(L-R) Maria Urbina, Madison Domek, and Anna Claire Miskelly
Every year a group of graduate students who are enrolled in the Clinical Nutrition Masters/Internship program at the University of Memphis join the department of Clinical Nutrition as graduate assistants (GA’s).
This training program is managed by Karen Ringwald-Smith, MS, RDN, LDN, FAND the nutrition project manager. These students work directly with a nutritionist who acts as his/her mentor and supervisor for the year.
In addition to providing direct patient care, the GA’s participate in nutrition related activities such as health fairs, group nutrition classes including yoga/ nutrition and Mommy and Me, and National Nutrition Month projects. The graduate assistantship is also grounded in research and evidence based practice; GA’s participate in all stages of the evidence based practice/ research process with the ultimate goal of sharing the findings with other health care providers.
Clinical Nutrition Graduate Students
Madison Domek
Interests: Developing standard nutrition care guidelines for pediatric patients diagnosed with malnutrition. Providing nutrition education on proper malnutrition diagnostic procedures and identifying potential gaps within the process.
Anna Claire Miskelly
Interests: Developing recommendations for prescribing energy expenditure requirements in pediatric patients diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia patients by comparing energy expenditure obtained via indirect calorimetry to that obtained by bioelectrical impedance and standardized estimation equations, providing nutrition education to patients and families, and practicing medical nutrition therapy.
Maria Urbina
Interests: To identify the occurrence of malnutrition, undernutrition and overnutrition, in patients diagnosed with catastrophic illnesses. To develop medical nutrition interventions to improve nutrition status and health outcomes.
Former Clinical Nutrition Graduate Students
LeeAnna Beech
Interests: Determining if high omega-3 fatty acid dietary interventions reduce the risk of developing the metabolic syndrome phenotype induced by glucocorticoid therapy as part of the treatment of acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) treatment. Mice will be used to demonstrate if dietary alterations reduce the specific metabolic disorder phenotypes of obesity, glucose intolerance, and fatty liver disease.
Kim Boone
Interests: Describing the nutrition status patterns that occur during treatment of children diagnosed with medulloblastoma and identifying specific time points in treatment for the initiation of proactive nutrition therapy.
Greer Bullough
Interests: Developing a consensus of practice on the medical nutrition therapy of pediatric acute myeloid leukemia, providing nutrition education to patients and families.
Jan Claussen
Interests: Determining the feasibility of including taste evaluations as part of the nutrition assessment in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and observing changes in their taste throughout cancer treatment therapy.
Hannah Cox
Interests: Developing a food knowledge and behavior questionnaire to assess nutrition knowledge and behavior of teenagers living with HIV in the Memphis area. Practice implications for the questionnaire include developing medical nutrition therapy interventions that are specific for teenagers with HIV and are designed to help prevent adverse side effects of antiretroviral therapy like cardiovascular disease.
Kristi Edwards
Interests: Determining the feasibility of including smell evaluations as part of the nutrition assessment in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia and observing changes in their smell throughout cancer treatment therapy.
Lisa Evanoff
Interests: Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with: the analysis of the impact of Cyproheptadine Hydrochloride on weight status in pediatric oncology patients, determining the effectiveness of Vitamin D supplementation following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and assess staff acuity and productivity.
Casey Flowers
Interests: Determining if the energy expenditure obtained by standard energy estimation equations and a hand-held indirect calorimeter accurately predict energy needs as compared to the gold standard indirect calorimeter (metabolic Cart) in pediatric oncology patients.
Ayesha Ghani
Interests: To compare two anthropometrical methods, the Tanita® bioelectric impedance body composition analyzer, a simple and portable measuring tool to the Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DXA), to determine if the Tanita® is an accurate tool for measuring lean body mass in pediatric cancer patients.
Victoria Guentzel
Interests: Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with: the evaluation of food frequency questionnaires to determine food and nutrient consumption patterns and to assess adequacy of vitamin and mineral intake in children from the southeast region of the United States; the culinary-nutrition education program by providing cooking classes aimed to educate parents and patients on the benefits of healthy eating; conducting indirect calorimetry and body composition analysis.
Caroline Hambuchen
Interests: standardizing nutrition care in pediatric patients diagnosed with central nervous system tumors, practicing Medical Nutrition Therapy, teaching nutrition education, advocating for malnourished populations, and managing nutrition care plans in specialized environments.
Eddie Han
Interests: Evaluation of 24 hour recalls to determine food consumption patterns and identify if there are macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies in the diets of pediatric cancer patients from Brazil and Guatemala. Data obtained will be utilized for the development of low literacy educational materials focusing on how to improve dietary intake using local resources.
Katelyn Hart
Interests: Measuring hydration status using the bioelectrical impedance analysis and evaluating factors that may impact a patient’s hydration status with sickle cell anemia.
Ashley Hassett
Interests: Developing and implementing a nutrition module for the Sickle Cell Transition E-Learning Program (STEP) for Sickle Cell Disease patients transferring out of pediatric care to adult care.
Cara Hedges
Interests: Testing feasibility and reliability of a nutrition knowledge questionnaire in college students.
