NTA to date?  Being on the Admissions Team and getting to speak to prospective students and getting them enrolled is what makes me proud.  I enjoy the whole process of talking with people and answering all their questions, and then getting to enroll them!  

Describe the NTA in three words? Supportive, Inspiring, Passionate 

Describe yourself in three words Easy-going, Adventurous, Positive 

What is your favorite fat? Avocado.  I can eat it all day, every day! 

What is your least favorite food? Hmmmm…this is a tough one.  I don’t like cashews – the fruit.  It makes my mouth cringe. 

What’s your most used cook book or recipe blog and why? I don’t really use cookbooks.  I go off what I learned through watching other great cooks I know. 

What are you reading (or listening to) right now? I am currently in the NTP program, so whatever is on the required reading list!  I don’t have time for anything else.  Other than that, I am slowly (currently on pause) getting through Becoming by Michelle Obama.  At the very moment that I am answering this question, I am listening to this.

Learn more about Katy Smith

How long have you worked for the NTA? What is your role? 

I started working with the NTA in 2018, as an Associate Instructor for the very first New Zealand based class. I am currently the AI for Chicago and am looking forward to starting the first Auckland (NZ) class later this year.  

What attracted you to work at the NTA? 

The focus on empowering and cultivating an environment where we can not only heal ourselves and our loved ones but our communities too. I loved being a part of it as a student, and wanted to continue this journey with the NTA that changed my life. 

What do you love about working for the NTA? 

Being surrounded by people who all have the same genuine love for nutrition and changing the health of the world. Plus as part of the instructor team I get the privilege of seeing students blossom from the start of the course to graduation, it truly is a magical transformation.  

What are you most proud about accomplishing in your time at the NTA to date? 

I’m proud to have graduated my first ever class of students as the first ever NZ based class.  It was the most amazing experience and I am just so proud of the students and all the fabulous things they are about to do in their communities.  

Describe the NTA in three words? 

Empowering. Educating. Collaborative. 

Describe yourself in three words 

Determined. Fiesty. Compassionate. 

What do you love the most about our community? 

Weird is normal.  

No, in all seriousness – this community was like finding a new home. I didn’t even know I had been searching for it until I found it. I felt instantly like I belonged, and that it was a community full of people wanting to empower themselves and each other, and work on healing the world.  

What is your favorite fat? 

New Zealand, Grass-Fed Butter with Sea Salt Flakes….duh!  

What is your least favorite food? 

This is hard, I don’t eat things I do not like anymore – I eat what I feel like intuitively and want my body needs. But if I have to choose, I do not like bananas, even the smell is too much!  

What’s your most used cook book or recipe blog and why? 

Currently Eat Your Greens by Pete Evans – love finding new ways to celebrate VEGGIES 

What are you reading (or listening to) right now? 

Understanding Psychedelics (Michael Pollen) & 
Everthing is F*cked – A Story of Hope (Mark Manson) 

Both are eye opening and must reads!  

In your mind, what are the biggest challenges the holistic health community faces? 

Getting our message out there. So many people genuinely do not know there is a better way to eat, and that they can actually feel so much better.  And once we get the information out there, we have to educate those we can reach to really see the benefit of true health instead of people thinking that it doesn’t apply to them.

Want to speak with an instructor? 

Join us for a Live Info Session. One of our Senior Lead Instructors will go in-depth, discussing the differences between our programs. This is a great opportunity for you to get your questions answered and to determine if one of the NTA programs is right for you!

How long have you worked for the NTA? What is your role?  

I’ve been an Associate Instructor for one year.

What attracted you to work at the NTA?  

After I graduated in 2016, I group lead the following year. I loved group leading so much.  I received so much joy working with the students and watching them grow into amazing practitioners. 

What do you love about working for the NTA?  

The community of like-minded people empowering and educating practitioners to go out and heal the world.

What are you most proud about accomplishing in your time at the NTA to date?  

I was student of the year in 2016! I always feel so proud every time I am part of a graduating class. 

Describe the NTA in three words? 

Empowering and educating at the grassroots level.

Describe yourself in three words  

Dedicated to making change.

What is your favorite fat?  

Gold Nugget ghee.

What is your least favorite food?  

