August 6, 2025

The checklist on the whiteboard in Andrea Irvine’s office is full. Irvine oversees more than 450 student-athletes from 18 different teams as the Drexel Athletics dietitian. On top of that, she is also teaching nutrition classes at Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions. Her days are long and can be exhausting, she admits. However, after 14 years of working different jobs, Irvine has found her calling in sports nutrition at Drexel.

Although Irvine's life has been all about sports, nutrition wasn’t on her radar for a very long time, she says.

Irvine played Division 1 field hockey at the University of Delaware, where she graduated with a degree in communication, before coaching at Villanova for eight years.

Her journey in nutrition kicked off in 2005 when a friend offered her a job as an adjunct professor at Immaculata University, where she taught nutrition and health science classes. Irvine immediately found a passion for nutrition and started to work hard to expand her knowledge.

“[At that time] I felt like I was really fulfilled with coaching ... and I loved it, but I just felt that there was something more. I knew I wanted to get a master's degree at some point,” Irvine said.

In 2013, Irvine fulfilled that dream and graduated with a master’s degree from Drexel while working as an assistant coach for the University's varsity field hockey team.

Shortly after completing her master’s degree, Irvine began working in hospitals. She gained experience working with diabetic, ICU, pediatric and weight management patients and was set to continue working in hospitals after receiving her registered dietitian license in 2014.

“When I went through all of this, there wasn’t really a big emphasis on sports. After all these years of coaching, I’m thinking I’m just going to put athletics behind me,” Irvine said.

However, her plans changed when Drexel Athletics was looking to hire a sports dietitian for the first time ever in 2016. With all her qualifications and experience, Irvine was the perfect fit for the job. Now, more than nine years later, she couldn’t have been happier to have made that decision.

“The path was not straight, but I got where I was supposed to be. I had to work at the hospital. I built all that experience. It helped me to be here,” Irvine said.

At Drexel, Irvine is responsible for hydration testing, supervising the fueling station, going out to the fields and offering individual meetings for athletes.

“My job is to give our athletes the correct evidence-based education and give them the tools they need to be the best version of themselves,” she said.

Irvine also teaches multiple nutrition classes at CNHP, where she enjoys sharing her experiences in the field.

“With my medical nutrition background, I’m not just able to talk about what’s in the textbook. I’ve worked on every hospital floor, have seen every disease state, and I like having these conversations and engagements with my students,” she said.

Irvine praises the relationship between CNHP and Drexel Athletics. Over the years, she helped evolve and expand the Nutrition Science program, allowing undergraduate and graduate students to spend a portion of their supervised clinical practice hours with Drexel Athletics.

In addition, Irvine works with Michael Bruneau Jr., PhD, associate teaching professor in the Health Science Department. Together, they have been working on fitness testing in the high-quality labs of the Health Science Building. “I love working with our Drexel athletes. I love working with the students. I love that I get to contribute to building this bridge between academics and athletics,” Irvine said.

The co-op system plays a crucial part in building the bridge between Drexel Athletics and CNHP. Irvine admits that the budget for nutrition is fairly small compared to other big sports universities, but Drexel’s experiential learning approach is helping her work around that. Through co-op, Irvine can bring in qualified CNHP students who are seeking experience in sports nutrition.

In 2024, she also helped create the Sports Performance co-op position at Drexel that allows students to not only work with nutrition, but also to get experience in strength and conditioning and sports medicine.

“I feel like it’s a win for the University. We’re giving students an opportunity while they are helping us. It's a beautiful give and take,” she says.

Irvine points to the whiteboard in her office. It’s full of checkpoints and goals for the summer. There is no room left. She is currently planning ahead as soccer and field hockey season is about to start in a few weeks. A lot of work has to be done, but Irvine can’t wait to get back to doing the job she loves.

Written by Raphael Bartell, communications '27