College of Education and Human Sciences graduate students receive honors from American Society for Nutrition

Friday, June 20, 2025

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Two graduate students from the Oklahoma State University College of Education and Human Sciences received honors at the recent conference for the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando, Florida, on May 31.

Femi Olawale is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Nutritional Sciences. He was selected as a finalist to compete in the Diversity in Nutrition Oral Competition and was given the opportunity to present his abstract, “Resistant Starch Supplementation Promotes Brain Health in Estrogen Deficient Mice by Modulating Gut-Derived Enzyme and Metabolites,” as part of the meeting's scientific program.

“My study is about resistance starch and the effect on the gut microbiota,” Olawale said. “It was a big room, and I knew the people were all very knowledgeable in the subject.”

Olawale’s research focuses on menopausal women and the connection with metabolic disorders and obesity. He feels that these subjects are often underrepresented. 

“It's something that not a lot of people are looking into,” Olawale said. “Women have been said to not get as much recognition as they should.”

Despite the pressures he may have felt from the experts in the audience, Olawale still considered the experience an honor.

“It was a wonderful experience to present my research,” Olawale said.

Brooke Sutton is in the first year of her master’s degree in nutritional sciences, emphasizing dietetics research at OSU. This was the first time she had been honored for her research.

“I’m a young master’s student, so this is only my second year of being involved in research,” Sutton said. “There were so many people, but it was really cool because we were all interested in nutrition in some way.”

Sutton was selected as a finalist in the ASN Emerging Leaders in Nutrition Science Poster Competition. This was after she was given the chance to present her research earlier in the day.

“It was a little more intense, a little scarier,” Sutton said. “But I felt a little more confident than I did earlier in the day because I got that warm-up session.”

Sutton’s research includes analyzing the effects of bioactive components like resistance starch and functional foods like pinto beans on the brain. 

“I knew that I wanted to get my master’s here, and one of the professors I was working under asked, ‘What kind of research would you be interested in?’” Sutton said. “And after she explained them, I was like, ‘Yes, absolutely.”

Even though she didn’t win in her category, Sutton returned feeling more motivated and inspired to continue her research than when she left. 

“I was very inspired by everybody else's research,” Sutton said. “I came back home to Stillwater feeling more determined, more motivated to continue my research.”

Story By: Annie Ross | annie.ross@okstate.edu