Get to Know Mark Corkins, MD, CNSC, FAAP
What is your current job title and work location?
Division chief of pediatric gastroenterology and professor of pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis, TN
What is your educational background?
I got my Bachelor’s degree and medical doctorate from the University of Missouri. I did my general pediatrics training at the University of Iowa. I then did a pediatric gastroenterology fellowship with the University of Nebraska/Creighton University joint fellowship.
How did you get involved in the field of clinical nutrition?
During medical school one of our biochemistry professors, Dr. Boyd O’Dell felt like medical students didn’t get enough nutrition (has anything changed?). So he put together his own textbook and they gave him a lecture a week to talk about nutrition. I got to Iowa City and there was this guy there named Sam Foman, who had done a little nutrition work. Finally during my fellowship, our division chief was Jon Vanderhoof who did studies in a short bowel rodent model. My whole career I kept “running into” people who had a focus on nutrition. I liked nutrition and had great role models that stressed that nutrition was important. I think I was also drawn to it because seemed like a field that was so essential but that nobody else seemed to champion.
What specifically do you do in your current position?
In a word: everything. I’m division chief and fellowship director. I’m chairing our nutrition support subcommittee for the children’s hospital. I am in our intestinal rehab clinic as well as my regular gastroenterology and liver clinics. I mix a little committee work for ASPEN and the American Academy of Pediatrics. I have a few research projects and writing projects going at any one time.
Why did you become involved in ASPEN and what are the benefits of being involved?
I started in the “farm” system. The Iowa-Nebraska chapter asked me to speak at the local meeting. After I spoke, they asked if wanted to stay for the business meeting. You can guess what happened next: I ended up being in leadership, then next came some committee work for the national organization. As you become involved, you have to read and learn new areas, it leads to a lot of education. You also meet a lot of folks with a nutrition interest. These are your future research and writing collaborators.
What recommendations would you give to someone just starting out in your field?
Get involved. It is a lot more fun to be busy than to try to find something to do. The more I learn, the more I realize we don’t know. Stretch yourself and try to add to the field in some way. Sometimes just doing a little study that can answer one simple question but do so well is so valuable.
