UNC Greensboro

Rodriguez never intended to go to college. Instead, she began her career as a professional ballet dancer in Pennsylvania.

Our goal is to provide nutrition education that translates to not only the school kitchens but also home kitchens and personal health.

Our study reveals current clinical protocols around donor human milk may require substantial revisions that vary based on the profile of a milk bank’s donors. 

Being a part of research has shown me the groundwork, evidence, and real people behind those numbers.

There are many different ways to look at nutrition. As I got into the coursework with nutrition science, food science, and so on, I realized that different people need different things. There is no one method that will fit everyone.

If we know what’s in donor milk, we can think about how we might change our feeding protocol — such as adding fortifiers to donor milk, to better meet premature infants’ nutritional needs.

Infancy is a very important life stage. It’s a highly developmental phase, and it’s phase of immense opportunities. At the same time, any vulnerabilities during this phase can have a lifelong impact.

The first 1,000 days, the period from conception until age 2, lay the foundation for a person’s health later in life Jigna Dharod, Nutrition Professor

“Micronutrients, including selenium, play a vital role in our immunity,” Armah says. “Findings from this study support a potential benefit from improved selenium intake among individuals consuming a low-selenium diet to mitigate COVID-19 severity.”

“I have a genuine passion for helping people, and this career path will help me do that,” says Isa Ramos-Castillo, current UNC Greensboro dietetic intern and nutrition graduate student.