Graduate beats odds to become first EMU officer dietitian selected by Army

Everyone knows that an army travels on its stomach. What may be a surprise is that the Army has its own dieticians and the newest one is from Eastern Michigan University.  

Wesley

She's Karen Wesley, of Clinton Township, who is the first EMU officer dietician selected for the U.S. Army's Medical Specialist Corps.

"It's (dietetics) one of the smallest and most competitive professional career fields within the Army medical health field," said Major Michael Knott, former head of EMU's military science department. "It's so competitive that an applicant has a slim chance of being chosen if the institution doesn't have a good medical school."

Approximately 200-250 applicants vie annually for positions available nationwide in the dietetics area. This year, only 10 spots were up for grabs, said Major Travis Burchett of the Army Health Care Recruiting Center in Ann Arbor.

Wesley's decision to enter the military and dietetics could have something to do with genetics  — her father is an Army officer who teaches junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps. (ROTC) in Warren and her mother was an Army cook, now a nurse at Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak. Also, her brother, Brad, is in an ROTC program in Utah; another brother, Gordon, is in the National Guard; and her cousin, Rachel, is with the Army stationed in Iraq. 

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