Australia & New Zealand’s leading nutrition & dietetics educators & researchers

The University of Sydney

Professor Margaret Allman-Farinelli is Professor of Dietetics at the Sydney Nursing School in the Faculty of Medicine and Health. Her research interests include all aspects of dietetics from food and nutritional science to prevention of lifestyle associated chronic disease and evidence-based dietetic management of chronic disease. Margaret is a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia and a Fellow of Dietitians Australia.

Curtin University, Western Australia

Andrea Begley is Professor in the School of Population Health. Currently she is the Director of Learning & Teaching, previously being the Discipline Lead for Nutrition & Dietetics.

She has been at Curtin as a permanent staff member since 1996 is a highly experienced lecturer winning teaching awards including being awarded Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) in 2019.

Andrea is responsible for teaching public health nutrition and research methods focusing on qualitative research for both undergraduate and postgraduate students enrolled in Dietetics, Honours and Public Health. She also undertakes research supervision of Honours, Masters and Doctorial level students.

University of Auckland, New Zealand

Professor Clare Wall is the Head of the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and Associate Dean Curriculum -FMHS. After qualifying as a dietitian in the UK in 1984, she specialized in paediatric dietetics, working in both the UK and Australia. Clare is a NZ Registered Dietitian and is Co-Chair of the Council of Deans of Nutrition and Dietetics, Australia and New Zealand. Clare's main research focus is the interrelationship between the determinants of nutritional status and health outcomes in early life.

Australian Catholic University

Sharon is an award-winning academic and is currently Professor of Nutrition and Dietetics at Australian Catholic University, and Discipline Lead for Nutrition, Dietetics and Public Health. She has been a dietitian for over 35 years and has worked in many domains of dietetic practice; from specialist clinical paediatric dietetics and food service consulting for large multi-national companies in England, to public health and community dietetics in Central Australia, North London, and Melbourne. She was a member of the Dietitians Association of Australia (now Dietitians Australia) board from 1992-96 and was part of the team that devised the Accredited Practising Dietitian (APD) program. Sharon is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (UK) and APD. For the past 25 years or so she has worked either part- or full-time in academia in Australia, England, and Turkey. Her research interests relate to dietary acculturation, and its impact on health, culinary nutrition/medicine definitions, competencies, and practice, and development and delivery of contemporary high impact learning experiences. She has authored chapters and books related to food and nutrition throughout life, food science, and Ottoman and Turkish cuisine.

Bond University, Queensland

Greg is a Fellow of Sports Dietitians Australia (SDA), an Accredited Practising Dietitian and a Level 3 Kinanthropometrist. He worked at the Australian Institute of Sport for 20 years as a Senior Sports Dietitian and Sports Science Medicine Manager. He has supported athletes across numerous Olympic Sports including Triathlon, Sprint and Slalom Canoe, Diving, Gymnastics and Water Polo.

Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory

Description Dr Anita Star recently commenced as Associate Professor and Discipline Lead for Nutrition and Dietetics at Charles Darwin University. Anita is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian, with 20 years’ experience in various clinical dietetics and academic roles.  Anita has extensive clinical dietetics experience from working in a range of settings including a not for profit in the paediatric disability space, private practice/ primary care, an Aboriginal community-controlled health service, hospitals both regional and a metropolitan paediatric hospital.  Anita’s clinical and research interests relate to paediatric and maternal health, obesity, eating disorders, chronic disease, as well as agricultural food development and policy. Coming from a rural background Anita is also passionate about rural and remote healthcare.  Earlier in her career Anita held academic posts at Griffith University and James Cook University, she is presently coming back to academia after a time in clinical practice and raising her child.   goes here

University of Canberra, ACT

Dr Jane Kellett is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian with over twenty years of experience working in Clinical Dietetics, Food Service, Education and Research settings. Dr Kellett established the Master of Nutrition and Dietetics program at the University of Canberra in 2005 and has been the Course Convener of the Master of Nutrition and Dietetics program for the last 16 years. Previously, she held clinical and food service positions at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, primarily working in aged care, oncology, HIV and palliative care.

