Marie A. Spano, MS, RD, CSCS, CSSD, is one of the country’s leading sports nutritionists and the sports performance nutritionist for the Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Braves, and Atlanta Falcons. She combines science with practical experience to help athletes implement customized nutrition plans to maximize athletic performance, recovery, and career longevity. Also a nutrition communications expert, Spano has appeared on CNN as well as on NBC, ABC, Fox, and CBS affiliates. She has authored hundreds of magazine and trade publication articles in addition to book chapters in NSCA's Essentials of Personal Training and Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. She is coeditor of NSCA's Guide to Exercise and Sport Nutrition.
A three-sport collegiate athlete, Spano earned her master’s degree in nutrition from the University of Georgia, where she worked in the athletic department as a graduate assistant running the sports nutrition program, and her bachelor’s degree in exercise and sports science from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she also ran Division I cross country. Her experiences as a college athlete provide her an effective perspective when working with athletes of all levels, especially student athletes, by giving her a firsthand understanding of how the demands of athletics, psychological aspects of injury, sleep, recovery, and nutrition can affect an athlete’s overall well-being and performance.
Laura J. Kruskall, PhD, RDN, CSSD, LD, FACSM, FAND, is an associate professor and director of nutrition sciences at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She oversees the nutrition sciences academic degree programs and serves as program director for the ACEND-accredited dietetic internship. She has held numerous leadership positions at the local, state, and national levels, including serving on the board of trustees of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and as the cochair of the committee that authored “Standards of Practice and Standards of Professional Performance for Registered Dietitian Nutritionists (Competent, Proficient, and Expert) in Sports Nutrition and Dietetics,” published in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2014. She is currently serving as the chair of the nutrition track for the ACSM Health and Fitness Summit and Exposition and is a member of the editorial board for ACSM’s Health & Fitness Journal. Dr. Kruskall has been given fellow status by both ACSM and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics for her leadership and contributions to the profession.
Dr. Kruskall’s areas of teaching and practice expertise are sports nutrition, weight management, and medical nutrition therapy. Her research interests include the effects of nutrition and exercise interventions on body composition and energy metabolism and the role of vitamin D in bone health and performance in collegiate athletes. In addition to her academic duties at the university, she is a nutrition consultant for Canyon Ranch SpaClub and Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas.
Dr. Kruskall earned her PhD in nutrition from Penn State University. She also holds a certificate of training in Adult Weight Management Level 2 from the Commission on Dietetic Registration, is certified as an exercise physiologist by ACSM, holds the Exercise Is Medicine Credential II from ACSM, and is a Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dieteticss (CSSD).
D. Travis Thomas, PhD, RDN, CSSD, LD, FAND, is an associate professor of clinical and sports nutrition in the College of Health Sciences and director of the undergraduate certificate program in nutrition for human performance at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Thomas is a Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD). He has held multiple national leadership positions for SCAN (a dietetic practice group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics) and received honors as the lead author on the position statement “Nutrition for Athletic Performance” (March 2016, published in three journals).
Dr. Thomas became a registered dietitian in 2001 and worked as a clinical dietitian in Greensboro, North Carolina, managing medical nutrition therapy for patients in general medicine, cardiac, rehabilitation, and intensive care units. Dr. Thomas then completed his PhD in nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Kansas. Throughout his doctoral and postdoctoral studies, he expanded his clinical knowledge base to include aspects of exercise physiology, sports nutrition, body composition, and hormone physiology.
Dr. Thomas has more than nine years of experience conducting human studies involving nutrition and exercise interventions across the lifespan. Over the last six years, Dr. Thomas has served as an investigator on several research projects that focused on nutrition issues associated with the preservation and enhancement of skeletal muscle function and performance. These studies have included examining the relationship between vitamin D and muscle metabolic function, studies on nutrition and physical function in aging and athletic populations, nutrition interventions to reduce symptoms in patients with advanced heart failure, and investigating nutrition strategies to preserve physical performance and lean body mass in patients with head and neck cancer. Collectively, this work has resulted in multiple publications and has led to NIH funding to examine the contribution of vitamin D to muscle metabolic function.
Dr. Thomas is married and has two children, Averie and Collin. In his free time, he enjoys traveling, staying physically active, cooking, and gardening. He is an avid fan of collegiate sports.
