Alumni Profile: Natalie Cooke

ASPIRATION MEETS MENTORSHIP IN NUTRITION SCIENCE

Nutrition Science Alumna Finds Fulfillment in Instructional Design and Mentoring Undergraduates By Alice Manning Touchette

Once alumna Natalie Cooke made it to the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences (FBNS), she never left. Like many freshmen at NC State, she came in with some idea of what she wanted to do—she tried internships in dentistry, nursing, and clinical lab work—but nothing felt quite right until she fell in with the Nutrition Science program.

“I was a biochemistry major on a Park Scholarship and I knew I wanted to do something related to healthcare, so I started taking classes, became interested in genetics, and then nutrition,” Cooke says. A fateful conversation with Sarah Ash, now a Professor Emerita, helped steer her in the right direction.

“I sat down with Sarah and explained what I was doing in my biochem classes and how I might want to pair them with nutrition, and she really helped me figure out what to do and how I could fit in a double major to include nutrition,” Cooke says.

Cooke went on to work with Professor Suzie Goodell on a pilot community nutrition course delivered in collaboration with the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, and she found her calling.

“I started working in Suzie's research lab, we piloted the cooking classes over the summer and we implemented that service-learning experience in the community nutrition class that fall of my senior year,” she recalls.

Designing this course laid the groundwork for what would become a passionate career in instructional design and helping undergraduates find their own paths. As a graduate student in the department, Cooke helped to design and teach the community nutrition class with Goodell.

“We went through an iterative process of continuing to improve that course and did some scholarship of teaching and learning projects,” Cooke explains. “The process with curriculum development and that kind of research was something I knew I wanted to explore in the future.”

She credits the department and faculty with providing her with the mentorship she needed to apply for a postdoc position that led to her now full-time faculty position in FBNS.

“I set foot on campus in 2006 as a freshman and I never left,” laughs Cooke, who is now an assistant professor and director of undergraduate programs for Nutrition Science.

“I love mentoring. It's a big part of what I do, talking with undergraduates who are trying out a new experience and figuring out if this is something they want to do in a future career,” Cooke says. “My work is also related to academic advising of students and figuring out what are those next steps? What experiences do they need to gain in order to get that dream job or get into that dream graduate program? A lot of that has ended up being incorporated into this newer required course within our major.”

The Nutrition Research, Communication and Careers course— designed by Cooke—helps students understand the different career paths they can take in nutrition. It also introduces students to nutrition research methods and scientific writing early in their program, preparing them for upper-level classes.

The most rewarding part of her career is becoming part of the department that helped her define her career.

“In FBNS, we're of the mindset that we went into this because we enjoy teaching and helping students to be better positioned for whatever that next step is going to be for them,” Cooke says. “I had the opportunity to grow as a student in this program, and now I’m able to give back what those professors gave to me. I think this is a unique position to be in and I’m just grateful for our department and the environment that created that collaboration, creativity, and process of continual improvement of our courses and our students.”