Getting to Know Your BSM Partners Nutrition Services Nutritionists

The Nutrition Practice loves writing educational pieces for our website. However, I think it might be time to have a little fun and use this opportunity to give an update on what I, Dr. Streeter, have been up to and what my team and I at BSM Partners have been working on. 

What’s Dr. Streeter Up To?

It’s fall! I really enjoy cooking and baking, so I’ve been keeping everyone well fed with everything fall, including apple muffins, apple pie, apple sauce, cabbage rolls, and zucchini anything. Our family loves spending time outside as well. My husband has made some trails throughout the field on our property, and the dogs and I love to walk on them whenever we can. “Little” Lyra loves to leap over the tall grasses just for fun, or to hide in the grasses then pounce on her big sister Fiona.

Between Zoom calls, formulations, and writing I’ve been running my two boys to soccer practices and games. There is something very satisfying about being in the crisp air and cheering on teams these boys have grown with since they were little more than toddlers. (Yes, we were those crazy parents who put their tiny kids in soccer.) In addition to soccer, the boys are heavily involved in the arts and take voice, are in choirs, piano, saxophone, and trumpet lessons. Typically, in the fall we are also inundated with theater practices and performances; however, this year we are taking a family vacation during the West Indies Veterinary Conference in St. Kitts, where I am to give some lectures. We are all very excited! 

I love being a veterinary nutritionist but I am also a wife, mother, and dog owner. I draw on the knowledge and experiences from each of these roles and bring them together to my work to benefit the animals and my clients. My team knows that I view them and my clients as my “baby chickees” and I think they kind of appreciate that. (Or maybe it drives them crazy but they are too kind to tell me.) I want to protect their interests and help them grow as I do my sons. At the same time, they are teaching and supporting me and the practice as much as I do them.

Meet the Team

At BSM Partners, the Nutrition Practice includes me (the Principal consultant in the practice), Dr. Chuck Zumbaugh (the Manager of the practice), Dr. Blaire Aldridge (the Director of the practice). 

Since starting at BSM Partners, Dr. Chuck Zumbaugh, a PhD Animal Nutritionist, has become an efficient and thorough formulator of both diets and supplements. He does really well examining literature on various ingredients and evaluating the study before making formulations with ingredients. This ensures their safety and the product’s efficacy. He also has a great working knowledge of computer software. Because of this, Dr. Zumbaugh is assisting in bringing not only the Nutrition Practice but BSM as a whole into BSM Partners into the future by creating programs that improve efficiency and education.

Dr. Blaire Aldridge, a PhD Animal Nutritionist, and another amazing formulator, has a background in mineral metabolism and an expansive background in the pet food industry. She is currently working on writing grant proposals which will enable us to do some new prospective research projects. In addition, Dr. Aldridge continues her client work which can be formulation and product development, (she is particularly experienced at the formulation of functional products,) as well as project management. She will keep everyone organized and on the straight and narrow.

Other News from Nutrition Services

Our clients are continuously asking us to research new topics that may help them innovate. Because of this, our practice is moving into doing a lot of education and writing. They are having us write blogs for client websites or magazine articles or even educational videos for social media, which we are currently working on. In addition, we are doing research on topics or ingredients for companies that help them to innovate.

We also work with a number of ingredient companies and are being asked to create “what if” diets to help them understand costs, or to use as examples for fund-raising or to utilize in feeding trials.

In addition, along with other practices within BSM Partners, we are working to bring non-biased nutrition and safety information to the industry through company initiatives like BSM Partners’ Certified True; a program that will help to identify diets that have outstanding quality control. Another program we are working hard on is a Nutrition Certification program which we are looking forward to unveiling in the near future. The Nutrition Practice is also hoping to do more clinical nutrition work and create a service that would be accessible to BSM Partners’ clients and clinical practices to provide remote consultations. This is just a sneak peak of some of what we are working on, we have some more secret projects too which we can’t wait to share in the future! 

One thing is for sure, the BSM Partners’ Nutrition Practice, with our collective knowledge and ambitions, is providing new ideas and thought leadership to the industry. In collaborating with our client’s needs, wants, and aspirations, we are taking prospective ideas, acting on them, and putting them into motion. It’s with consilience, that we can drive our industry forward and create the best products for our furry companions.

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About the Author

Renee Streeter is a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine and a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (Nutrition). She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Animal Science from Cornell University and served as a farm animal nutritionist for a major feed company before attending veterinary school at Ross University. Her clinical rotations were done at Cornell University’s college of veterinary medicine, where she stayed on to do her Clinical Nutrition residency. While working in a large general practice and doing clinical nutrition consultation, Dr. Streeter also founded her own veterinary nutrition consulting company and currently helps industry clients through her position as the Nutrition Practice Principal at BSM Partners.