“I love a good grow and glow moment,” said Allika Pearson, MS, RDN, reflecting on her career journey. A 2024 graduate of UCCS with a Master’s in Nutrition and Dietetics, Allika has been instrumental in helping others thrive, from her internship at the U.S. Olympic Training Center to her current role at the University of Kansas, where she helps athletes fuel their bodies to perform at their best.
Her passion for sports nutrition was shaped by her own experience as a collegiate athlete. As a cross-country runner at UCCS, she experienced firsthand the critical role nutrition plays in athletic performance.
But her focus at UCCS wasn’t always on sports nutrition. She actively contributed to a community health project through UCCS’s Wellness Center, addressing nutrition knowledge deficiencies and overall health education.
“They liked our presentation so much that they wanted us to come back. They have now presented it two or three times. It was really fun to figure out the problem and find a solution.”
As part of her master’s program, Allika was required to complete an internship. Leveraging UCCS’s strong connections, she secured an internship at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.
“The athletes there already have the nutrition basics down—it’s all about fine-tuning,” she said.
During her internship, Allika was involved in a variety of tasks, but her favorite was working in the teaching kitchens with athletes.
They had a “small commercial kitchen in the sports Med building that we use for teaching kitchens to teach athletes easy recipes to cook, or ones that are good for a certain training phase. We have to do the shopping for them and do all the prep for it. Then we get to actually monitor the athletes as they’re cooking. Sometimes it’s more of a competition style, sometimes it’s just more friendly situation.”
That experience helped Allika land a competitive position at the University of Kansas, where she now works with Olympic sports teams, including women’s basketball, softball, tennis, rowing, and track and field. Her role includes overseeing fueling stations, educating athletes, and developing customized nutrition plans to enhance performance.
One of the biggest challenges she sees among college athletes is under-fueling.
“Many athletes just don’t eat enough,” she said. “They skip breakfast, have practice at 1 p.m. and think they can’t eat lunch. They may have something small after practice, then have dinner – only to wonder why they are starving at night.”
She explains that prolonged under-fueling puts the body in a state of survival mode, where it conserves energy rather than utilizing it efficiently. “In the morning, they’ve probably had an 8-10 hour fast, you should feel hungry after that. Especially if they are a hard-working athlete.” So Allika steps in to give them the information they need to start small and build better eating habits.
Beyond nutrition, Allika strives to build strong relationships with the athletes she works with. “Getting to know the athletes has been really fun and enjoyable. It makes coming to work not really feel like work, which is the dream.”
This connection allows her to tailor nutrition counseling to each athlete’s unique needs. “When they do come for a nutrition counsel, I can communicate with them more easily because I know them a little better.”
Allika remains an athlete herself, continuing to train like she did when she competed at the collegiate level, even looking to the future to start competing again in outdoor or road races.
She shares advice to nutrition students or recent graduates to keep an open mind about career opportunities. “There is a lot of variety that I don’t think you realize is out there that a performance dietitian can be.” She urges people to be advocate for yourself and go after what you want no matter where you are in your career.