Michelle Alcorn, Ph.D.

Bio

Dr. Michelle Alcorn is an Assistant Professor in Hospitality and Retail Management. She is also a Co-Founder and CFO of 3 CulinaryMed Docs, LLC., which created, sam^TM, a smartphone app. sam^TM uses culinary medicine to provide customized meal plans for people with chronic conditions (mypartnersam.com).

Dr. Alcorn grew up in Enid, Oklahoma. She received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Oklahoma State University in Hotel and Restaurant Administration and her Ph.D. in Hospitality Management from Kansas State University.

Dr. Alcorn’s industry experience is in food and beverage management, with specific training and expertise in culinary education, sustainability, and food safety. She teaches operations-based courses and is dedicated to mentoring and teaching students to prepare them for their future careers. She focuses on providing students with valuable learning opportunities and integrates research into the classroom.

Research Focus

Dr. Alcorn’s overarching research umbrella is employee health and wellness. It includes specific topics of culinary medicine, nutrition and chronic disease, employee behavior, food safety, and sustainability. She dedicates her research to applied projects that improve the health and well-being of service employees and beyond. Her concentration is on the employee as a human, both inside and outside the work environment. Therefore, she applies her research to service employees and a more general population. She has proven experience with quantitative research designs and analysis (including clinical trials, interventions, and experiments) and qualitative research designs and analysis (including surveys, sensory evaluations, focus groups, interviews, observations, and case studies).

Research Interests or Areas of Expertise

Research Interests:
Employee Wellness
Culinary Medicine (nutrition, chronic disease)
Employee Behavior

Areas of Expertise:
Service Operations
Entrepreneurship