West Virginia University Athletics

James Burns joined the Mountaineer athletics staff as the Director of Sports Nutrition for Olympic sports in May 2023.

At West Virginia, Burns develops and oversees the nutritional needs for WVU’s Olympic sports student-athletes. He counsels individuals and groups on daily nutrition for performance and health. He researches the most recent scientific evidence and turns it into practical sports nutrition recommendations and tracks and documents the outcomes of nutrition services. He serves as a food and nutrition resource for Mountaineer student-athletes, providing education and maintaining professional competency and skills required for practice.
 
Burns develops and counsels in hydration protocols, addresses nutritional challenges to performance, evaluates nutritional supplements, develops all menus and oversees fueling and refueling stations.
 
Most recently, he worked as the University of Delaware’s performance dietitian where he managed a staff of 30-plus interns and volunteers at the program’s nutrition center. In 2022, Burns was one of 10 dietitians in the country to be selected for the Gatorade Sports Nutrition Immersion Fellowship.
 
His professional experience also includes a six-month sports nutrition internship at Northwestern University and stints at Humboldt Park Health, UI Health Outpatient Diabetes Clinic and Gourmet Gorilla, Inc. in 2021.
 
He earned a bachelor’s degree in secondary education from Manhattan College in 2010, and a master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics at University of Illinois-Chicago in 2021.
 
An avid outdoorsman, Burns recently competed in his third Chicago Marathon. He resides in Morgantown.