IMPACT PD
Professional Development Built for the FCS Culinary Educator
Sharpen Your Skills
Build kitchen confidence with professional techniques you can bring directly into your classroom - from a chef who's done both.
Inspire Students
The most powerful thing in your classroom isn't the curriculum.
It's you.
Find Your Calm
Practical tools for your everyday life. In your home, in your car, in your classroom. Simple shifts that make a difference.
Champion Your Program
These classes are designed to give you the tools, the language, and the confidence to re-energize your teaching and make your program in demand.
IMPACT
Inspiration. Mentorship. Purpose. Advocacy. Community. Transformation.
Nine months. Nine themes. One complete year of standards-aligned curriculum, live instruction, and the professional community your classroom deserves.
IMPACT PD is a nine-month professional development program designed exclusively for FCS culinary educators.
September through May, members receive:
-
75-minute live virtual session per month
-
Two complete standards-aligned lesson plans aligned to National FCS Standards and the Common Career Technical Core
-
Every lesson plan includes a Conversation Activator bell ringer, demonstrated recipe, vocabulary, learning touchpoints, and formative and summative tools - ready to teach
-
Access to a growing resource library of ready-to-use curriculum
Each month is anchored to a theme - Curiosity, Conversation, Creativity, Confidence, Calm, Compassion, Connection, Community, and Celebration - and delivered through culinary skill and classroom strategy.
Available for individual educators and district cohorts. Starts September 2026.
Research consistently shows that when teachers participate in sustained, subject-specific professional development, student engagement increases, instructional practice deepens, and classroom culture shifts.
Students whose teachers receive high-quality, ongoing PD demonstrate measurably stronger outcomes - not just academically, but in their willingness to participate, their curiosity in the classroom, and their sense of belonging to something that matters.
IMPACT PD is built on that research. Nine months. One cohort. One educator who returns to the classroom each month with new skills, new tools, and renewed purpose and students who feel the difference.
Pricing
Individual Educator: $350
District or School Cohort: $950
We know many teachers fund their professional development. The individual rate reflects that.
Questions about pricing or district funding? Reach out directly.
Meet Melanie
Melanie Underwood knows what it means to keep a classroom engaged, manage a kitchen that isn't cooperating, and find calm in the middle of chaos. The techniques she brings to teachers aren't theory - they're what she uses herself. Her work integrates culinary skill, practical teaching strategy, and mindfulness.
Because the most powerful thing in your classroom isn't the curriculum. It's you.
She has spent 30 years on both sides of what you do - professional kitchens and classrooms. She worked at the Plaza Hotel and Four Seasons Hotel before spending 24 years on faculty at the Institute of Culinary Education in Manhattan. She teaches high school culinary and baking and pastry, and is also a certified mindfulness instructor. She has taught over 50,000 students and is a published cookbook author.
What People Are Saying
Melanie’s PD was more than I expected. I thought it would be a simple team-building session, but it became a meaningful bonding experience for our staff. Teachers walked away with practical tools they could use immediately and felt invigorated by the experience.
M.F.
Melanie is a phenomenal facilitator! Our FCS dept. had a class with her and learned so much. She customized the perfect experience for us that boosted everyone's creativity.
K.W.
I had the chance to be trained by Melanie and it made a world of difference for me. I was a child development teacher that was asked to teach culinary. She brought me through my imposter syndrome and into my confident culinary teacher era.
J.D.
We took a program called, "Flip the Script" and it did exacty that. Almost everyone walked away with new ideas and strategies to implement immediately.
L.B.