I’m originally from Tennessee, but consider Utah home!

I completed my undergraduate degree in Nutrition at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville (UTK) & my Masters & Dietetics Internship at East Tennessee State University (ETSU).

As a soccer player for majority of my life, I have always treasured the athlete-support staff relationship. This relationship lead me to the sports medicine field. I originally set my career sights on Athletic Training, while playing soccer at Tennessee Wesleyan College (TWC). After a semester, I chose to transfer to a larger school and explore other career paths.

A newspaper article about the UTK sports dietitian was my first glimpse into the field of nutrition & dietetics. A year into transferring, I started volunteering with the athletic department in their fueling station. The simple act of volunteering served as my spring board to more responsibilities as a student worker, including more hands on experience with Football and Men’s Basketball.

While completing my Master’s degree, I was able to experience building a small nutrition program from scratch. During this time, ETSU chose to bring their football team back for the first time in decades. This was an pinnacle moment I was able to be involved in building out. Building out a program early in my career provided me with autonomy and ownership that has fueled each of my roles that came after.

Upon graduating and earning my license to practice, as an RD, I was hired as a sports nutrition fellow at the University of Utah. My main teams were Softball, Indoor & Beach Volleyball and assisting with Football on a weekly basis. After one year in my fellowship, I was called for an Olympic Dietitian position at the University of South Carolina. My love for Olympic sports teams was spurred. In addition, I was moving closer to “home”. At South Carolina, I was able to work with Indoor & Beach Volleyball again, along with Men’s Soccer and Swimming & Diving.

FUN FACT: if I could only work one sport for the rest of my life, I would choose Beach Volleyball.

Thinking I was staying in the southeast, naturally, a different opportunity came knocking…. back in Utah. While I was set on never working Football as a sport again, I knew the Utah Football program was unique and valued their nutrition. A bonus that my significant other was also still in Utah. One month after getting the call to apply for the Utah Football Dietitian position, I was back in Utah ready to tackle fall camp, just 2 days later. Call me crazy…

For many people, post Covid brought unique challenges and new perspective on life. I was not eager to leave Utah Football, but my curiosity began for exposure to the professional level of performance nutrition. As many sports jobs do, they present themselves at the most unexpected time. An unexpected opportunity & open mind lead me to joining the Utah Jazz in 2022. Here, I was able to grow and develop another program, set fire to my culinary side, learn to work with a variety of personalities and become a Mom!

After 4 spectacular seasons with the Jazz, I am taking another jump to a new adventure that is still in the works. The first step in a new direction..

Creating something of my own, Elevation Nutrition LLC.