Mary Bea Kolbe, MPH, RD
Community Development Specialist
Physical Activity and Nutrition Branch
N.C. Division of Public Health
Mary Bea Kolbe serves as one of the three Community Development Specialists for the Physical Activity (PAN) Branch, N.C. Division of Public Health. In this position she provides technical assistance to local Health Promotion Coordinators in implementing policy and environmental changes that support healthy eating, physical activity and tobacco use cessation. She is also the Eat Smart, Move More...NC Community Grants liaison for the PAN Branch, coordinating the grant process. Mary Bea is also actively involved with the NC 5 A Day Program through the NC 5 A Day Coalition Steering Committee and served as the Committee Chair for two years.
Prior to joining the PAN Branch, Mary Bea worked with the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at NC State University as the training coordinator for the Expanded Foods and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP), Out For Lunch, and In-Home Breastfeeding programs. Mary Bea also has local experience, working in Vance County as a WIC nutritionist, in Wayne County as the Nutrition Program Supervisor and as a Family and Consumer Sciences Agent in Franklin County working for the Cooperative Extension Service.
Mary Bea completed her Bachelor of Science in Nutrition from Meredith College in Raleigh and her Master of Public Health with a nutrition concentration from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Mary Bea is committed to healthy eating and being fit. Each summer she volunteers to be the Camp Dietician for Camp Needles in the Pines, a week-long summer camp for children with diabetes. She resides in Raleigh, her birthplace, with her husband, Kent. Together they work on being fit with the help of their two Labrador retrievers, Bud and Max who insist they walk at least a mile every night, rain or shine, sleet or snow!
