Sylvia Gabriela Phillips is a college assistant professor and director of the graduate dietetic internship program at New Mexico State University (NMSU) in the United States. She is a licensed Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) in the U.S. Phillips’ professional background includes work experience in clinical nutrition, food
service, and community nutrition. She has worked in acute care, sports nutrition and community health settings, and currently has a partnership with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, in the U.S. Phillips’ journey in the academic field has been marked by pushing boundaries and challenging conventional teaching techniques. Her primary goal as the dietetic
internship program director at NMSU has been to close the gaps between the classroom and real-world professional practice.

While clinical placements are always a challenge for dietetic interns in southern and inland regions of the United States, these roadblocks have provided an opportunity for Professor Phillips to develop remote learning curricula including using virtual reality and simulation dietetics to teach graduate courses at NMSU since 2017. Phillips identified a clinical dietetics curriculum gap for RDNs, as VR curricula had been developed for physicians and nurses, but not RDNs, who are an integral part of the health care team
in a clinical setting.

Phillips, who is fluent in both English and Spanish, has built from scratch the only dietetics simulation and virtual reality lab in the state of New Mexico with proprietary VR dietetics curricula in both English and Spanish. For her contribution to the field of dietetics, she received the New Mexico Outstanding Dietitian of the Year award in 2023, and continues to advance dietetics curriculum development using VR technology and
artificial intelligence mannequins.

Phillips holds a bachelor’s degree in nutrition and food science from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, a master’s degree in family and consumer science with an emphasis in human nutrition from New Mexico State University, and is pursuing a Ph.D. at NMSU, where she is conducting research on folic acid fortification of nixtamalized corn products.