Rate My Professor Alyce Fly

Alyce D. Fly, PhD, CFS, serves as Chair of the Department of Nutrition and Health Science and Professor of Nutrition and Health Science at Ball State University since August 1, 2020. The department offers accredited undergraduate degrees in Dietetics, Public Health, and Respiratory Therapy, an Associate of Science in Radiography, and graduate programs including a Master of Science in Health Science with a concentration in Biostatistics and Epidemiology, and a Master of Science in Nutrition and Dietetics. Fly holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology and a PhD in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with her doctoral research funded by competitive awards from Quaker Oats and a National Institutes of Health Clinical Nutrition Research traineeship. Prior to Ball State, she was faculty at Indiana University Bloomington for 29 years, advancing to full professor and undertaking key leadership roles such as Administrative Fellow, Associate Dean for Academic Administration in the School of Public Health, chair of the faculty governance council for two terms, Interim Assistant Chair of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and director of undergraduate and graduate nutrition science programs for 20 years.

Fly's research examines nutrition's impact on population and individual health to prevent chronic diseases, including the development, implementation, and evaluation of food and nutrition interventions funded by the US Department of Agriculture, Indiana Department of Education, and Indiana Department of Health. She has partnered on epidemiological and laboratory studies of nutrition in health and performance, supported by National Institutes of Health grants and industry. Key interests include measuring food intake in children, dietary fatty acids and immunity, antioxidants and oxidative stress such as after high-fat meals, bioavailability of minerals and carotenoids, biological markers, factors in mothers' decisions to exclusively breastfeed, and obesity and health. Prominent publications comprise 'Protective effect of fish oil supplementation on exercise-induced bronchoconstriction in asthma' (2006), 'Chocolate milk as a post-exercise recovery aid' (2006), 'Predictors of continuation of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life' (2010), 'Dietary Intake and Nutritional Status among Refugees in Host Countries: A Systematic Review' (2022), and 'Vegetarian diets and risk of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease' (2024). She received Indiana University Trustees Teaching Awards in 2002, 2012, and 2016; Teaching Excellence Recognition Awards in 1997 and 1999; and the School of Public Health Distinguished Service Award in 2015. Nationally, Fly has led in the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior as President of its Foundation Board (2021-2023), American Society for Nutrition, and Institute of Food Technologists.