Byrd Joins Wake Forest as Director of Sports Nutrition

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Wake Forest Director of Athletics John Currie announced the hiring of Tiffany Byrd as Director of Sports Nutrition on Friday.

Byrd has more than a decade of experience working in sports nutrition, including her most recent seven-year stint as Director of Sports Nutrition at the University of Oklahoma. At Oklahoma, she held the same title and was responsible for the creation, development, and implementation of the sports nutrition department. Her duties and responsibilities lay primarily with the football program but she also served as the Team Dietitian for softball, men's and women's gymnastics programs. Day-to-day duties included pre- and post-workout fueling, hydration, menu creation and development, team education, nutritional counseling, body composition, cooking demonstrations, grocery store tours, as well as the management and oversight of other dietitians and student interns.

"The people, standard of excellence, commitment, and team atmosphere is what drew me to Wake Forest," Byrd said. "During the interview process, Murphy (Grant) really displayed his innovation, forward thinking, leadership, and growth mindset. Additionally, Coach (Dave) Clawson sold me on his vision of recruiting, development, and his utmost desire to compete and win championships. The ability to be a part of building a program as well as shaping the future of Wake Forest Athletics was not only enticing, but extremely inspiring."

At Wake Forest, Byrd will serve in a similar capacity overseeing the Performance Nutrition program, working extensively within the Ben Sutton Sports Performance Center and the Christian McCreary Nutrition Center, which opened in Fall 2019 . She will be responsible for implementing the day-to-day fueling and hydration needs for all sports, education, nutritional counseling, menu planning, body composition testing, as well as overseeing a staff of four additional Dietitians to ensure our athletes are adequately prepared to uphold the standard of excellence in both athletics and academics.

In addition, Byrd will collaborate with Wake Forest coaches, the sports medicine and performance team, and all related student-athlete service providers to ensure a comprehensive approach to training, nutrition, hydration, and recovery, as well as aiding in the dietary and nutritional needs associated with injury, illness, prevention, and maintenance of our student-athletes.

"Tiffany and I have a lot of mutual colleagues in the industry and connected quickly due to us each spending many years in the Big 12," Senior Associate AD Murphy Grant said. "Her expertise in the field of sports dietetics is remarkable. With her work ethic, energy and dedication towards the health and well-being of the student-athlete, Tiffany will help our staff immediately and we're extremely excited for her to be a Demon Deacon!"

With the Sooners, Byrd assisted the department en route to 12 national titles (four in men's gymnastics, four in women's gymnastics, three in softball, one in men's golf), also helping the football program to a program record five consecutive Big XII Championships and four trips to the College Football Playoffs.
During her tenure at Oklahoma, Byrd also worked as a Consultant Sports Dietitian for the NBA organization the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2013-15. She started her professional career at Baylor serving as the Director of Sports Nutrition for a year. Finally, she holds additional experience as a Sports Nutrition Intern at both Alabama and Oregon with brief stints at Nebraska and Louisville under guidance of their sports nutrition staff.

Byrd graduated from Nebraska in 2005 with a bachelor's degree in Nutrition, Fitness, and Health promotion. She followed that with a master's degree in Human Nutrition from Alabama in 2011.

She is a Registered Dietitian (RD) and a Board Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) also holding a certification as a Certified Bone Densitometry Technician (CBDT). Finally, she is a Licensed Dietitian Nutritionist (LDN) able to practice within the state of North Carolina.

As a student-athlete, Byrd was a member of the 2002 National Championship gymnastics team at Alabama where she twice earned Scholastic All-American honors while competing primarily on the uneven bars and balance beam. She concluded her gymnastics career at Nebraska, where she helped win a pair of Big XII titles while contributing competitively in the all-around five times but consistently a part of the uneven bars and balance beam line-ups.

Wake Forest Athletics

Byrd Joins Wake Forest as Director of Sports Nutrition

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