PULLMAN – Kathryn Meier, director of the program in nutrition and exercise physiology – formerly the program in health sciences – will move from WSU Pullman to the Health Sciences Building at WSU Spokane in September.
She will move her faculty office and research laboratory. Her research, which is funded by the National Cancer Institute, concerns the molecular mechanisms by which lipid metabolites enhance growth, metastasis and survival of cancer cells. Her lab also studies the effects of dietary supplements on signal transduction in cancer cells, using model systems that include lymphoma, prostate, breast and ovarian cancer cell lines.
Research associate professor Julia Zhang also will move, and visiting professor Jae-Bong Park from South Korea will spend his sabbatical in Meier’s lab in Spokane.
Meier’s move is another step toward consolidation of WSU’s two programs in dietetics. The four-year general dietetics program on the Pullman campus will be phased out when the last of its students graduate in May 2012.
The WSU Spokane exercise physiology and metabolism (ExMet) program incorporates training in both dietetics and exercise physiology. The coordinated program (CP) in dietetics was designed as a minor for ExMet students, who can take one additional year of classes and then complete 1,200 hours of supervised practice experience to become eligible to take exams to become registered dieticians and/or certified exercise specialists.
The Pullman dietetics students who were accepted into the CP did their supervised practice in Tacoma, where there are three WSU faculty members. That site will be available to the Spokane students as early as fall 2010. The consolidated dietetics program will continue to use the Madigan Army Medical Center at Tacoma as a practice site for its students, along with sites in Spokane. The increase in practice sites is allowing for expansion of the ExMet program to serve additional students.
Exercise science master’s program reopens
Meanwhile, after some program changes, students are once again being accepted for admission to the masters degree program in exercise science at WSU Spokane.
Meanwhile, after some program changes, students are once again being accepted for admission to the masters degree program in exercise science at WSU Spokane.
Admission was closed for one year while the program went through consolidation and rearrangement of faculty assignments. It will be ready for students who want to begin their studies in fall 2010, said Meier.
The master’s degree program is a minimum of 34 semester hours. Course work focuses on the study of the cellular mechanisms that regulate physiological responses to exercise.
Faculty members also teach in the bachelors degree program in exercise physiology and metabolism and in the coordinated program in dietetics.