Deakin University, Victoria

Professor Judi Porter is Discipline lead for Dietetics at Deakin University.  She has a wide range of clinical, managerial and research experiences in healthcare and academic settings in Australia and overseas. Judi is a Fellow of Dietitians Australia, and Editor in Chief of Nutrition & Dietetics.

Edith Cowan University, Western Australia

Therese is the Discipline Lead of Dietetics at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, where she lectures in the Masters of Nutrition and Dietetics course, coordinates research projects and supervises students. She is a firm believer in the value of community consultation and producing practical and translatable research. Therese currently leads programs of research focused on supporting new mothers with breastfeeding, optimising the meal environment in early childhood, and exploring potential health benefits of dairy fat.

Flinders University, South Australia

Tim Green is a SAHMRI Women and Kids Theme Faculty member and a Professor, College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University.

Previously he was a Principal Nutritionist at SAHMRI Women and Kids (2016-2023) and prior to that a Professor of Human Nutrition at the University of British Columbia and a Scientist at BC’s Child & Family Research Institute.  Within the past five years, Tim has had funding from the Women's and Children's Research Foundation, Australian Eggs, Nutrition International, the Channel 7 Children's Research Foundation, NHMRC and MRFF. 

His research focuses on micronutrients in pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, lactation, and early life (first 1000 days) with studies conducted in Canada, NZ, Asia and Africa. His group seeks to: identify micronutrient deficiencies through nutrition surveys; better define micronutrient requirements and pregnancy outcomes in these groups through RCTs; and develop sustainable strategies to improve micronutrient status.

Griffith University, Queensland

Professor Rozanne Kruger is the new Academic and Discipline Lead for Nutrition and Dietetics in the School of Health Science and Social Work, Griffith University in Australia. She has recently transitioned to Griffith University, leading the Nutrition and Dietetics team. She also retains an Honorary research fellow position in the School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, at Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand, where she was instrumental in developing the MSc (Nutrition and Dietetics) programme in 2012, establishing a programme with a strong research focus, delivering competent graduates entering the Dietetics profession.

Rozanne is a registered dietitian (RD(SA); NZRD; APD) and nutrition researcher and has worked extensively with vulnerable groups in both clinical and community settings, conducting trans-disciplinary cross-sectional and intervention studies including dietary intake, physical activity, metabolic health, and body composition assessment. She has led many clinical nutrition studies and interventions in New Zealand, showing that clinical dietetic practice is key to the treatment of disease and improved patient outcomes. She continues to significantly contribute to the Dietetics profession and served as the deputy chair for New Zealand on the Council of Deans for Nutrition and Dietetics, Australia and New Zealand. She mentors staff, has graduated 11 cohorts of dietitians, and supervised 2 Honours, 50 MSc and 11 PhD students to completion. She has published articles in national and international accredited journals and presented at conferences worldwide. Rozanne is passionate about developing novel dietary assessment strategies, exploring dietary patterns, dietary diversity, eating behaviour, and chronotype nutrition and using food-based approaches as solutions. She enjoys developing new and interesting research approaches and training strategies.

La Trobe University, Victoria

Professor Regina Belski is the Discipline Lead for Food, Nutrition and Dietetics at La Trobe University. She is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian (AdvAPD) and Advanced Sports Dietitian (AdvSD). Professor Belski is a highly regarded researcher and experienced clinician in sports dietetics. Her research is multi-dimensional, cross disciplinary and collaborative and she leads significant work in four distinct, yet complimentary, areas: sports and performance nutrition, functional food, metabolic health and scholarship of learning and teaching.

Monash University, Victoria

Judy Bauer is Professor and Discipline Lead of Nutrition & Dietetics within the Department Nutrition, Dietetics and Food. She completed a Bachelor of Science at University of Queensland and a Graduate Diploma of Nutrition & Dietetics, Master of Health Science and PhD from Queensland University of Technology.

