Board of Directors

The role of the Foundation’s Board of Directors is to advance and uphold the Foundation’s charitable mission of addressing the unmet health care needs of Kentuckians. The Board is responsible for establishment and oversight of the Foundation’s financial, program and policy activities.

In Memory of
Janice Blythe, PhD, RDN

Dr. Janice Orienda Burdette Blythe, of Berea, passed away on March 5, 2019. She was a respected and cherished member of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky Board of Directors from 2016 until her death. Her health and nutrition expertise contributed greatly to the Foundation’s work in obesity prevention and she was always a knowledgeable and willing contributor to Board proceedings. She welcomed any opportunity to help communities better understand nutrition issues as they affected various population groups and she emphasized the value of working in partnership with community organizations to raise awareness of issues important to improving Kentucky’s health.

The obituary for Dr. Blythe is republished in part below from the website of Davis & Powell Funeral Home, where tributes to her may be posted.

Dr. Janice Burdette Blythe was born on November 3, 1950 in Lancaster, Garrard County. She grew up on the family farm was a member of the First Baptist Church at Richmond.

Janice completed her undergraduate degree in Administrative Dietetics, with a minor in Business Administration, from Eastern Kentucky University. She completed the one-year Dietetic Internship to become a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at the V.A. Medical Center and the Chandler Medical Center, University of Kentucky and remained at UK to complete the Masters of Science degree in Clinical Nutrition in the College of Health Sciences.

Janice worked for several years at Good Samaritan and St. Joseph Hospitals as a clinical dietitian; and at the Lexington Clinic as a diabetes specialist. She began her teaching career at EKU and taught for 10 years in the associate, undergraduate, and graduate degree programs of Human Nutrition, Dietetics, and Community Nutrition. Between 1980 and 1987 she also completed the Ph.D. in Animal Science with an emphasis in Nutrition from the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment at the University of Kentucky.

In June 1981, she married Robert R. Blythe. When their marriage ended in 1984, they remained good friends until her death.

In 1986, Janice accepted a position in the Department of Child and Family Studies at Berea College. During her career, she served as Department Chair; Director for the Human Nutrition and Dietetics Program; and as Associate Provost for Advising and Academic Success. She held the rank of Full Professor, was an endowed chair, and served as an academic division chair over four departments. She supervised the Child Development Laboratory, which serves over 100 children and their parents.

Janice was passionate about serving. For more than twenty years, she served as musician for the Mt. Pleasant District Laymen’s Choir. She also served as musician for South Maple Street Baptist Church in Somerset. She regularly taught Vacation Bible School and was a church musician at First Baptist; served as an officer for both the Brassfield Homemakers Club and the Richmond-Madison County Branch of the NAACP; and served on the Berea Human Rights Commission. She was appointed by Governor Steve Beshear to serve as a Board member with the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, headquartered in Louisville.

Read Dr. Blythe’s full obituary here.