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SUBMITTED ARTICLE

This monthly feature highlights Lincoln County graduates and talks about what they are doing in life now.

This month’s spotlighted alumni is Sara (Alford) Police. Police is a 1999 graduate of Lincoln County High School. She attended Kings Mountain Elementary School and was part of the first ever seventh grade class at Lincoln County Middle School.

After graduating from LCHS, Sara attended Georgetown College where she received a bachelor’s degree in biology. Later on, she received her doctorate in nutritional sciences from the University of Kentucky in 2008.

After earning her Ph.D., Police taught online courses for Kaplan University for nearly eight years.

“Working at home and growing my family was a great gig for me,” said Police.

She also taught courses for Transylvania University, Bluegrass Community and Technical College and worked for a wellness company before accepting her current role at the University of Kentucky as an assistant professor and director of Nutritional Science Education.

Police was recently featured in an article with the University of Kentucky College of Medicine focusing on the healing power of food.

“Culinary medicine is an emerging field,” Police said in the article. “Medical schools across the nation are beginning to incorporate culinary medicine into their curricula. The prevalence of chronic diseases with a basis in nutrition in Kentucky is alarming, and we felt compelled to create this course for medical students at UK, as our next generation of health practitioners.”

The article talks about The Food Connection, where locally grown food is being brought to UK’s campus and other places in Kentucky through partnerships with farmers, food producers, students and community members to develop vibrant and sustainable food systems to hopefully improve the health of Kentuckians. You can read the full article here: https://bit.ly/3FpltgP

“One of my favorite things about my job now is visibly seeing the ah ha moment cross a student’s forehead,” Police said. “When I can see that a new concept has been engaging and branded on the brain, it’s wonderful.  Since I’ve been at UK, I have built two new online courses and a new online program.  My dad is a carpenter and I love building things, so the opportunity to innovate is another ‘favorite thing’ for sure.”   

Sara has been married to her husband, Joey, for nearly 20 years. They have three kids that keep them busy with all of their activities. In her free time she enjoys reading, yoga, walking, being outdoors and spending time with family and friends.

Some of her favorite memories from her days at LCHS were hanging out with her calculus group that used to meet and study for exams at Shoney’s and working at the front desk with Debbie Demrow. Sara said Demrow was always kind, funny and supportive of her.

When asked about what teacher had the biggest impact on her, she said Kristie Mattingly (calculus) and Ty Howard (social studies/history). “Mrs. Mattingly was unwaveringly supportive and believed in her students, which made me believe I could achieve anything. Mr. Howard’s classes were enjoyable because he stimulated discussions that were engaging and interesting.”