Professor and Chair, Department of Nutrition Sciences, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

Stella L. Volpe, PhD, RD, LDN, FACSM is Professor and Chair of the Department of Nutrition Sciences. She is a nutritionist and exercise physiologist whose work on obesity and diabetes prevention, body composition, bone mineral density, and mineral metabolism and exercise represent more than a decade of consistent funding. Prior to beginning her appointment as Professor and Chair in January 2011 at Drexel University, Dr. Volpe was on faculty at the University of Pennsylvania from 2004 to 2010. Prior to that appointment, Dr. Volpe was on faculty at the University of Massachusetts from 1994 through 2003.

 Registered Dietitian, CHOP Center for Sports Medicine and Performance, King of Prussia, PA

Kimberly Wright Cover, MS, LPC, RD, CSSD, LDN, is a triple board certified sports nutrition therapist. She specializes in aspiring athletes that seek to obtain optimal health and sports performance through balanced nutrition, exercise and well being. She is a prolific writer, book author, and has been published in peer reviewed journals. She developed and managed several outpatient programs and has authored multiple standards of care for sports nutrition, wellness performance teams, and athletes with eating and exercise issues. She graduated with distinction as an elite student-athlete from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in dietetics on a gymnastics scholarship and with honors from the West Chester University with her Master’s Degree in Educational Psychology and the Science of Counseling. Her distinguished service as an Officer in the United States Navy included the development and implementation of a Health Promotion Program, which was utilized by the entire U.S. Fleet. 

Director of Performance, Philadelphia Union, Chester, PA.

 Garrison is the Director of Performance for the Philadelphia Union. He is a sport scientist with experience throughout Major League Soccer (MLS). Before coming to Philadelphia, Garrison worked with the Chicago Fire and Seattle Sounders. Garrison has implemented an athlete monitoring system which follows players through physical testing, GPS and Accelerometry, heart rate monitoring, and non-contact injuries. This data is used to better understand player response to training an player growth and development. Garrison supports Philadelphia Union Academy, YSC Academy and Philadelphia Union First Team Players and Staff.

 Director of Sports Science, Philadelphia Flyers, Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Peterson is the Director of Sports Science with the Philadelphia Flyers. Prior to his appointment with the Philadelphia Flyers, Dr. Ben Peterson was the sports Performance manager for Catapult and co-author of Triphasic Training, has worked with players and performance coaches of elite teams worldwide, helping them identify and evaluate contextual analytics by measuring training loads - biomechanical and physiological load quantifications - to improve performance outcomes and reduce soft tissue injuries of athletes. Ben completed his Doctoral Degree in Exercise Physiology at the University of Minnesota.

Director of Athletics, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Eric A. Zillmer is the Director of Athletics and Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology at Drexel University in Philadelphia. A licensed clinical psychologist who received his doctorate in clinical psychology from Florida Tech, Zillmer completed internship training at Eastern Virginia Medical School and a postdoctoral fellowship in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Virginia Medical School.

Now in his 19th year as Director of Athletics, Dr. Zillmer oversees all components of the Athletics Department, which provides recreational opportunities and programming for over 25,000 students and 6,000 faculty and professional staff. He also serves on the Executive Board of the Philadelphia Sports Congress, the Boards of the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society, the International House Philadelphia, and the Austrian Society of Pennsylvania and the Advisory Board of SquashSmarts. 

Director, Center for Nutrition & Performance, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

Nyree is an Assistant Clinical Professor, ISPP Coordinator and Director of the Center for Nutrition & Performance at Drexel University. As Director of the Center for Nutrition & Performance, Nyree develops, implements and assesses nutrition education programming, and meal planning for the Drexel Dragons (over 400 NCAA Division 1 athletes), the Philadelphia Union team (Major League Soccer) and the United States Delegates at the World University Games (700 university athletes, Gwangju, South Korea, 2015 and Taipei, Taiwan, 2017). Nyree developed the formulation of Dragon Gels, a sports nutrition supplement used exclusively by the Drexel Dragons and the Philadelphia Union.