There are not many foods I dislike but I can’t stomach a plate of deep fried food. 

What’s your most used cookbook or recipe blog and why?  

I love Pete Evans cookbooks. I use a lot of his recipes and I studied with Luke Hines in 2016, he has great cookbooks too. 

What are you reading (or listening to) right now?  

I am currently reading Michael Pollen – How to change your mind  

How long have you worked for the NTA? What is your role? 

I joined the NTA in late 2017 and currently serve as Director of Strategic Projects, guiding our Infusionsoft launch. I work with our team to build systems like online registration and marketing automations that help us create structure and bandwidth so we can keep growing. I love that I get to peek under the hood and see how each department works, and then make cool stuff with people I really enjoy spending time with.

What attracted you to work at the NTA? 

My lovely group leaders from the 2017 LA NTP class recruited me (thank you, Jess, John, and Rosemary!!!). I wanted to give back since the NTA had such an impact on my life, and when I saw how awesome the rest of the team was, I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

What do you love about working for the NTA? 

That this team is made up of such smart, kind, interesting people who also happen to be total badasses – it seems like everyone is doing something cool and different outside of the NTA and I feel like I become a better person just by being around them. Also, all the emojis in our slack channels.

What are you most proud about accomplishing in your time at the NTA to date? 

My roles have always been interconnected with others so there isn’t much I do on my own, but I’m proud of our work launching the Career Development and Foundational Wellness courses, and what we’re building right now in Infusionsoft. It’s pretty magical watching our talents come together to make awesome ideas into reality.

Describe the NTA in three words: 

Inspiring, Empowering, Evolving

Describe yourself in three words:

Adventurous, Optimist, Thinker

What do you love the most about our community? 

That we can get serious about challenging and changing a broken status quo, all the while enjoying the good things in life like perfect avocados and laughing at poop jokes.

What is your favorite fat? 

It’s a tie between coconut oil (I mean, come on, what else can be a cooking oil, hinge greaser, mouth rinse and moisturizer?!) and raw cream. Unlike most of us, raw cream only gets more delightful as it sours.

What is your least favorite food? 

Durian fruit, bless all the Chinese elders who love it, but it literally smells like rotting garbage.

What is your most used cook book or recipe blog and why? 

99% of the time I wing it, but every Thanksgiving I make this AIP pumpkin pie cheesecake because it’s so delicious and my family will actually eat it. I just sub out sweet potato for pumpkin puree. And I love my dear friend Aimee Suen’s blog, small eats.

What are you reading or listening to right now? 

I like to work my way through a bunch of books at once – right now I’m into Calvin and Hobbes, Hyperbole and a Half , Radical Equations, Michael Pollan’s How to Change Your Mind, The Bullet Journal Method, and a couple by our awesome grads: Megan Van Zyl’s What Is Cancer, and Steph Gaudreau’s The Core 4. And I’m always re-reading parts of Pema Chodron’s The Places That Scare You and Iyengar’s Light On Yoga.

 In your mind, what are the biggest challenges the holistic health community faces? 

When I think about our goal as a community, it’s to heal the world with holistic, foundational healthcare and regenerative practices that are woven into our social consciousness throughout our lives. The biggest threat is that we never get to a place where any of this is as legitimized, recognized, or accessible as the conventional systems (and eventually more so!). We’re doing amazing work to get there, but there’s still a ways to go. In my eyes, the greatest challenges are: 

• + Providing better access to information and services for the general public, especially marginalized and at-risk populations, like Rise & Root Farm (thanks Ben), WellnessCon and Station CoLab (both created by NTPs!), and so many others.
• + Funding, conducting and advocating for rigorous research in our fields, like the Autoimmune Wellness team is doing.
• + Lobbying for initiatives that support access to information, a consistent standard of care and rights to practice, and regenerative agricultural practices and policies, like CHHE, NANP, FTCLDF, Kiss The Ground, TNAFA, etc
• + All of this hinges on coming together, despite our differences, and empowering ourselves and others in the community with the skills they need to be successful, so they have the resources to fund the work they do and create positive change. (Which is why the Career Development Course was created. And for free resources, HEA is also pretty sweet)

Heart-led, Receptive, Growing 

Describe yourself in three words  

And my mom – always listen to your mom! 😉