In This Story
Allison McKay has always loved science. In fact, while her elementary and middle school classmates were reading fiction novels and comic books, she preferred to read the Encyclopedia, specifically the “S” book where all the information on Space was located. In college, McKay was not exactly sure what she wanted to do for a job, but enjoyed chemistry, and after taking her first nutrition class she was hooked. Nutrition was the home she had been looking for. She decided that she wanted to be a Dietitian and learn how to empower people to live the healthiest lives possible.
As a Navy wife, the field of nutrition was a good fit for McKay because working as a Registered Dietitian is very portable. As McKay’s family moved around, following her Navy husband, she found an adventure in working in various settings. She took her RD exam 12 days after moving to Hawaii and her first job was, to her surprise, in research. She was a Research Dietitian on two separate research studies at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii and loved working in that environment. After moving to Washington state, McKay found a job working in long-term care. Growing up with her grandmother in the house, she had a heart for older adults, and so she found this work extremely rewarding.
As they moved to Virginia with three small children, McKay made the choice to pause working to provide the family stability amid multiple deployments. As kids turned to teens, she decided it was time to explore her love of nutrition again. McKay realized that although she really enjoyed her experiences in nutrition, she always felt that by mainly focusing on nutrition, she was overlooking an important aspect of health – physical activity.
She always enjoyed being outside and believed that for optimal health, one needed to be active, in addition to eating healthy food. So, she decided to get a master’s degree in Exercise, Fitness and Health Promotion from Mason and graduated in May 2020. During this time, she had the opportunity to work on research studies and grew in her understanding of her place in public health. In each of her work and volunteer experiences, McKay’s favorite part was collaborating with other allied health professionals because the sharing of knowledge and ideas with the common goal of providing the best patient care was so satisfying.
McKay’s role as the department manager for the Department of Nutrition is truly multi-faceted. She provides administrative and organizational support for the chair and the faculty. As the only staff member in the department, McKay enters EPAFs, purchases needed items, reconciles all the funds for the department, maintains equipment, and plans events for the department. She also provides student support as the clinical coordinator for the Dietetics program, helps faculty as needed, provides nutrition counseling, and acts as a preceptor for students at the MAPCclinic for the supervised experiential learning. As a collaborator, Allison also helps to coordinate the VR experiences for students and works with nursing DNP students on their nutrition-related projects.
McKayis honored to serve as one of the co-chairs for the inaugural Staff Council for the College. She is looking forward to getting to know the other members of the council on a deeper level will work very hard for the employees of the College of Public Health here at Mason.
All these things keep her busy, but she is always available with an open chair and ear for students, faculty, and staff from other departments to come and share concerns and joys. Please feel free to reach out to her if you need information about the department or help in any way. If she doesn’t have the answer, she can find someone who does! And if you need a snack, you can always stop by the Nutrition suite – there is always something to eat!
When she is not at work, McKay loves to be outside. You might find her “dance-walking” every morning in the woods behind her house or, in the summer, at the pool. She loves to learn about new cultures, and lately has been a bit of a travel bug. She loves a good trail, tall trees and is always ready to travel – to anywhere!!!