Devon Berry

The Health Benefits of Adventurous Eating

Devon Berry is a nursing administrator who has served at universities across the country including University of Cincinnati, Wright State University, and most recently Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU). He has amassed over 10 years of experience in nursing administration. Devon Berry currently lives in the Pacific Northwest with his family, and considers healthy eating to be an important part of their lifestyle.

For many, developing a set of go-to nutritious foods is a way to stay healthy long-term. While consistent healthy eating is good, studies show that incorporating new foods can benefit your body and mind. Below are reasons to widen your culinary net and eat more adventurously:

Have a Healthier Gut

A healthy gut microbiome has a diverse range of microbiota species and contributes to a strong digestive system. A study published by Molecular Metabolism found that the more diverse the diet, the more diverse the gut microbiome and more adaptable it is. One food to try is Jerusalem artichokes, which is high in prebiotics that help healthy gut bacteria grow.

Reduce Inflammation

Inflammation is associated with a handful of pesky health concerns, including diabetes and acid reflux. One study published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a variety of fruit and vegetable intake was associated with lower inflammation, and that eating an assorted range of produce was more important than quantity. Try reaching for one new item in the produce section every time you grocery shop.

Boost your mood

Discovering new foods with different flavors and textures brings novelty into daily life. A study done by researchers at NYU and University of Miami found that new and diverse experiences lead to a greater sense of well-being. Next time you eat out, order off a tasting menu or see if there’s a chef’s choice option to sample something you typically wouldn’t have.

3 Tips for Improving iPhone Photography

Having just completed his MBA at Western Governors’ University, Devon Berry has over 20 years of experience in nursing administration. Berry most recently served as the executive associate dean at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing. When not working in health care, Devon Berry enjoys taking photos.

While many photographers prefer using a DSLR, the best camera for capturing a moment is the camera you have on hand—in some cases, that may only be an iPhone. Made by Apple, the iPhone has been improved upon every year for over a decade, with new camera advancements that make capturing photos easier, with better results. Below are three tips for improving iPhone photography, no matter your skill level.

Utilize Different Shutters

You can capture photos by pressing the top volume button on the side of the phone or by touching the shutter button on the touch screen. Note that on the touch screen, the shutter isn’t released until you take your finger off the button.

Refrain from Digital Zoom

Activated when you tap the screen to focus, the digital zoom box can make taking pictures less forgiving if the camera shakes, causing the image to blur. Try not touching the screen and shooting with the lens at its widest angle of view, which is the default setting for most iPhones.

Use the Grid

Especially helpful for beginners who want to improve their photo composition, the grid option under camera settings provides a guide when shooting. The grid can be used to follow the rule of thirds, a type of composition where placing points of interest at the intersection of the lines yields a more balanced photo.

The Best Smartphone Photo Editing Apps

An experienced academic nursing administrator, Devon Berry most recently served as executive associate dean at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing. He has also held executive positions in the midwest, including at University of Cincinnati and Wright State University. Devon Berry currently resides in Happy Valley, Oregon with his family and in his spare time likes to practice photography.

When shooting on a smartphone, sometimes built-in filters and adjustments won’t do the trick to get your image to appear the way you’d like. Fortunately, there are a handful of free, high-quality apps that can achieve the look you want quickly, so you can snap and share on the go. Read on for some of the best smartphone photo editing apps out there.

Snapseed for iOS and Android

Created by Google, Snapseed is great for detail-oriented photographers who like a wide range of reshaping tools, brushes, and filters. The brushes are especially advanced, with one that allows you to apply an edit to a specific area on your image and another that “heals” areas, which covers up an unwanted part of an image with the surrounding scene.

Photoshop Express for iOS and Android

Photographers at any skill level can enjoy Adobe’s Photoshop Express, where you can create presets to save time and do simplified photoshop tasks, such as adjusting exposure, applying clarity and dehaze, removing redeye, and adding texture.

VSCO for iOS and Android

Standing for Visual Supply Company, VSCO was one of the first photo editing apps made for smartphones, designed to make digital photos look more like film. Its simple interface makes it good for beginners, with a selection of filters and editing sliders.

The Best Vegan Ice Cream in Portland

Devon Berry, PhD, RN, is an academic nursing leader who most recently served as the executive associate dean at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing in Portland, Oregon, where he oversaw strategy implementation and provided senior leadership for the school’s six Advanced Practice Nurse Registration programs. Outside of work, Devon Berry likes to explore the city with his family, which includes exploring Portland’s food scene.

