Meet the Kitchen Staff

The University of Tennessee Medical Center serves its patients not only through treatment, but educating the community about the importance of healthy lifestyle choices, including a well-balanced diet. Our staff works tirelessly to ensure cooking and eating are both appealing and healthy. From cooking classes to grocery store tours, the Healthy Living Kitchen’s kitchen staff is busy making our menus delicious, diverse, inviting and healthy.

Meet the fabulous faces behind these wonderful educational programs.

Mark McKinney, Senior Executive Chef
Senior Executive Chef Mark McKinney, culinary arts graduate of Johnson and Wales University, has worked at Magnolias and The Woodlands in South Carolina and several local restaurants, including The Inn at Blackberry Farm, Little City Bistro, and as Executive Sous Chef at Bravo. He is on the faculty at The University of Tennessee teaching cooking classes through the personal and professional development program and also is the chef liaison for the annual march of dimes signature chefs’ auction. McKinney also helped develop the room service program at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He was raised in Knoxville and is married to his wife, Julie, and has one son, Booker.

Jane Kelly, RN, BSN
Jane Kelly, RN, BSN, is a cardiac nurse specialist for the Healthy Living Kitchen and Network Development, the medical centers corporate wellness program. She is very passionate about educating the community about cardiovascular disease and making preventative lifestyle changes. While counseling patients about making lifestyle changes, she identified a need for cooking classes to teach individuals how to make modifications in their diet and recipes. As the nurse educator for the Healthy Living Kitchen, she is always trying to find new and creative ways for individuals to practice wellness. She is a community speaker for diabetes, wellness and cardiovascular disease.

Kelly graduated from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor of Nursing. She received her LEARN lifestyle counselor certification from the Cooper Institute. She has 25 years of nursing experience in cardiac nursing and wellness. Kelly has been very active in the American Heart Association as a CPR instructor, Heart Walk captain, and was a panel speaker for the 2008 Go Red Luncheon. Kelly was the 2009 recipient of the Tennessee Dietetic Association IRIS Award. She is a member of the Preventive Cardiology Nurses Association and National Lipid Association.

Janet Seiber, RD, LDN, CDE  
Janet Seiber, RD, LDN, CDE has been with the Healthy Living Kitchen program since its inception in 2006. As the registered dietitian on the Healthy Living Kitchen team, she demonstrates how to prepare food that is easy, delicious and good for your health. She has seen the Healthy Living Kitchen program blossom into cooking classes, grocery shopping tours and interactive community presentations. Whether at a grocery shopping tour or a cooking class in the Heart Lung Vascular Institute, she loves teaching participants how to create their own tasty and healthy meals that can impact overall health and wellness.

Seiber holds a Bachelor of Science (BS) degree in Nutrition from the University of Tennessee Knoxville and completed a dietetic internship with Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She is a Registered Dietitian (RD) and is licensed in the state of Tennessee as a dietitian/nutritionist (LDN), and a Certified Diabetes Educator (CDE). Seiber has been with UT Medical Center since 2002 providing medical nutrition therapy with an emphasis on cardiovascular disease, diabetes and weight management for inpatient, outpatient and corporate areas. She is a member of the American Dietetic Association.