Graduate Student Spotlight | Collin Dunnam

My academic career is a bit more complicated than most. After completing my undergrad in biology and my first master’s in biology at Salisbury University, I entered the workforce unsure what I wanted to do. I worked at Merck, a pharmaceutical company for a bit. After that, I moved to Westminster, Maryland, where I live now and started working at Johns Hopkins Bayview as a researcher, where I became a published author. I loved that experience, but commuting an hour to Baltimore was not sustainable for multiple reasons, so I decided to go back to school, and nutrition science was the natural choice, as I’ve always been interested in nutrition, and everybody eats!

Hood College is close to where I live and was just starting an accelerated nutrition program that would finish in two years, compared to the standard three at the time I was applying, so it just made sense. So far, the program has definitely had its ups and downs. We are the second cohort going through the program, and there are quite a few things being ironed out.

Many of the downs can definitely just be attributed to it being an accelerated program, and doing anything in two years that’s supposed to be done in three is going to feel rough at times.

I feel that in the experience as a whole, the people are really where it shines. My fellow cohort members are an amazing group of people. Many people consider fellow students or peers as acquaintances, and I’m happy to say I can truly call them friends. The director, Joanna Eaton, has really felt like a school "mom" to me in a lot of ways, and it is clear she is a passionate and caring leader for the program. Alongside Professor Eaton, the other professors have been great as well.

My capstone project is a systematic review examining how the ketogenic (or keto) diet affects the bacteria in your gut and how that can affect your health. As for what inspired it, our professor Karen White (shoutout Karen) came into our research class one day and just said, "Alright, what is everyone’s topic for their capstone?" We looked at each other kind of dumbfounded, and we just started chatting in class very informally.

It eventually came up that a fellow student, Beth, was really interested in the ketogenic diet at the time, and given that she has a biochemistry background and I have a biology background, I suggested looking at the gut bacteria (also called the gut microbiome). We eventually agreed it would be cool to combine our ideas, and so here we are.

The design and poster itself I really can’t take any credit for. At the time, I was focused on the write-up for our capstone, and Beth really carried the poster design and creation. She is the real MVP there.

When presenting relatively complex topics, though, I think the one thing we did really well as a group was presenting them in a way that the majority of people could easily understand. The language in our poster was very accessible, and both of us are quite good public speakers, so it just flowed naturally. As for the research itself, as I mentioned before, I’ve published a few papers myself, and this will be my second master’s in STEM, so I’m absolutely no stranger to research and science in general.

I do actually have a favorite class. Professor Emily Spear taught a class that I believe was called Food systems, Global Health & Sustainability. First of all, Emily’s speaking and teaching style is so calming that the class felt like therapy just sitting in it. The topics each week varied a lot, which kept it fresh, and we really looked at different places in the world. It opened my eyes a lot to how lucky we are just to have running water here in America that is safe to drink! There are so many things we take for granted, and it was so interesting to learn about the rest of the world from a nutrition and sustainability standpoint.

As for my impact in the field, I’m really not sure where I will end up. Kind of similar to my first master’s, I feel as though I’ve learned a lot and have truly become a master in this topic but am entirely unsure where to take this from a career standpoint. As for advice, don’t be afraid if you have no idea what you want to be when you grow up, even when you’re a grown-up. Specifically for those considering nutrition science, as I said at the very beginning, everybody eats. There are so few things that we all do, so I think that learning about nutrition really connects us all. There are so many different aspects to nutrition as well. If you are a science person, you can get involved in just the science side, or if you find yourself drawn to empathy, nutrition counseling is an option. It’s just such a versatile field that touches absolutely everyone in some way. 

Inspired by Collin’s story? Ready to #GOFURTHER in your career? Learn more about Hood College’s graduate programs, including nutrition science.