Faculty
Charlene “Charlie” Shunick is an Associate Professor and Biotechnology Director at Delgado Community College. She is also the Founder of a non-profit organization dedicated to assisting the loved ones of missing persons. Ms. Shunick has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a Master’s degree in Neuroscience, which allows her to teach various Biological topics, such as Nutrition, Anatomy and Physiology, and Forensic Science.
Dr. Latoya Paul received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from Southern University and A&M College in 2002. She earned her Ph.D. in Biological Sciences with a concentration in developmental and neurobiology from Louisiana State University in 2010. Dr. Paul completed her post-doctoral training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), where she studied neurodegenerative diseases in mice and drug toxicity and nutrition in zebrafish. She resides in Baton Rouge, LA, and enjoys her role as an academic scientist. Dr. Paul loves spending time with her family of eight, reading and writing, and leading in ministry.
Dr. Jacqueline Nesbit is an instructor at Delgado Community College, primarily teaching anatomy and physiology. In addition to her role at Delgado, Jacqueline has taught nutrition at the University of New Orleans for the past 14 years. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Tulane University, where she studied a protein involved in acute lymphocytic leukemia. Since 2007, Dr. Nesbit has been actively studying peanut and tree nut allergies in an ongoing collaboration with the USDA.
Dr. Alin Basgul Yigiter is a faculty and chief instructor in Human Nutrition at South Louisiana Community College Lafayette, Louisiana. She is a retired full professor in medicine in Istanbul, Turkey. She earned her diploma in medicine at the University of Istanbul, Cerrahpasa Faculty of Medicine (English Section) in 1995. She has clinical experience as a medical doctor between 1995 and 2020. She completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Marmara University Hospital, Istanbul in 2000. She has been honored to teach and work as a lecturer to medical students, residents, health technicians, nurses, and midwives in both clinical, laboratory, and theoretical settings for about fourteen years at Marmara University School of Medicine and Istanbul Bilim University School of Medicine where she earned diplomas for associate professorship and full professorship in medicine in 2007 and 2012 respectively. She was awarded a Diploma in Fetal Medicine in 2009 by the Fetal Medicine Foundation London after working as a research fellow for two years and fulfilling all the requirements at London King`s College Hospital, Harris Birthright Research Centre. Dr Yigiter is the Author of 6 chapters in published medical books and has over 50 published medical articles. Dr Yigiter had the opportunity to be invited to deliver lectures at various medical conferences in different countries. She is thrilled by this amazing project as it will increase the number of students who can spread the word about food and health relationships and would be useful to our community. Dr. Yigiter believes the best and most painless treatment is to prevent disease rather than treat it with medicine and surgeries.
Dr. Melissa Johnson is an Assistant Professor and Program Leader of the Human Nutrition and Food Program at Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She earned her B.S. degree in Family and Consumer Sciences with a concentration in Human Nutrition and Food/Dietetics from Southern University and A&M College and her M.S. degree in Food Science from The Pennsylvania State University. She earned her Ph.D. in Integrative Biosciences from Tuskegee University. Dr. Johnson’s research interests include food product development, functional foods, health promotion, disease prevention, and the relationship between diet and chronic disease. She often expresses her creativity through cooking, baking, crafting, and writing.
The project lead for the nutrition cohort is Dr. Kelly Kingrey-Edwards. She is the Education and Human Sciences Librarian at Louisiana Tech University in Ruston, Louisiana. She earned her B.A. in Liberal Arts from the Northwestern State University, a Master’s in Library and Information Studies from the University of Texas, and her Ph.D. from Texas Woman’s University. She is an enthusiastic member of the Open Education movement and a returning cohort leader with LOUIS, the Louisiana Library Consortium. She previously worked on a team to create both an open textbook and a course for Physical Science, particularly for dual-enrollment students. Her research interests include children’s and YA literature, copyright and commons licensing, and instructional design and technology.
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