The Colorado State University Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition welcomes two new instructors, both of whom earned their doctoral degrees in the department.

Amy Sheflin

Amy Sheflin completed her M.S. in Horticulture and her Ph.D. in Food Science and Human Nutrition at CSU. Her research interests primarily focus on understanding the role of microbes in supporting the health of agricultural crops and the human beings that consume them. Her dissertation research in Associate Professor Tiffany Weir’s lab highlighted the effects of rice bran on human gut microbial communities and human health.

Sheflin continued her research as a postdoctoral fellow using metabolomics to investigate sorghum adaptations to low water, low nutrient environments at CSU’s proteomics and metabolomics facility (now ARC-BIO). After continuing at ARC-BIO as a research scientist, Sheflin expanded her career as an independent nutritional consultant, health coach (full time at Virgin Pulse), and industry food safety instructor for Food Safety Net Services. Most recently, she (re)joined the department as an instructor for Fall 2021 to apply her rice, sorghum, food safety, and analytical chemistry experience in teaching the FTEC 576 Cereal Science course.

Sheflin completed the course herself while completing her Ph.D. and then also later served as a teaching assistant for the course. Teaching cereal science was a natural fit given that her dissertation research focused on the effects of rice bran on the human gut microbiome and her postdoc research centered around sorghum. When the department reached out to see if would like to partner with Ardent Mills, including all of the exciting research they’re doing in the area of ancient grains and sustainable plant proteins, she immediately said, “Count me in!”

Brittney Sly

Brittney Sly completed her MPH with a concentration in Global Health and Health Disparities Public Health at the Colorado School of Public Health and her Ph.D. in Food Science and Human Nutrition at CSU. She has been a registered dietitian for 15 years serving as a preceptor for numerous dietetic internship programs including the CSU CMPD for the past 13 years. She is also the nutrition and wellness programs manager for Housing & Dining Services at CSU focusing on nutrition education and counseling for CSU students. She now joins the food science and human nutrition department as an instructor.

Her most recent accolades include the CSU College of Health and Human Sciences 2021 Distinction in Graduate Research Award for community engagement and graduate scholarly excellence, 2020/2021 Outstanding Dietitian of the Year and the 2020 Office of International Programs – Global Impact Research Award for her work on empowering Rwandan women to combat malnutrition and change community-level health behaviors. Sly is passionate about studying the systematic factors that influence global health and malnutrition program success to create sustainable nutrition interventions.

Sly’s well-rounded dietetic knowledge and experience have allowed her to teach a wide variety of classes including both the undergraduate and graduate versions of Medical Nutrition Therapy as part of the Didactic Program in Dietetics and a Food Safety Management class as part of the Hospitality Management degree program. Sly also teaches the graduate-level Women’s Nutrition Issues Through the Lifecycle and the Advanced Medical Nutrition Therapy class for the GPIdea Program. Sly enjoys training and mentoring the next generation of nutrition professionals and foodies.

The Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition is part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.