DAFVM Spotlight Employee: Pam Awad
Pam Awad
Before a customer suggested that she apply for a job with the MSU Extension Service, Pam Awad didn’t know the organization existed.
Pam was working as the operations manager at Fred’s Pharmacy, and a job opened for an Extension nutrition educator. At first, she ignored the customer’s suggestion.
“But when she came back a second time to find out if I had applied for the job, I thought, ‘Maybe the good Lord wants me over there.’ So I applied and got the job,” Pam said.
For the past 9 years, Pam has provided nutrition programs for children in Head Start and elementary schools (K-3) in Webster and Choctaw counties. She also offers some adult nutrition education programs.
“The kids love our curriculum, ‘The Organ Wise Guys,’” Pam said. “I have dolls named Annie and Andy that open up and have the different body parts cutely named. We talk about where the different parts go, what they do and how we can keep them healthy.”
When she’s at the grocery store, Pam often sees her students and hears from their parents.
“Parents tell me they ask to have healthier things, like fresh fruits, and want to drink things besides Coke,” she said. “They’re asking parents to change their way of doing things, and that’s good.”
Pam is passionate about health and wants to help people understand the subject as much as she can.
“In my own life, I figured out that I was going to have to be responsible for deciding what we needed to do to have healthier lives,” she explained. “I became excited about helping others learn to take their own lives in hand.”
Pam loves to learn, crochet, knit, craft, paint, grow herbs and garden sustainably. She and her 15-year-old son, Ramadan, love animals; they have 17 outdoor cats. Pam loves all kinds of music and occupies her time spent waiting for Ramadan at various activities with reading and listening to music.
Editor's note: The Division of Agriculture, Forestry and Veterinary Medicine Spotlight Employee profiles are provided by the Office of Agricultural Communications at Mississippi State. For more information, please click here.
