Teresa Buckner

PhD, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, 2022.
Area of Study: Epidemiology

MS, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2016.
Area of Study: Nutrition

BS, Saint Louis University, 2014.
Area of Study: Nutrition and Dietetics

Assistant Professor, University of Northern Colorado
Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition & Dietetics (2022-Present)

Affiliate Faculty, Metropolitan State University
Department of Nutrition (2021-2022)

Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Denver, CO
Department of Epidemiology (2017-2022)

WIC Dietitian, Tri Cities Community Health, Pasco, WA
(2016-2017)

Dr. Buckner has areas of research interest broadly in nutrition epidemiology and public health. One of her primary research interests is investigating dietary and environmental risk factors for type 1 diabetes in youth. Other areas of research interests include nutrition education and outreach in rural communities.

Culturally Appropriate Nutrition Education

This project was developed through the two-year Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Fellows Program. The goal of this project is to train students in cultural competency, develop culturally-appropriate nutrition education materials for a diverse audience, and deliver nutrition education to the community of Greeley, CO. I have partnered with Lutheran Family Services (LFS) in Greeley as the location for the service-learning project. Alongside an Honors undergraduate student, a second Dietetics undergraduate student, and a Master’s in Dietetics student, we conducted a needs assessment with staff members at LFS. We then developed materials based on the results of the needs assessment. We presented the project as a poster at Research Day in Spring 2023 and Spring 2024.
I secured additional funding through the Research, Dissemination and Faculty Development Program. This grant will be used to support the implementation of the service-learning program. In Spring of 2025, I will implement the project through the FND 452 class. We will administer pre- and post-tests to assess cultural competence and confidence in students participating in the service-learning project. We will also conduct assessments in the clients at LFS to determine the cultural relevance of the nutrition education materials.
Funding will be used for equipment and ingredients for cooking classes as well as traveling and publication fees for the completed project. This work was also presented at the DEI Fellows Culminating Event in June of 2023 and May of 2024. Additionally, this project will be included as a pilot program in a grant submission in response to the NSF Build and Broaden solicitation. I will be included as Senior Personnel on this grant.

Dietary and genetic factors associated with type 1 diabetes

This project is part of a continued collaboration with Dr. Jill Norris, co-PI of the Diabetes Autoimmune Study in the Young (DAISY), a longitudinal cohort of children at risk of T1D. This is part of a collaboration with the Colorado School of Public Health at UNC and CU Anschutz. We found that oxylipins, pro- and anti-inflammatory metabolites derived from omega 6 and omega 3 fatty acids, were associated with risk of T1D in DAISY. I conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of oxylipins, and this manuscript was published in 2023.
Additionally, I developed nutrient patterns that explained variation in oxylipin levels in a nested case-control study within DAISY. The nutrient pattern was associated with a decreased risk of T1D in the nested case-control but was not significantly associated with T1D when tested longitudinally in the full DAISY cohort. This manuscript was published in 2023 (partially funded through the Faculty Publication Fund). Although the nutrient pattern was not significantly associated with T1D in the full cohort, this analysis has sparked some interesting follow-up analyses.
As a follow-up, I am currently applying established anti-inflammatory dietary patterns (the Dietary Inflammatory Index, the Healthy Eating Index, the Mediterranean Diet Score) to determine the association with risk of T1D. I am also collaborating and consulting with The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) Study. We are applying these diet quality indices to the TEDDY study as well. As a part of this work, I am a member of the diet steering committee for the TEDDY Study. I participate in monthly meetings and presented my work in DAISY so far at the TEDDY meeting in October of 2024.
This continued collaboration has proven fruitful as evidenced by co-authored publications on metabolomics and methylation. I am currently collaborating with other DAISY researchers on several projects including investigating nutrient interactions in the development of T1D, applying novel data reduction techniques in creating metabolomics-related dietary patterns, and the relationship between an anti-inflammatory diet and epigenetic aging in children. In the next year, I plan on submitting a manuscript describing the relationship between diet quality and inflammatory markers.

Seed Library Nutrition Education

I am working with a Master’s in Dietetics capstone student to develop nutrition education materials as part of a Seed Library for the D6 school district and High Plains Library system. For this project, we will evaluate the effectiveness of this program, and we plan to incorporate this program evaluation into grants for continued funding for the seed library.

