Nayaab Sattar is a SNAP-Ed Extension Educator for the Illinois Nutrition Education Programs for Kane, Kendall and DuPage Counties. She works with community agencies primarily serving resource-limited individuals and families and assists them in providing more opportunities for healthy choices to be made. She has formed strong partnerships with many food pantries, K-12 schools and early childcare centers, as well as larger agencies such as the region’s food bank. She also participates in several community coalitions and collaboratives in order to stay informed on priority communities and continuously find new avenues to offer SNAP-Ed programming. Along with her field work, she is a member of several SNAP-Ed Educator workgroups that create resources, trainingsand program materials that are used by SNAP-Ed team members throughout the state. Sattar is particularly passionate about working with food pantries. She establishes relationships with the pantry staff and believes they provide invaluable insight when it comes to what changes will resonate with their guests and influence them to make healthier choices. From conducting assessments to gauge the level of health promotion in the pantry’s practices to providing guidance for policy, system and environmental interventions, she strives to provide hands-on assistance in implementing changes that can positively impact the health of the SNAP eligible population.

Sattar earned her Bachelor of Science in Brain Behavior and Cognitive Sciences and Master of Public in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan. She is a Certified Health Education Specialist, a member of the Society for Public Health Education, and a certified LifeStyle Coach for the CDC’s Diabetes Prevention Program.

A commitment to creating cultures of health and wellness can be seen in Sattar’s many years of experience in the Public Health field. Before joining Extension, her work as a Public Health Educator at a county health department focused on youth substance abuse prevention and prevention education in local pharmacies to combat the opioid epidemic. She was also a Community Wellness Navigator for an urban non-profit hospital, where she provided programming and outreach for chronic disease prevention and health promotion.