Current Rock of Residence:
St. Thomas, USVI
Island Girl Since:
2016
Originally Hails From:
Atlanta, GA
Ayla Shaw MS RDN is a board certified Registered Dietitian Nutritionist in private practice on St Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Originally from the state of Georgia, Ayla completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Georgia in Statistics. After working for several years as a catastrophe risk analyst, she decided to return to school and pursue a career in nutrition. She obtained her Master’ degree in Nutrition at Georgia State University before traveling to Connecticut to complete her dietetic internship focused in clinical nutrition at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Upon finishing her internship, Ayla followed her heart, aka a boy, and moved to the Virgin Islands. Shortly after arriving, she was fortunate to find employment and began working as a clinical dietitian at Schneider Regional Medical Center in St Thomas. She was living on St Thomas and employed by the hospital when Hurricane Irma hit in the Virgin Islands on September 6th, 2017.
Ayla began her personal blog and website in the wake of the storms to provide a resource for nutrition information focused towards the citizens of the suffering Caribbean islands and combat the epidemic of chronic disease she experienced on St Thomas. Today, she owns and operates Island RDN, a nutrition consulting company that offers outpatient counseling through several locations on St Thomas. Additionally, Ayla works as a consultant and freelance food and health writer. When she is not working, she enjoys spending time outdoors with her dog, Dobby.
Follow Ayla on her blog at, Island RDN, for more nutrition and health tips focused towards the citizens on the Caribbean islands.
Explore posts by this writer:
BONFINI
Handy Dandy Guide to Dominica’s Birds in English and Creole
The Raw Version of a Rock Wife
Having grown up in South Africa, in a house full of woman and my outnumbered father, I was taught at a young age that if I don't learn to stand on my own two feet I will fall because the only person you can truly rely on is yourself. Fast forward 10 years after I left...
Summertime During Covid-19
It’s fair to say that the Summer of 2020 was a bust, and we just had to accept that. But kids still look forward to summer. Can you blame them? We did too. Summer is one of the most exciting seasons of the year. So, I spent a few weeks racking by brain, trying to...
That wasn’t even a tropical storm!
Let me start by saying, I know things could be much worse... Usually I love a good electrical storm. I don’t even mind being woken up in the night when things start raging outside. In fact, that happens often. If you live near the sea, you know that no thunder is as...
How Women Who Live on Rocks Mimic the Tides
Women who live on rocks are, by nature, ramblin’ folks, and more often than not, adventure junkies. Take the risk, jump over the pond, love the new digs, get bored…and take the risk, jump over the…you get the idea. Craving different scenes, varieties of food, and yes,...
The Surreal Life inside the “Paradise Bubble” : Island life without visitors
It shouldn’t surprise anyone that we have had film crews in the Cayman Islands to shoot movies and reality shows. Life in this beautiful paradise, without the need for masks or fear of the pandemic that is raging elsewhere, certainly feels like a movie - too good to...