Hayley Hillman
Interests: Determining care guidelines in the nutrition management of pediatric patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, implementing malnutrition screening into the electronic health record, assisting registered dietitians/nutritionists with educating immunocompromised patients on how to prevent foodborne illness.
Ashley Hobar
Interests: Evaluating the validity of methods in measuring resting energy expenditure in pediatric oncology patients. Using the Medgem®, a hand-held indirect calorimeter, and predictive equations to test correlation and agreement with the metabolic cart.
Cameryn Jones
Interests: Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with: The analysis of inpatient food and nutrient intake to better understand patient’s nutrition needs. Monitoring and evaluating nutrition related diagnoses and adjusting nutrition interventions to address patient needs. Conducting nutrition tests including body composition analysis and hand grip strength. As well as educating caregivers of immunocompromised patients on our Eating Safely guidelines to prevent foodborne illnesses.
Maura Jones
Interests: Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with: the analysis of the impact of Cyproheptadine Hydrochloride on weight status in pediatric oncology patients, the culinary-nutrition education program by providing cooking classes aimed to educate parents and patients on the benefits of healthy eating, conducting nutrition tests including body composition analysis, metabolic cart, hand grip strength and dietary analyses.
Austin Kirk
Interests: Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with: The analysis of inpatient food and nutrient intake to better understand patient’s nutrition needs. Monitoring and evaluating nutrition related diagnoses and making adjustments to nutrition interventions to address patient needs. As well as helping in the planning and conducting of department sponsored patient education events.
Brittany Lubeck
Interests: Evaluating the relationship of nutrition status of patients diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML) and morbidity and mortality and to evaluate the change in various nutrition status indicators over the course of treatment.
Jenna Martin
Interests: Developing and validating practice questionnaire to help standardize nutrition care practices for pediatric oncology, hematopoietic stem cell transplant, and cancer survivor patient populations.
Mackenna Mattox
Interests: Evaluating the impact that the appetite stimulant Cyproheptadine Hydrochloride has upon weight status, growth velocity and nutrition diagnosis of children undergoing treatment for cancer.
Ashley Mendez
Interests: Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with nutrition assessments of acute lymphocytic leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia. Educating caregivers of immunocompromised patients on our Eating Safely guidelines to prevent foodborne illnesses.
Raye Mullis
Interests: Conducting nutrition tests including grip strength, dietary analyses, and body composition analyses. Exploring the adequacy of the nutritional intake of children diagnosed with catastrophic illnesses including cancer. Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with the analysis of inpatient food and nutrient intake to better understand patient’s nutrition needs. Monitoring and evaluating nutrition related diagnoses and adjusting nutrition interventions to address patient needs. Educating caregivers of immunocompromised patients on our Eating Safely guidelines to prevent foodborne illnesses.
Courtney Nordhus
Interests: Evaluating the effectiveness of current nutrition and physical therapy interventions in maintaining lean body mass during the time from admission for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to discharge. Tracking body composition with a Tanita® Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer and measuring hand grip strength with a dynamometer.
Paige Orwig
Interests: Developing staffing models for pediatric oncology registered dietitians to include the time and effort spent on providing medical nutrition therapy that are disease specific and to include time spent conducting research, quality improvement and evidence based practice projects that are required for career advancement.
Samantha Pass
Interests: Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with: the culinary-nutrition education program by providing cooking classes aimed to educate parents and patients on the benefits of healthy eating; conducting indirect calorimetry and body composition analysis. Exploring the adequacy of the nutritional intake of children diagnosed with catastrophic illnesses including cancer.
Kaitlyn Phillips
Interests: Assessing general nutrition knowledge of pediatric cancer patients/caregivers in order to provide targeted nutrition education and interventions that address disease/ treatment-related health complications.
Camilla Ruark
Interests: Vitamin E status and dietary intake in patients with sickle cell disease.
Candace Sapp
Interests: Determining the validity of the Tanita® Bioelectrical Impedance Analyzer (BIA), for analyzing body composition in childhood cancer survivors compared to Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA).
Whitney Sheffield
Interests: Evaluation of Tanita scale as a more effective method for evaluating the body composition in children undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Lauren Steele
Interests: Nutrition management of treatment-induced hyperglycemia in patients with ALL.
Randi Stocking
Interests: Providing medical nutrition therapy to patients receiving hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Understanding Graft-versus-host disease of the gut and how it impacts nutritional status and needs of the patient. Assisting registered dietitian/nutritionists with the analysis of inpatient food and nutrient intake to better understand patient’s nutrition needs.
Grace Talbot
Interests: Utilizing a food frequency questionnaire to assess the dietary intake of vitamins A and D in Memphis children participating in the St. Jude FLUVIT study. FLUVIT aims to assess the role of vitamin A and D supplementation on influenza vaccine efficacy.
Perrin Tamblyn
Interests: Assessing body composition in pediatric oncology patients using bioelectrical impedance, body mass index, neck circumference, and ideal body weight.
Rebecca Warren
Interests: Developing a proactive nutrition support algorithm for pediatric oncology to help standardize nutrition care and prevent incidences of malnutrition