We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Alicia Simpson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Alicia below.

Alright, Alicia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Looking back at internships and apprenticeships can be interesting, because there is so much variety in people’s experiences – and often those experiences inform our own leadership style. Do you have an interesting story from that stage of your career that you can share with us?

My internship literally made me who I am today and has changed everything about my life. I did a large part of my dietetics internship at Grady Memorial Hospital. I was a new mother and balancing working part-time, being in school full, and doing a 1200 hour internship practicum so I would be eligible to sit for my board examinations when I graduated. My plate was beyond full and I was so ready to enter the next chapter of my life. My very first patient was a woman in her late 60s who had just woken up from a diabetic coma. Her blood sugar levels were so high that, at the time, I didn’t even know it was possible to have near 4 digit blood glucose readings. But I was young and idealistic and thought that my 15 minutes of nutrition education would completely change her life. I studied her chart, studied all the Grady sanctioned materials I could use to educate her and marched in confident. She was so kind, pleasant and an active listener. Within 5 minutes I thought “I’ve done it! I’m doing it! I am changing lives!” As our conversation wrapped up and I gave her all her written instructions and confirmed she understood everything she asked me if I could hand her something on the hospital table that was out of her reach. That something was a 20 ounce fanta soda. My heart dropped. I felt like giving up, crying and running away. She was dying because her desire for that soda was stronger than anything I could have said, it was stronger than the coma she just came out of, it was stronger than a healthy pain-free life. In that moment, I knew that prevention was the work I wanted to do. I knew that our culture had failed her, that our systems had failed her and that in order to ensure that the cycle she was born into was broken I had to start with children and families. I had to go all the way to the very beginning when foods are first being introduced to a baby, when kids get their first taste of cake, when they are at school and getting skittles and chocolate as prizes for doing something well. I knew an entire system had to change and I was now part of that system as a healthcare provider. And from that moment, I sat down and started to create the business plan for Pea Pod Nutrition and I never looked back.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For folks who may not have read about me before, I’m Alicia Simpson, and I’m a registered dietitian and lactation consultant. My journey into this field began with a passion for preventative care. I truly believe that through proper nutrition and lifestyle choices, we can build healthier communities and reduce the risk of chronic diseases. This belief, combined with witnessing the wide disparities in healthcare services provided to low-income families versus those with good insurance, inspired me to found Pea Pod Nutrition and Lactation Support, Inc. in 2012.

At Pea Pod Nutrition, we provide evidence-based nutrition and lactation education, counseling, and support. We offer a range of services, including adult and pediatric nutrition counseling, lactation support, and even hospital-grade pump rentals. Our unique strength lies in our commitment to accessibility. We are an in-network provider with most private and public insurance plans, and we offer free services to all Georgia families, regardless of income. This is what sets us apart—we intentionally reach the “working poor” and other underserved families, a population often missed by government assistance programs.

The problems we solve are deeply rooted in Georgia’s public health challenges. Our work directly combats the state’s alarmingly high maternal and infant mortality rates, particularly among Black women. Our Diabetes in Pregnancy Program (DiPP) is a key initiative in this fight, providing crucial medical nutrition therapy and lactation support to pregnant individuals. By giving parents the tools to manage their health during and after pregnancy, we help them have healthy, full-term pregnancies and reduce the risk of complications for both parent and baby. We also address food insecurity and hardship through our Warm Hearts Fund, a seasonal program that provides warm meals, blankets, and clothing to homeless families.

What I am most proud of is the tangible impact we have on the lives of families. I’m proud that we’ve built an organization that is not only dedicated to providing services but also to advocating for policies that improve healthcare access and address the root causes of health inequities. I want our potential clients, followers, and supporters to know that at Pea Pod Nutrition, we are obsessed with your family’s health—not just for today, but for generations to come. We believe that everyone deserves equitable access to high-quality care, and we are working tirelessly to build a Georgia where every family can thrive.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

There always feels like there must be some magical trick or tip to building a successful business. My background is in marketing and I started my career in sales so building a strong brand strategy was in my training. But frankly, you need more than the academic know how. You need to have a solid product, you need to be trustworthy and you need to be open and honest with your customers. In my case, the customers of Pea Pod Nutrition are every single person who lives in the state of Georgia and we only have one goal – to help them live their most full and healthy lives and we don’t make compromises about that. That is the driving force of Pea Pod Nutrition. This means we lead with science at all times, we follow the evidence and we break through all the myths and BS that exist around nutrition. But, most importantly, we treat every person who walks through our doors with humanity. We understand that what brought someone into our office on any given day might be their weight, might be a newly diagnosed disease like diabetes or an autoimmune condition or it might be they are searching for something and they just don’t know what yet but they think making a lifestyle change will help. No matter the reason someone comes to us they are a whole person. Like all of us they plan for the best case scenario and then life happens and throws everything off, they have major life stressors, they have immense joys, they have traumatic histories or are preparing for a major life shift. And all of that is important to us. Because all of that, ultimately, makes or breaks our health journey. So our strategy is simple – listen to people, really listen to them and respond accordingly. That’s how you build your clientele – you get out of your own way and pay attention to the person sitting right in front of you. If you keep doing that over and over again the word of mouth will spread and you will thrive.

Can you open up about how you managed the initial funding?

Pea Pod Nutrition was 100% funded by me from it’s inception. I mentioned earlier that I was working full time while also in school and that while I was in school I came up with the idea of Pea Pod Nutrition. Well, that work continued even after graduation. I continued to two full time jobs for the first 6 years of Pea Pod’s existence. It was grueling but it ensured that I could slowly build the business without incurring debt and really focus on what I wanted this company to look like and how we were going to serve the community in the ways I envisioned. Then I started writing grants and started winning grants, then fundraising took off and suddenly Pea Pod was a fully independent organization generating real income not just for me but for the employees I was able to bring on as well. Hiring my first employee, an office manager, was a triumph! It let me know I was on the right track. I am forever proud that I was able to build this organization on my own, without debt and to look at Pea Pod Nutrition now – 13 years later with 1/2 dozen thriving programs many of them fully funded is a dream.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.peapodnutrition.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peapodnutrition/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PeaPodNutrition/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aliciasimpsonphd/