Anna Turner is a sports nutrition assistant at the University of Illinois. She is passionate about her career and family, which includes her husband and dog. Her personal athletic goals include completing an Ironman triathlon. Her research interests include studying ferritin levels in athletes and overtraining in swimmers. Previously she has presented on food ingredients to marketing managers of various food companies from her sales role at ADM. In this course, she hopes to gain more confidence in her research skills and ability to evaluate research papers.

1. ANNA TURNER, RD, CSSD, LDN
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS –SPORTS NUTRITION ASSISTANT

2. SOMETHING IMPORTANT..
▪ Family – my family is the most important thing in my life. My husband and I have
been married for 1.5 years and have a dog named hank.
▪ Career- I am so blessed that I have found the career that I know I will love with all of
my heart. Having passion for a job is very important to me.
▪ Personal athletic goals- I still consider myself an athlete and continue to push my
limits with new goals. After completing my masters degree, my next athletic goal
will be competing in an Ironman. I have already completed a marathon and Half-
Ironman.

3. ▪ My last official research project was during
my dietetic internship. I had to research a
clinical topic and present on the nutrient
implications. I researched a Wipple
procedure which is used a lot in pancreatic
cancer patients.
▪ Last year while completing a year at the
University of Kansas working as a sports
dietitian, I collected data for a research
project. My boss was researching bone
density values in athletes to determine is
there are normative values per sport. Using
a DXA x-ray machine, I scanned 550
athletes, 3x throughout the year and
collected the BMD numbers.
RESEARCH TOPIC OF INTEREST
If I had to choose a research topic right now, I would
choose to research ferritin levels in athletes. I want to
learn more about ferritin levels and performance.
There is some research showing that low ferritin can
affect athletes, especially endurance athletes.
Another topic of interest is the over-training culture of
swimmers. I would like to see if there is any research on
consequences of over-training in swimmers.
Tying the two topics together- I have several swimmers
with low ferritin levels at the U of IL. I have also noticed
that they don’t always respond well to supplementation. I
often wonder if this has to do with the degree of
overtraining.

4. EXPERIENCE PRESENTING
Before becoming a sports dietitian, I
worked in sales for Archer Daniels
Midland Company (ADM). ADM is a food
ingredient company that sells ingredients
such as soy protein, legumes, cocoa and
oils.
I have presented on ADM ingredients to
Senior Research and Marketing
managers at these major companies:
Kellogg's, Kraft, Hodgen Mills, Clif,
Frito-Lay, Syder’s-Lance, Pepsico,
Gatorade, and many more.

5. WHAT I EXPECT FROM THIS COURSE
▪ I would like to be more confident in my
research skills.
▪ I would also like to be more confident
in my ability to judge the quality of a
research paper.