Portland has plenty of restaurants that accommodate a wide array of dietary preferences. Dessert shops are no exception. Within the last couple years, traditional ice cream shops have begun offering dairy-free options for those who are vegan, lactose intolerant, or simply wanting to try something new. Thanks to incorporations such as oatmilk, coconut milk, and nut milk, vegan ice cream can be so creamy that it’s hard to discern from its pasteurized counterpart. Read on for where to find the best vegan ice cream in Portland:

Salt and Straw

Portland’s crown jewel of icy confections made twenty percent of its menu vegan last year, which means you’ll always find two dairy-free flavors on the menu with one seasonal option. Their Cloudforest Chocolate Hazelnut Cookies & Cream flavor is a year-round delight.

Eb and Bean

Technically soft-serve, this frozen yogurt shop is one of the few that offers as many vegan options as dairy. Their menu changes every month, rotating between flavors like salty pistachio, chocolate pudding, and horchata.

Doe Donuts

While selling inventive doughnuts in flavors like French Toast and Raspberry Poptart, this vegan shop has great scooped and soft-serve options such as Coffee and Doughnuts, Apple Pie, and Chocolate Birthday Cake.

3 Scenic Portland Day Trips

Devon Berry is a nursing professional specializing in academic executive leadership. He has most recently served as executive associate dean at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing. Devon Berry currently resides with his family in Portland, Oregon.

One of the benefits of living in Portland is having access to diverse geological landscapes within a few hour’s drive of the city—including the ocean, mountains, and desert. Below are scenic Portland day trips that give you a taste of each.

Sitka Sedge

Just five miles north of Pacific City is Oregon’s newest state park, Sitka Sedge, opened in 2018. The park is an atypical coastal attraction, with a mix of tidal flats, marsh, forest dunes, and one of Oregon’s last intact estuaries. About two hours from the city, it’s a great option for the family, with easy 2-3 mile trails throughout.

Cooper Spur Hike

A strenuous hike on Mount Hood’s north side—a majority of which is in direct sunlight—Cooper Spur more than pays off in views with visibility of Mount St. Helens, Rainier, Adams, Jefferson, and Three Sisters. It’s two hours from Portland to the trail head, where the hike is 6.4 miles round-trip with 2800 foot elevation gain. For those with an interest in history, it’s also worth stopping at the Cloud Cap Inn on the way up, an 1886-built luxury resort that OPB reports is the oldest Alpine lodge in the U.S.

Crooked River Gorge

Just east of the Cascades, two and a half hours from Portland, Crooked River Gorge is a great spot for rock climbing, fishing, and hiking with miles of desert scenery. The Gorge runs 500 feet deep, carved out by the Deschutes and Crooked rivers. Make sure to walk over the Crooked River High Bridge, built in the 1920s for automobiles and now open exclusively to pedestrians.

Essential Camera Equipment for Beginner Photographers

Devon Berry is a nursing professional residing in Happy Valley, Oregon with his family. Berry has recently received his MBA from Western Governors’ University and has held executive leadership positions at the University of Cincinnati, Wright State University, Cedarville University, and Oregon Health and Science University. One of his hobbies is photography.

Photography can be intimidating on the outset. Apart from the camera on your phone, getting versed in equipment including lenses, flashes, filters, and terms like ‘aspect ratio’ and ‘depth of field’ can make getting started overwhelming. Below is a list of essential equipment for beginner photographers.

DSLR Camera
While the smartphone has an easy and accessible camera, its limitations in modes and exposure make getting a DSLR worth it for the budding photographer. It produces top-quality images, allows for interchangeable lenses, and has room to grow if you choose to add more accessories.

Memory Card
How you plan to use your camera—whether for long vacations or short photo
sessions—will determine the memory card capacity you should go for. A 32 GB SD is a good for most scenarios, which can hold just over one-thousand 24 megapixel photos.

Spare Batteries and Chargers
There are few things worse than planning a shoot and having the camera die or run out of space mid-way through a session. Especially if you are somewhere remote, always be prepared with backup batteries and chargers.

Cleaning Kit
While a t-shirt or paper towel might do the trick in a pinch, they don’t ensure high-quality images and equipment longevity. Proper cleaning equipment like an air blower can remove sensor dust and lens cleaning wipes can get rid of dirt and fingerprints without leaving a residue.

Ways to Build Rest Into Your Work Week

With over 20 years of leadership experience, Devon Berry is well-versed in navigating the workplace. Berry most recently served as executive director at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing in Portland, Oregon.

The balance between work and life is difficult for many professionals to manage, but with the onset of the pandemic causing many to work from home for the first time, it’s never been harder. Berry believes that rest is necessary for a healthy work-life balance. Like singing and running, everyone knows how to rest, but there are ways to improve that can impact your work and life for the better.

Stop While You’re Ahead

Try to take a break or stop working when you still feel like you have a little energy left. Working long, continuous hours has been linked to burnout, stress, and lost sleep. In fact, a study by Frontiers in Human Neuroscience found you’re likely to solve problems if you rest and let your subconscious work on it—the key is to have something you know you need to do next before stopping.

