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A publication of The Graduate School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Archives Spring 2001

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From the Source

 

Photo of Tina Marie Saldana
Photo by Will Owens

One Doctoral Student,
Many Faces of Diversity

Tina Marie Saldana, a doctoral student in the nutrition department at UNC-Chapel Hill, has no time to waste. She’s an educator, a mom, a dietitian and a researcher — all rolled into one. A winner of the prestigious Caroline H. and Thomas S. Royster, Jr. Fellowship, Saldana’s goal is to help foster educational partnerships between the University and the community. Saldana was interviewed in January of 2001 by Nadia Watts.

 

The Fountain: What is your background?

Tina Marie Saldana (TMS): I am Mexican-American. I was born and grew up in a small town in rural Oregon, but my family is originally from the New Mexico area. My grandparents were migrant farm workers who settled out of the migrant stream. My mom was the first person in my family to graduate from high school. I was the first person in my family to go off to college. I didn’t have a lot of financial support from my family, so I worked full time as a florist until I
graduated.

Fountain: When did you first know you were interested in the sciences?

TMS: When I was young, I had an excellent biology instructor who got me hooked by encouraging me to participate in science fairs. I attended the National Academy of Sciences between my junior and senior years of high school and competed at the National Academy of Sciences when I was a senior. Then I went to Oregon State University and majored in microbiology. I wasn’t sure exactly what I’d end up doing at that point, but I really enjoyed the sciences.

After graduating, I went into the Peace Corps. I was a rural development volunteer in the Dominican Republic for two and a half years. That’s where I started to become interested in nutrition and the effects of nutrition on health and on people’s lives. I worked on gardening projects. It was rewarding to see someone eating healthy food from his or her own garden.

Fountain: What next?

TMS: After the Peace Corps, I traveled alone throughout all of South America. I backpacked for six months. I wanted to see more of the world and how people lived. When I got back to the United States, I worked as a chemist at the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, testing for dioxin in paper products.

I went back for my Master’s in nutrition and food management at Oregon State. Then I worked as a nutritionist for two years in the Women, Infants and Children’s program (WIC). I really enjoyed that. I taught nutrition and breast-feeding classes to people I felt really could use the information. I sometimes miss that.

Fountain: Why did you return to school for your Ph.D.?

TMS: I wanted to teach nutrition to other health professionals who could then go out in the field and share their skills with the community. I also wanted to look at nutrition and food research, as well as health-related outcomes. My primary motivation has always been to do research that may help improve people’s quality of life.

Also, I haven’t had a lot of professors who were Hispanic. I think it’s important to be able to say that I come from a migrant family background, but that does not limit what I can do. I felt that as a member of the University I could relate to students from similar social and economic backgrounds, and somewhere down the line serve as a mentor to them.

Fountain: What is your research interest here at Carolina?

TMS: I’m mainly interested in health issues for moms and babies. Diabetes is an important health outcome that’s really increasing in our population. Half the women who get diabetes during pregnancy — gestational diabetes — develop diabetes later in life. In order to reduce the risks associated with long-term diabetes, it’s important to understand more about the causes of gestational diabetes.

I’m currently studying the birth outcomes of women whose glucose levels fall below the definition of gestational diabetes. I am trying to understand how women’s diets before they become pregnant, their weight gain during pregnancy and their physical activity influence the development of impaired glucose tolerance during pregnancy. From a public health prospective, all these risk factors are very important places where modification could be suggested.

At this point in my degree, I’m ABD — all but dissertation. In addition to doing my dissertation, I also decided to take the time to become a registered dietitian to get some clinical experience. Carolina offers a unique opportunity to do that. I have a lot of experience in the community, but I’d never worked in the hospital.

Now I’m working on my dissertation on impaired glucose tolerance during pregnancy. It’s exciting to start the analysis. It’s going to be very fun.

Fountain: What do you plan to do when you graduate? What’s your dream job?

TMS: I’d like a teaching and research position, maybe in a small university in a reasonably small town. I’d like to teach community nutrition or maternal child health nutrition classes. It would be rewarding to help master’s students get into the field and help develop a partnership between the community and the school where I teach.

Fountain: How do you balance being a mom to a 5 year-old and a 2-year-old while you’re in graduate school?

TMS: Family is very important. I try to juggle being involved in my children’s lives with working as much as I can, while keeping my hours on my dissertation. I’ve taken both my kids to many classes, seminars and meetings. Having professors who are amenable to this has been very helpful in balancing family and school. I have been lucky to have that kind of support from my two major professors. I’m also thankful to have received funding from NIGMS, Research
Educational Support Program, and the Royster Fellowship.

The Royster Fellowship is extremely helpful, because it allows me to focus on my dissertation research. In addition to the financial help, the society has provided me the opportunity to meet and share research interests with other fellows and professors from across the University.

 

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