Hood launches graduate nutrition sciences program

Jul. 7—Hood College is launching a graduate-level nutrition sciences program under its recently formed health sciences school.

The program will allow students to pursue a Master of Science in nutrition. It will be offered in a hybrid format, according to a press release from the school.

Hood is accepting students for the fall 2022 semester, with an expected graduation in summer 2024.

Students can choose from three tracks.

The first is a 42-credit dietetics track, which will train students to become registered dietitians. The second is a 32-credit nutrition science track, and the third is a 32-credit sustainable nutrition track.

Students focusing on sustainable nutrition will work with Hood's sustainability studies program and study "sustainable food systems and regenerative agricultural practices," according to the release.

"We think we are the only nutrition program in the state of Maryland that has that sustainability studies track," said April Boulton, the dean of Hood's graduate school. "We are very excited about it."

The program will be housed under the Ruth Whitaker Holmes School of Behavioral and Health Sciences, which the college formed in April.

The school, which will house Hood's graduate and undergraduate degrees in nursing, counseling, social work and more, is named for Holmes, who graduated from the college in 1955 with a degree in chemistry. She donated $1 million toward the school's founding, which was matched by the Maryland Department of Commerce E-Nnovation Fund.

The Holmes school will take over the property at 700 Tollhouse Road, for which the college recently announced a lease agreement with Frederick Health. The property is under renovation and should be ready to house Holmes school faculty and students by Spring 2023.

Hood chose Anne Davis, who directs a clinical nutrition program at University of the Pacific in Sacramento, California, to lead the program.

The field is growing, Davis said. Traditionally, dietitians mostly worked in hospitals, but now they could work anywhere from a grocery store to a cruise ship to a military base.

"It's going to be great for the community and definitely a win for the college," she said of the program.

Boulton said she expected the program to attract 24 to 30 new students per year. "It's going to be a nice extension of our existing portfolio in health sciences," Boulton said.

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