With nine years of school nutrition experience, Sharla Howerton, Health-e Pro’s Key Accounts Manager and K-12 school nutrition expert, is now helping districts and vendors get more from Health-e Pro every day.
On paper, a degree in theatre and a career in school nutrition might not seem like an obvious match. But for Sharla, it is the path that led her to Health-e Pro, where she now supports school nutrition professionals with the perspective of a K-12 school nutrition expert. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Theatre with a double concentration in Musical Theatre Performance and Performance and Directing from Northwestern State University.
A few years later, her brother launched a foodservice management company called K–12 Culinary Connection and asked her to join as his first employee. She spent the next nine years working alongside districts on menus and meal programs that met USDA guidelines and fit tight budgets, while also supporting administrative reviews, grants, purchasing, and day-to-day operations.
That experience means she understands what school nutrition professionals are dealing with and genuinely cares about helping them use Health-e Pro to make that work easier.
Where Health-e Pro Menu Planning Software Comes In
At K-12 Culinary Connection, Sharla helped implement Health-e Pro for more than 20 districts and trained teams on how to use the software.
Sharla spent a lot of time in Health-e Pro, building menus, troubleshooting, and supporting district staff as they learned the system. Working in the software every day gave her a front-row view of what it could do for school nutrition programs.
She liked that it was practical, powerful, and actually enjoyable to use. Over time, she began to think that working with the software full-time would be a great next step and would let her help even more districts get value from Health-e Pro. For Sharla, joining Health-e Pro, a team made up of former directors, operators, and dietitians, felt like a natural fit.
How Sharla Aligns with Health-e Pro’s Mission
Health-e Pro’s mission is to inspire, prepare, and partner with foodservice professionals to pursue excellence in providing nutritious and delicious meals. That mission resonates with Sharla and matches what she has seen firsthand in districts.
She believes that Health-e Pro is an essential tool that every district can benefit from and genuinely enjoy using. It helps school nutrition professionals run their programs more smoothly, so they can stay focused on what really matters: feeding students.
- The team listens closely to what districts are asking for
- Customer feedback directly influences changes in the software
- Everyone at Health-e Pro shares the same goal: helping customers succeed
How Sharla Supports Health-e Pro Customers
In her role as Key Accounts Manager, Sharla focuses on helping school nutrition teams get the most out of Health-e Pro so their work feels easier.
Sharla spends her time talking with directors and staff about what’s working in their programs and what could be improved. She walks teams through workflows and features that can save them time, and shares tips and tricks from her years in district operations to help with compliance, costs, and participation.
One of her favorite parts of the job is showing customers things they didn’t know the software could do. She loves hearing the “wow” and “that’s so cool” reactions when directors realize documentation like Product Formulation Statements and CN labels is already linked to each global ingredient.
She also enjoys showing users how nurses and parents can quickly view nutrition and allergen details online, and how online menus pull directly from their menu plan so they don’t have to re-enter information.
Why K-12 School Nutrition Matters to Sharla
After nearly a decade working directly with districts, Sharla has seen firsthand how challenging school nutrition can be. Meeting USDA requirements, managing procurement, staying on top of costs, and keeping students interested in the menu is a lot to juggle.
She loves that Health-e Pro takes care of the “hard stuff” behind the scenes, like keeping menus compliant as USDA regulations change. That means school nutrition professionals can spend more time in their kitchens serving delicious, nutritious meals to students.
Her main goal is to make it easier for directors and their teams to stay compliant, make data-informed decisions, and still have time to focus on students. Sharla is one of many industry experts on the Health-e Pro team, alongside former directors, dietitians, menu planners, and operations leaders who have lived this work.
New Updates Coming to Health-e Pro
- New AI-powered updates in the software to make the job easier for directors
- Enhanced tools and real-time forecasting data for vendors, so they can better understand which products are working well and make more informed decisions
She’s looking forward to continuing to connect K-12 districts, vendors, and the Health-e Pro team, making sure each group gets what they need from the software.