Lindenwood added a dietitian to its staff through Sodexo with an adjunct professor serving in the new role providing different services and opportunities to students.
Eric Finley was hired as an adjunct professor with Lindenwood in August and took on the role of the campus dietitian the week of Thanksgiving in the fall semester. The position is hired through Lindenwood’s dining services partner Sodexo.
“What we really want to do is get the community and campus involved because, let’s be honest, we all have nutrition questions,” Finley said. “Whether it’s on the top of our head or not, nutrition is something that we do every single day, multiple times a day.”
Finley, a St. Louis native, said that he became interested in sports nutrition through playing soccer. He studied sports nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri and pursued his Master’s in Dietetics at the University of Utah.
“I got the opportunity to work with the University of Utah athletics which also helped me work with Olympic athletes because in Parks City, Utah they have a big training facility for Winter Olympics,” Finley said. “I got the opportunity to not only work with the student-athletes at the University of Utah but then also at Park City helping with the Olympic athletes and meal prep and stuff like that.”
Finley said he came back to St. Louis with the job opportunity to work as a performance coach and dietician, doing community-based work with a variety of ages. However, his connections at Lindenwood allowed him to give lectures to Lindenwood students in nutrition classes before becoming a professor.
As the campus dietitian, Finley offers one-on-one individual counseling for students to navigate their food intake, group talks for groups and teams, and more interactive activities. Finley also works with the chefs through Sodexo to guarantee students a variety of healthy options.
“(I’m) just making myself a resource, not only helping with the students, helping with the chefs, making sure that they’re following the steps we need to keep students safe from food allergens, so really just trying to be an advocate for food and nutrition,” Finley said.
Finley said that he plans to roll out a Meet the RD initiative where he will table in Spellmann and Evans to answer students’ nutrition questions.
“We’ll have days that I’ll be tabling and we just stress to students to come up and talk to me. If you want to ask me what you should get I can (give recommendations). They can email me or they can also contact me on that phone number, call or text whatever is easiest for them.”
Student’s can access their one-on-one individual counseling sessions with Finley by emailing [email protected] or by texting/calling 314-960-7067. These sessions take place both virtually and in-person.