Take a Walk

Research by psychologists at Stanford University found that creativity was improved by those who took a walk —especially those who walked in nature. Those who walked in nature were more attentive when completing tasks than those in urban environments.

Build Your Day Around Your Energy

Rahaf Harfoush, a digital anthropologist, shared on a Ted Talk “How Burnout Makes Us Less Creative” that to combat her insomnia from overworking, she built her work around her energy levels. For instance, if you’re a morning person, front-load your hardest projects to the top of your day. Same goes if you have more resolve at the beginning of the week than at the end.

How to Shop at Expensive Grocery Stores on a Budget

Devon Berry is a nursing professional residing in Happy Valley, Oregon with his family. He has served at universities across the country, including Wright State University, University of Cincinnati, and most recently, Devon Berry was the executive associate dean at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU).

Healthy eating is a priority for Berry and his family, which includes shopping for food that is accessible and nutritious. In many grocery stores that sell $8 coconut milk yogurts, $20 nut butters, and $7 bee pollen smoothies, it can feel like winning the lottery to come across something healthy, inexpensive, and versatile. But with some extra legwork, it’s possible to get in and out of those places fairly cheap. Below are three tips for how to shop at expensive grocery stores on a budget.

Skip Shortcuts

A rule of thumb is most items will be cheaper in their least-processed state. For example, a block of cheddar will be cheaper than a pre-shredded bag. The same goes for a head of romaine instead of romaine in a pre-washed plastic clamshell. In the grocery aisle, dried garbanzo beans are cheaper than canned.

Buy in Bulk

Especially helpful for those in smaller households or those shopping for one on a budget, bulk bins let you buy only as much as you need. Great in scenarios like making pad thai, when you need just a handful of peanuts or for jazzing up stir-fry, subbing brown rice for another grain like farro or wheat berries.

Be Selectively Organic

For foods you peel—such as avocado, oranges, bananas—the outer skin protects the inner flesh from pesticide residue, so buying non-organic is a safe bet to save money. While there are good reasons to buy organic eggs, they have the same amount of protein no matter how they were cultivated, so if price is keeping you from reaching for an egg instead of a protein shake, buy the conventional carton.

3 Health Benefits of Trail Running

Having recently completed his MBA at Western Governors’ University, Devon Berry has over 20 years of experience as a healthcare professional. He last served as the executive associate dean at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) School of Nursing, and considers health an integral part of his lifestyle. Devon Berry is currently training for the Portland Marathon.

An important part of marathon prep is incorporating cross-training, such as trail running. Trail running can be a great enhancement for road runners because the varied terrain and changes in altitude can boost stamina while the soft ground is easier on joints than the road. While other benefits can include mental acuity and a better mood from exercising in nature, there are three major health benefits of trail running:

Better Balance

Running on uneven trails engages small, stabilizing muscles normally not engaged in road running and lightens the load on major muscle groups. Neglecting the smaller muscles can cause the bigger muscles to compensate or overwork, which can lead to injury or running inefficiency.

Bigger Calorie Burn

A study in the Journal of Experimental Biology shows that walking on uneven terrain requires more energy than walking on smooth ground, engaging more muscle activity and metabolic expenditure. This intuitively extends to running—and explains why running in sand feels so much harder than the road.

Relieved Joints

Another health benefit of trail running is how easy it is on your joints compared to other surfaces. Trails—whether made of dirt or wood-chip—are softer than pavement and thus create lower overall impact and reduced pain while running.

Nursing Leader, Devon Berry, on the Arts in Portland, OR

As a leader and a nurse, Devon Berry, RN, PhD, prior Executive Associate Dean at the OHSU School of Nursing in Portland, Oregon, believes that art is an important way to enrich life. This is especially true for nurses who have described their practice as being part art and part science. For the nurse, according to Dr. Berry, appreciating art can inform practice and alleviate some of the secondary suffering that healthcare providers often experience.

Fortunately, the city of Portland is rich with a large variety of engaging cultural opportunities. In Portland, you can find everything from monthly art walks, to live storytelling, to film festivals, to museums and exhibitions. The Portland Art Museum is a favorite of many locals. Complementing this large venue are many smaller art galleries with high quality exhibitions such as the Russo Lee Gallery and Nationale. The performing arts are also well represented in Portland. Several fine theatres, such as the Keller Auditorium and the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall are regularly hosting top notch theatre companies such as Portland Center Stage and the Imago Theatre. Add to this a wealth of music scenes and venues, and the local or visitor can always find a way to get in touch with the restorative power of the arts.

As a nurse, Devon Berry notes that taking time to appreciate and engage the arts can be an important element of a healthcare provider’s self-care plan. As a leader, he believes that learning to find and celebrate beauty in the world is a key skill for strengthening organizational culture. Whether nurse, or executive leader, or both, Devon Berry recommends scheduling time to get out and enjoy the cultural expressions of your community. It is good for you, those you care for and work with, and for your local artists.