UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The College of Health and Human Development Alumni Society has announced its 2022 award winners. The Alumni Society Board honored the awardees at the Health and Human Development Alumni Awards ceremony on Nov. 4 in the Marriott Foundation Building at Penn State’s University Park campus.
These four graduates of the College of Health and Human Development have distinguished themselves throughout the course of their careers and in public service.
Regan Bailey is associate director for precision nutrition at the Institute for Advancing Health Through Agriculture and professor of nutrition at Texas A&M University. She previously served as professor of nutrition science at Purdue University and as nutritional epidemiologist and director of career development at the National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements.
Bailey is a registered dietitian who completed a dietetic internship and received a master of science degree in food and nutrition from the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Bailey earned her doctorate in nutritional sciences from Penn State in 2007. She also earned a master of public health degree from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in 2015.
The focus of her research is to improve methods of measuring nutritional status to optimize health. She uses nationally representative survey data to characterize different diets in America, to identify the optimal methods for assessment of biomarkers of nutritional status and to understand how dietary intakes relate to health outcomes.
Bailey worked to develop the first models combining nutrients from foods and dietary supplements to estimate total usual intake. Her work informed the calcium and vitamin D Dietary Reference Intakes and the National Academy reference values. Bailey has used these models to identify differences in nutritional exposures by gender, race, ethnicity, life stage and income, suggesting the need for population-specific interventions and public health policy. She is the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Recently, Bailey has been called on for her expertise by the United States government and various NGOs. Bailey served on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee and as chair of the Data Analysis and Food Pattern Modeling Subcommittee. She was a member of the 2021 Committee on Scanning for New Evidence on Riboflavin to Support a Dietary Reference Intake Review for the National Academy of Medicine. She was recently appointed to serve on the American Heart Association’s Council on Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Nutrition Committee.
Thomas Duane “Lefty” McIntyre is a three time Penn State graduate of the College of Health and Human Development in 1954, 1959, and 1970. For his doctorate, McIntyre conducted a unique study titled, “Field Experimental Study of Cohesiveness Status & Attitude Change in Four Biracial Small Sports Groups.” McIntyre was invited to present his field experimental study results all over the world and at an American Medical Association meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the first field study of its kind conducted among Black and white children.
McIntyre was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force, where he received a military award for being the top fighter pilot in survival training. He was assigned as a pilot for temporary duty at Upper Heyford, England, and at Eilson Air Force Base in Fairbanks, Alaska.
For several years he taught in public schools in Suffolk County on Long Island, New York. He was the head coach of two undefeated football teams. He served as an associate professor at SUNY Brockport where he taught sports science and the anthropology of sport. As study abroad coordinator at the University of Maine, McIntyre oversaw taking students abroad to different countries around the world and taught a social science course.
Out of his home in Maine, McIntyre started a bookstore for children called A Likely Story, where parents and children could come and purchase children’s books at reasonable prices. If a child was too poor to buy a book, they could select a book for free.
As a Penn State alumnus, McIntyre and his wife, Connie, have been big supporters of the Penn State Pattee and Paterno Libraries. Currently living in State College, he engages in many activities serving the State College community.
McIntyre’s life has been one of service to others and an example to all. By living a life of exercise and sport, McIntyre encourages all to stay active no matter what age or what hurdle individuals may face.
Mike Flock is associate director of industry partnerships at the University of Pittsburgh, where he works across campus to facilitate research partnerships, technology licensing and the creation of new ventures. Flock first joined the University of Pittsburgh in 2017 as the innovation core manager at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute where he managed novel funding programs and training initiatives focused on research translation.
Prior to his work at the University of Pittsburgh, Flock worked in the food and dietary supplement industry. As manager of innovation and clinical studies for General Nutrition Centers, he was responsible for conducting clinical studies in collaboration with academic partners and developing new products.
Flock started his career as senior research investigator at DuPont Nutrition & Health, where he investigated the clinical effects of novel food ingredients, managed sponsored research projects, and communicated science to various audiences.
Flock received his doctorate in nutritional sciences from Penn State in 2014 and a bachelor of science in dietetics from the University of Dayton. He served on Penn State’s Nutrition and Dietetics Alumni Society board from 2017 to 2021.
Rebecca Skotek is a registered dietitian dedicated to helping her patients reach their individual health goals by viewing them as people first and patients second. After graduating from Penn State in 2016 with a degree in nutritional sciences, she completed a dietetic internship at Meredith College in Raleigh, North Carolina, where she was selected by peers to receive the program’s Leadership Award.
She has since found her career niche in weight loss and bariatric surgery, where she has specialized for five years. Skotek now lives in Houston, Texas, where she counsels patients nationwide and contributes content to her company’s social media platforms. She is thrilled to work with a team of like-minded and compassionate physicians and dietitians, describing her work at Form Health as “better than a dream job.”
Skotek’s other professional accomplishments include peer reviewing the 2022 Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Health Professional’s Guide to Obesity and Weight Management and presenting “The Psychology of Food Marketing and How It Affects Consumer Choices” at the 2022 American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery annual conference. She was also recognized in a 2019 spotlight in Penn State’s “Made Me” Health Promotion & Wellness Campaign.