nutrition specialist

nutrition specialist

About the CBNS

The CBNS is the only organization providing voluntary certification to all professional nutritionists with advanced training in nutrition science.

In addition to nutritionists at the doctoral level, the CBNS offers certification to other health professionals with masters or PhD degrees, such as nutritionists, registered dietitians, pharmacists, nurses and others, with significant experience as professional nutritionists.

The CBNS is composed of professional nutritionists, each with years of invaluable experience. Acting as a Board, these nutritionists have developed a process for the voluntary certification of professional nutritionists, based on education and experiential eligibility criteria as well as the ability to demonstrate knowledge and skills through a formal examination process.

Attaining certification as a Certified Nutrition Specialist will attest to the qualifications, advanced skills, and professional stature of a nutritionist.

In addition, the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists:

Is dedicated to the advancement of basic and applied nutritional sciences and to their ethical and humanistic application to the betterment of the human condition;
Recognizes the need for strong scientific training and advanced education for professional nutritionists;
Supports the participation of professional nutritionists in independent evaluations of scientific data and related literature without fear of persecution, political reprisal, or loss of credential;
Encourages all nutritionists to uphold these fundamental principles.

Leadership

The following are the President and Vice Presidents of the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists:

President: Robert I-san Lin, PhD, CNS, FACN
Vice President: Stanley J. Dudrick, MD, CNS, FACN
Vice President: Sidney J. Stohs, PhD, CNS, FACN, ATS
Vice President: David Heber, MD, PhD, CNS, FACN
Vice President: Jonathan W. Emord, JD

A Brief History of the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists
I. The Beginning

The Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists (CBNS) was founded in 1991. During the American College of Nutrition (ACN) Annual Meeting that year, Dr. Robert I-San Lin asked for permission from ACN Executive Director Dr. Mildred Seelig to call a special meeting to form an independent certifying organization for nutritionists. He proposed that the mission of the organization be: (1) to advance nutritioncare by certifying competent practicing nutritionists to form the backbone of nutritioncare’s infrastructure and (2) to provide a mechanism through which advanced degreed professionals in nutrition and allied fields can be certified and recognized by the law. Meeting participants included ACN members and representatives of other organizations, e.g., Patricia Hausman, leader of the American Nutritionists Association. They agreed to form this new organization independent of ACN. The new organization was later named the Certification Board for Nutrition Specialists with the power to confer upon qualified applicants the title Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS). It was decided that CBNS should be operated by its Board of Directors. Dr. Stanley Wallach, then ACN’s Treasurer, was elected President of the Board. Dr. Lin was elected a director and also served, over the years, as vice chair and chair of the Exam Committee.

CBNS’ mission soon expanded to include support for “the right of professional nutritionists to participate in independent evaluations of the scientific literature without fear of persecution, political reprisal, or loss of credential”. That mission supports many nutritionists in one of their major struggles then (and now). Before the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994, many highly bioactive nutrients were considered unapproved drugs or unapproved food additives. All nutrients were (and still are) treated as drugs if they are intended for use in preventing, mitigating, or treating a physiological condition or disease. Many nutrients, e.g., bioflavonoids, were considered to have no function in, or no value for, the body (21 CFR 101.9 (i) (5)). Practitioners using nutrients for preventing, mitigating, treating, or curing a nutrition-related or nutritionally treatable disease or a condition were subject to prosecution for practicing medicine without a license, recommending, prescribing, or dispensing unapproved drugs, or using a drug for an unapproved indication.

After three years of hard work, CBNS incorporated as a non-profit organization in 1993 in the District of Columbia. In 1995, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) granted CBNS 501(c)(6) status, which permits lobbying activities. During these years and many thereafter, Dr. Michael J. Glade led the development of the Certification Exam Program, the Exam Questions Bank, the Study Guide, and the Nutrition Review Course. Ms. Hausman made monumental efforts, leading to the recognition of CNS in many states. She set an outstanding example of CNS’ devotion to our cause. At that time, about 680 advanced degreed nutritionists were granted the CNS designation under stringent education and experiential requirements. In 1995, CBNS began to offer Certification Examinations.
II. CBNS and ACN

From 1991 until the early 2000’s, CBNS functioned as an independent organization, although its president Dr. Wallach was also an ACN executive director. Ms. Pearl Small served as a CBNS Coordinator. CBNS shared office space with ACN and paid part of the rent and overhead. According to Dr. Wallach, “CBNS . . . increased the membership of ACN and protect[ed] the interest of ACN.”
III. Rebirth of CBNS as an Independent Organization

Upon assuming the CBNS presidency in October of 2009, Dr. Lin refocused the CBNS mission on serving the public by advancing nutritioncare. This spurred CBNS to seek public input, guidance, and oversight, in addition to strengthening the Board’s expertise in nutrition, to assure that its efforts were optimized in the interest of the public. He nominated a leading First Amendment lawyer Mr. Jonathan Emord to the Board, who is also the foremost expert on law and nutrition, with the hope that Mr. Emord would provide guidance and oversight to CBNS from the public point view. He also nominated Dr. David Heber to the Board, who is the Director of Human Nutrition at University of California – Los Angeles. The Board elected both and further appointed them Vice Presidents.

From his new vantage point as CBNS president, Dr. Lin thought it most advantageous for CBNS to be operated independently of ACN. Dr. Lin also obtained counsel from an attorney expert in tax law and business organizations, Suzanne Rotbert of Samek & Rotbert. She counseled that CBNS and ACN not remain as one organization under the tax code, unless CBNS reduced its efforts to influence state laws and regulations activities. ACN is an IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, for which such activity is restricted. Dr. Lin believed that CBNS needed the ability to advocate in the states to increase the number of states recognizing the CNS credential and practicing nutritionists.

In order to rejuvenate CBNS, Dr. Lin to wrote in November, 2009 to the ACN Board that “In order to safeguard CBNS’ existence, to maintain continuity and consistency of its policy and procedures, and to avoid potential violations of tax code …,” CBNS must be reincorporated as a separate and independent organization. The Board voted for reincorporation and directed Dr. Lin and Mr. Emord to proceed on this matter.. After several months of diligent work meticulously weighing the merit of different ways of reincorporation, the Board decided to reincorporate as an IRS 501(c)(6) non-profit corporation in the State of Virginia.

In less than one year thereafter, the reincorporated CBNS has achieved great progress. For example: (1) The board has enacted de novo Articles of Incorporation and new Bylaws, that are specific for a certifying agency. (2) It has elected to its board a director who provides substantial public guidance and oversight. (3) It has operated strictly in compliance with the Bylaws and in a highly transparent manner. (4) It has its own Treasurer Arthur B. Chausmer, MD., Ph.D., CNS, FACN, who has been exercising strict fiscal discipline and made financial matter totally transparent, resulting in a budget surplus. (5) It has sent a team to Michigan to testify before the state governing board for professional practices, leading to the state’s invitation to CBNS to administer our certification exam for practicing nutritionists in that state. (6) It has received many generous donations and pledges to support CBNS. (7) Many important new policies and procedures have been enacted, e.g., the following are now recognized for continuing nutrition education credits: teaching university level nutrition courses, authoring university level textbooks and professional articles in the field of nutrition, and serving as an editor of professional nutritional journals.
IV. The Future of CBNS

The nation and the world need nutritioncare, without it the world will see more human suffering that is preventable and the intractable downward spiral of ever burdening healthcare costs. Nutritioncare needs CNS. “We, the Certified Nutritionist Specialists (CNS), can and will make a significant contribution…The future for CBNS and for all CNS is indeed very bright.” (President’s Message, CBNS Newsletter Vol.1 No. 1)