Lauren Link, MS, RD, CSSD, is an assistant athletics director and the director of sports nutrition for Purdue University Athletics, where she oversees the sports nutrition program and works with football, men's basketball, volleyball, and women’s soccer. Her primary duties include providing individual and team nutrition education; providing counseling and medical nutrition therapy as needed; evaluating supplements for legality, safety, and efficacy; assessing body composition and identifying athletes at high risk for bone injury using Lunar iDXA technology; overseeing the fueling stations and athletic dining hall; and managing a seven-figure budget to provide all teams with appropriate nutrition.
In addition to fueling her athletes for success on the playing field, she is also passionate about helping athletes successfully navigate the transition into the real world. She has led multiple initiatives to this end, founding the Purdue student-athlete community garden and spearheading a program called BLAST—for Boiler Life After Sport—designed to help address key components of athletes' transition to “normal” life. In 2017 she published her first book on the subject: The Healthy Former Athlete.
Link graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor of science degree in dietetics and health, nutrition, and fitness (December 2011) and a master of science degree in health and kinesiology (December 2019). She was a member of Purdue women's soccer team from 2007 through 2011 and was part of the 2007 Big Ten tournament championship team. She is a registered dietitian (RD) and holds the Board-Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics (CSSD) credential. She is active within the Collegiate and Professional Sports Dietitians Association (CPSDA) and is a member of the Sports and Human Performance Nutrition (SHPN) practice group.
