Professor goes back to the classroom for her own education 20 years later

DECEMBER 5, 2024 — Nearly 20 years ago, Vidya Sharma had to give up her pursuit of a doctoral degree because of health issues. This December, she’ll cross the stage with her Ph.D. in Translational Science, a joint doctoral degree program offered by UTSA, UT Health San Antonio, UT-Austin and the UT Health Houston School of Public Health.

Sharma is a registered dietitian and a full-time assistant professor of practice in the UTSA Department of Nutrition and Dietetics. In this role, she teaches several classes and serves as the department’s internship coordinator.

“I teach a variety of courses, but my heart really belongs to community nutrition,” she said.

“Her achievement is a testament to her resilience, intellect and unyielding pursuit of knowledge. The world gains a brilliant mind ready to make an impact.”

Community nutrition addresses the broad social, economic and environmental factors that impact nutritional well-being. Community nutrition classes are offered through the B.S. in Nutrition and Health degree program. Students may also earn a graduate certificate through the UTSA College for Health, Community and Policy.

When the opportunity arose to resume her pursuit of a Ph.D., Sharma did not hesitate. She chose translational science to leverage her expertise in real-world settings and applications.

Last year, Sarah Ullevig, UTSA associate professor of nutrition and dietetics, received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to address disparities in health access and outcomes for older adults. Sharma had the opportunity to work on this project.

“I was able to work with Dr. Sarah Ullevig on her NIH-funded project for the older adult population and align my dissertation research with that initiative,” Sharma said.

Through the grant, hundreds of older San Antonio residents received free electronic tablets and technology and nutrition training.

“Vidya was instrumental in the successful implementation and evaluation of the project, all while adeptly balancing the demands of her faculty appointment and personal commitments,” said Ullevig. “She established meaningful connections with research participants and significantly enriched the quality of the data collected. We are incredibly fortunate to have her as part of our team.”

While a Ph.D. program is challenging in and of itself, Sharma balanced the demands of her program while teaching full time, serving as a practicum coordinator and conducting intensive research. Despite the long hours, she enjoyed the program immensely, citing her growth as a researcher as she made progress toward her degree.

“It has been a pleasure to work with Vidya and see her grow during her time here,” said Chris Frei, director of the Ph.D. program. “Her achievement is a testament to her resilience, intellect and unyielding pursuit of knowledge. The world gains a brilliant mind ready to make an impact.”

Sharma proudly joins the ranks of 400 current faculty who have earned an undergraduate or graduate degree at UTSA. She is excited about the opportunity to use the coursework from her Ph.D. and directly apply it to her work as an instructor at UTSA.

“Pursuing this degree made me look a lot more into evidence-based practice,” she said. “It’s one thing to teach from a textbook, but when you go out into the community, the problems are far and wide.”

One of the courses Sharma teaches is nutrition and health promotion and disease prevention. In this class, students are required to develop an intervention plan based on community needs assessments. They identify a target population and then answer questions on marketing, messaging and more before finally submitting a proposal as if they were aiming for a real-world grant.

“Having this doctoral degree really helps me bring back a lot more of these strategies into the classroom,” she said.

Now that she has completed her degree, Sharma is looking forward to continuing her work with the college and with UTSA, a university that feels so special to her as an immigrant from India.

“I really like the diversity here, and I just love the student body,” Sharma said. “Coming from India, and [seeing] a lot of first-gen students here on campus, it makes you feel really proud about their accomplishments.”

— Amanda Cerreto