Sport Psychology Coordinator, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA.

Dr. Angie Fifer joined the Drexel Athletics staff in December 2016 as the sport psychology coordinator on the newly created sports performance team. Angie is also the owner of Breakthrough Performance Consulting in Philadelphia, PA. The practice focuses on helping performers to break through to a new level of excellence utilizing mental skills to prepare, compete and recover at the top of their abilities. Prior to beginning her practice, Fifer spent seven years as a performance psychology trainer at the United States Military Academy at West Point. In her role, she provided performance excellence training, including confidence building, attention and focus training, effective goal setting, stress and energy management and visualization to numerous Army West Point Division I and club teams.

Dietitian, Seeds of Hope, Philadelphia, PA.

Amy is a Registered Dietitian specializing in the treatment of eating disorders. Through education, coaching, and support she’s had great success helping clients achieve their personalized nutritional goals. Once goals are realized, Amy provides the motivation and tools necessary to maintain these desired goals. The road to disordered eating recovery is never simple or straight forward. Because of this, each client receives personalized nutrition therapy for each unique individual. Food and nutrition is just one dimension of an eating disorder. Amy believes collaborating with doctors, therapists, and psychiatrists is a vital part of recovery and sustained results. Amy is currently the Director of Nutrition at Seeds of Hope, an intensive outpatient program specializing in the treatment of eating disorders.

Graduate Student, Drexel University, Department of Nutrition Sciences, Philadelphia, PA.

Jessica Liu is a graduate student in the Department of Nutrition Sciences, Drexel University. Jessica graduated from Baylor University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Finance and International Business. She completed the Didactic Program in Dietetics while obtaining a Masters in Human Nutrition from Drexel University in 2017. During her time at Drexel, she focused her research on the development and implementation of a sports nutrition supermarket training toolkit for dietetic professionals, which involved working with the Philadelphia Union, a major league soccer team, and Drexel ISPP dietetic interns. Additionally while at Drexel, she was selected as one of five graduate Sports Nutrition Assistants with the Center for Nutrition & Performance, held a Teaching Assistantship position, and was employed at Eat.Right.Now.

Graduate Student, Drexel University, Department of Nutrition Sciences, Philadelphia, PA.

Leah Tsui is a graduate student in the Department of Nutrition Sciences, Drexel University. Leah graduated from the University of Southern California in 2015 with a Bachelor of Science in Human Biology, with an emphasis on Nutrition and Metabolism. At USC, Leah assisted the Trojans’ sports dietitian with NCAA athletes. She completed the Didactic Program in Dietetics while obtaining a Masters in Human Nutrition from Drexel University in 2017. While at Drexel, she was selected as one of five graduate Sports Nutrition Assistants with the Center for Nutrition & Performance, and held a Teaching Assistantship position. The development and implementation of the sports nutrition training tour toolkit was the cornerstone of Leah’s research during her time at Drexel. She worked with the Philadelphia Union Major League Soccer team and trained Drexel dietetic interns to use the supermarket training tour toolkit.is

Graduate Student, Drexel University, Department of Nutrition Sciences, Philadelphia, PA.

Coco Ellis graduated from Clemson University in 2012 with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing. Upon graduation, Coco joined Teach for America and spent two years teaching in an inner city middle school. After making the connection that her students’ academic performance was being impacted by their poor nutrition, she made a decision to change careers and pursue a Masters in Human Nutrition at Drexel University. A lifelong athlete, Coco aspires to work as a sports dietitian and teach other athletes how to use nutrition as a tool to enhance performance. Working in the Center for Nutrition & Performance at Drexel, she has assisted in the development of a six-week nutrition education program for NCAA athletes and served as a nutrition liaison for both the Men’s and Women’s basketball teams. In August, Coco will be traveling to the Summer World University Games in Taipei as a Sports Nutrition Intern.