Video simulations project

Along with Dr. Nick Slagel and Dr. Nicole Withrow, we plan to develop video simulations that address clinical nutrition assessments that dietitians may encounter. These video simulations will also incorporate cultural competence issues. This builds on video simulations that Dr. Nicole Withrow has created on malnutrition assessment. We submitted a grant for the Academic Revitalization and Innovation Program that was not funded, so we plan to re-submit this grant at the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in Spring 2023. These video simulations will provide resources for dietetic interns and other nutrition graduate students preparing for rotations in a clinical setting.

• Gesualdo, P., Melin, J., Karban, R… T., Buckner… (2025). Structures and Strategies for Retaining an International Pediatric Cohort from Birth: Lessons from The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in the Young (TEDDY) Study. Contemporary Clinical Trials Communications, 101405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conctc.2024.101405
• Walker-Short E*, Buckner T*, Vigers T, Carry P, Vanderlinden LA, Dong F, Johnson RK, Yang IV, Kechris K, Rewers M, Norris JM. Epigenome-Wide Association Study of Infant Feeding and DNA Methylation in Infancy and Childhood in a Population at Increased Risk for Type 1 Diabetes. Nutrients. 2021 Nov 13;13(11):4057. doi: 10.3390/nu13114057. PubMed PMID: 34836312.
• Carry PM, Vanderlinden LA, Dong F, Buckner T, Litkowski E, Vigers T, Norris JM, Kechris K. Inverse probability weighting is an effective method to address selection bias during the analysis of high dimensional data. Genetic Epidemiology. 2021 Sep;45(6):593-603. doi: 10.1002/gepi.22418. Epub 2021 Jun 15. PMID: 34130352; PMCID: PMC8376760.
• Buckner T, Vanderlinden LA, DeFelice BC, Carry PM, Kechris K, Dong F, Fiehn O, Frohnert BI, Clare-Salzler M, Rewers M, Norris JM. The oxylipin profile is associated with development of type 1 diabetes: the Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young (DAISY). Diabetologia. 2021 Aug;64(8):1785-1794. doi: 10.1007/s00125-021-05457-9. Epub 2021 Apr 24. PubMed PMID: 33893822.
• Carry PM, Vanderlinden LA, Johnson RK, Buckner T, Fiehn O, Steck AK, Kechris K, Yang I, Fingerlin TE, Rewers M, Norris JM. Phospholipid Levels at Seroconversion Are Associated With Resolution of Persistent Islet Autoimmunity: The Diabetes Autoimmunity Study in the Young. Diabetes. 2021 Jul;70(7):1592-1601. doi: 10.2337/db20-1251. Epub 2021 Apr 16. PubMed PMID: 33863802.
• Buckner T, Shao B, Eckel RH, Heinecke JW, Bornfeldt KE, Snell-Bergeon J. Association of apolipoprotein C3 with insulin resistance and coronary artery calcium in patients with type 1 diabetes. Journal of Clinical Lipidology. 2020 Oct 31. doi: 10.1016/j.jacl.2020.10.006. PubMed PMID: 33257283.
• Buckner T, Vanderlinden LA, Johnson RK, DeFelice BC, Carry PM, Seifert J, Waugh K, Dong F, Fiehn O, Clare-Salzler M, Rewers M, Norris JM. Predictors of oxylipins in a healthy pediatric population. Pediatric Research. 2020 Jul 29. doi: 10.1038/s41390-020-1084-2. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7855434.
• Buckner T, Fan R, Kim Y, Kim J, Chung S. Annatto Tocotrienol Attenuates NLRP3 Inflammasome Activation in Macrophages. Current developments in nutrition. 2017 Jun; doi: 10.3945/cdn.117.000760. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5998354.
• Kang I, Buckner T, Shay NF, Gu L, Chung S. Improvements in Metabolic Health with Consumption of Ellagic Acid and Subsequent Conversion into Urolithins: Evidence and Mechanisms. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md). 2016 Sep;7(5):961-72. doi: 10.3945/an.116.012575. Print 2016 Sep. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5015040.