If you’ve ever attended a session on nutrition at an LLLI conference, chances are high that you’ve had the pleasure of encountering Judy Roepke, RD, PhD. Judy is a [retired] professor of family and consumer sciences in nutrition as well as Dean for Continuing Education and Public Service at Ball State University in Indiana. For several years, Judy has been a member of LLL’s Health Advisory Council and she is a frequent speaker at state and international conferences. Judy is also a member of The International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners (IBLCE) and chair this year of the Examination Committee.
 What sparked your interest in nutrition? Did you bring this love to your leadership, or did it evolve from being a mother and/or an LLL Leader?
I actually started college with the intention of becoming a fashion buyer. However, I loved science, including chemistry, and realized that the business world did not address some of my values. Dietetics became very appealing when I realized that I could be helping people. I’m not a foods person, so I gravitated to the nutrition science and clinical side of dietetics.
My involvement in LLLI started in Texas, where I was working as a public health nutritionist. When my daughter was born, I was determined to breastfeed her. She was born five weeks early and needed to feed more often than I was advised. I discovered that if I let her feed whenever she wanted, it worked well. My husband was in grad school at the time and I went back to work when she was eight weeks old. Since I didn’t know about pumping, I started formula. …Needless to say, I soon was not breastfeeding. Fortunately, I was not bewildered, but pleased she had more than eight weeks of nursing.
About six months later, the nurses in our office decided to have a debate on bottle versus breast and came to me for information. A colleague of mine at the State Board of Health had just heard about La Leche League, so I contacted LLLI—this was in 1963—and was sent some information, including the Womanly Art of Breastfeeding. When I read the material, I thought, (I hope you can hear the indignation in my voice) “Who is this telling nurses, and doctors, and dietitians about breastfeeding!” Then I realized I knew nothing. So I read, I shared the information with nurses, and loaned the Womanly Art to a friend who had terrible engorgement.
When we moved to Indiana, I was pregnant again and immediately sought out La Leche League. Of course, I thought all my wisdom about nutrition should be of great value. I discovered
that it was helpful to some, but not to others. In 1967 I became a Leader and was active until 1974, when we moved across the state for school.
What prompted your return to grad school? I worked on my Masters degree one class at a time when my children were very young. It took me over five years (including a year off when my son was born), but it was great fun. When my master’s thesis professor pushed me to continue for my Ph.D., I pooh-poohed the idea because I needed time to parent little ones. However, the seed was planted. I enjoyed teaching and realized that if I wanted to do this the rest of my life, I would have to go on with my education. The opportunity came when my husband took a year’s sabbatical, which included study at Purdue. We lived near the campus and were able to juggle our class schedules so one of us was home for the kids after school.
Has LLL had any influence or impact on your work? I have become passionate about the importance of human milk in the developmental feeding of infants -- for the physical and emotional nourishment and for the immunological protection of the infant. Lactation/breastfeeding has been a focus of my research, teaching, and community and professional service.
What do you see as the nutrition issues for the coming decade? I am worried that good, everyday nutrition is not given enough attention. People are always looking for something magic—they get hung up on fads, take excessive amounts of vitamins and minerals, make poor fast food choices, focus on quick fixes. Yet good food, well enjoyed in variety; exercise; rest; good health care; and being with the people you love can make such an enriching life. No one needs tricks—just those simple things.
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This interview first appeared in Continuum, Vol. 12, No. 2, 1999
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