Rate My Professor Andrea Hutchins

Andrea Hutchins, PhD, RD, FAND, serves as Associate Professor in the Department of Human Physiology and Nutrition within the Helen and Arthur E. Johnson Beth-El College of Nursing and Health Sciences at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She received her BS in Dietetics from Kansas State University in 1989, followed by an MS in Nutrition from the University of Minnesota in 1994 and a PhD in Nutrition from the same institution in 1999. Her academic career includes positions as Assistant Professor of Nutrition at Arizona State University from 2001 to 2006, Assistant Professor at UCCS from 2006 to 2009, and promotion to Associate Professor at UCCS in July 2009, where she continues to contribute to undergraduate and graduate programs in nutrition and dietetics.

Dr. Hutchins specializes in functional nutrition, with research centered on the impact of functional foods such as legumes, soy, walnuts, and flax on optimal health and chronic disease risk factors, including heart disease, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, insulin resistance, and glucose metabolism. Her scholarly output includes 72 publications, highlighted by 'Phaseolus beans: impact on glycaemic response and chronic disease risk in human subjects' published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2012; 'Training interns in nutrition and dietetics: a cross-sectional study of the barriers and motivators to being a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist preceptor' in 2021; 'The Impact of Ashwagandha on Stress, Sleep Quality, and Food Cravings in College Students: Quantitative Analysis of a Double-Blind Randomized Control Trial' and its qualitative counterpart in 2022; and recent works such as 'Validation of D-SCOPE Questionnaire: Dietitians’ Survey of Comfort, Opinions, and Perceptions on Education in Supplements' in 2025. These contributions have accumulated 2,943 citations. As a Registered Dietitian and Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, she has engaged in faculty leadership through the CU System Excellence in Leadership Program (2014-2015), Ethics Fellows program (2016), sabbatical leave (2020-2021), and roles in Faculty Assembly.