Kris Penniston, RDN

Kris Penniston, RDN, is a UW Health registered dietitian nutritionist and a distinguished senior scientist in the Department or Urology at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She works with a variety of urology patients, including those with kidney stones and those undergoing radical cystectomy (removal of the bladder). She also helps men who are undergoing treatment for prostate cancer.

Kris enjoys helping patients appreciate how dietary changes can be a powerful tool for improving one’s health. Unlike other things that we cannot control, she says, we have tremendous control over what we eat and how we eat.

Kris loves the “detective work” of identifying whether diet is contributing to an individual patient's kidney stones and, if it is, sorting out which risk factors may be targeted with specific dietary adjustments. She uses her scientific and clinical knowledge to tailor treatment to an individual patient's specific characteristics, medical history, biochemical indices, disease risk factors, and other observable traits and characteristics.

Outside of work, Kris is an accomplished pianist who enjoys working on new pieces. While the late classical and romantic eras are her favorite, she also enjoys jazz.