Judy is a Fellow of Dietitians Australia and an Accredited Practicing Dietitian with over 40 years of clinical, research and academic experience. She is a Board member fo the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia and a member of the Australian Dietetics Council. Judy is recognised internationally for discovery and translational research in nutrition screening, assessment, innovative nutrition intervention programs and development of evidence-based practice guidelines particularly in onlcology and malnutrition.

University of Newcastle, New South Wales

Melinda Hutchesson is an Associate Professor in the School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine, and Wellbeing. She is the Head of Discipline for Nutrition and Dietetics. Melinda has over 15 years’ experience in dietetic education and research. Her teaching is focused primarily on the dietetic work setting of community and public health nutrition.  

Melinda is also the Deputy-Director of the Hunter Medical Research Institute’s Food and Nutrition research program. She leads a program of research focused on improving health behaviours of young adults to improve mental health and wellbeing, and prevent non-communicable disease. She has a specific focus on university students, and has established a national network of researchers and end-users in this space (Psychological wellbeing and Lifestyle in University Students- PLUS network).

University of New South Wales

Professor Eleanor Beck is Head of School of Health Sciences, at UNSW. Eleanor has more than 30 years experience in clinical practice and dietetics education. Her research includes nutrition education for health professionals, dietetics education and grains research with a particular focus on whole grains.

The University of Queensland, Queensland

Professor Sarah McNaughton is Discipline Lead for Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Queensland. She is a nutritional epidemiologist and Fellow of Dietitians Australia and a Registered Public Health Nutritionist with the Nutrition Society of Australia. She has over 20 years expertise in nutrition science, has published over 220 peer-reviewed papers. She completed her PhD at the University of Queensland in 2003, and was subsequently appointed a Research Scientist in the MRC Centre for Human Nutrition Research (Cambridge, UK) and joined Deakin University in 2005 where she held four research fellowships from NHMRC, ARC and Heart Foundation and was Discipline Lead for Dietetics at Deakin University from 2015-2020.

Professor McNaughton leads a program of research that focuses on the role of foods, eating patterns and dietary patterns in health and wellbeing and the translation of dietary patterns research into nutrition strategies, practice and policy. She has served on a range of national and international committees and advisory groups for the WHO, Australian Chronic Disease Prevention Alliance, Heart Foundation and Nutrition Australia and in September 2021, she was appointed Chair of the NHMRC Australian Dietary Guidelines Expert Committee.

Queensland University of Technology, Queensland

Dr Mary Hannan-Jones is the Academic Lead Education and Discipline Lead for Nutrition and Dietetics in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences. Mary has been an Accredited Practising Dietitian for over 30 years with professional experience in both the tertiary education and public sector settings in nutrition and dietetics.   Mary’s professional leadership is recognised in being awarded Fellow status by Dietitians Australia (DA), being one of 25 Fellows of a membership of 7500 dietitians. Mary is recognised internationally in the field of nutrition and dietetics for expertise in the management of foodservices and regularly undertakes high level consultancies and commercial research for government and industry, including as an expert witness, and provides advice in nutrition and dietetics training in this area. Mary leads a team of over 12 academic staff in the nutrition and dietetics discipline and is responsible for the development, implementation and quality assurance of curriculums in Nutrition and Dietetics and Exercise Science fields within the School. Mary teaches into the Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (honours) program, which is one of the longest accredited programs in Australia (at over 45 years). Mary’s current teaching is in the area of foodservice management, dietetic leadership as well as honours research. Mary has supervised three PhD students to completion, in research areas in dietetics of vegan diet and B12; malnutrition screening tools in Vietnam,  and non-diet approach and health professional practice in weight management.

The University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

Professor Fiona Pelly is the Discipline Leader in Nutrition and Dietetics at USC. She is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, and a Fellow of the Dietitians Association of Australia and Sports Dietitians Australia. Professor Pelly has over 30 years’ experience as a dietitian, including 26 years in the area of sports nutrition with extensive experience in private practice and consultancy to The Wiggles (10 years), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), National Rugby League (NRL) teams, and individual Olympians.

Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria

Jimmy is a highly accomplished researcher and practitioner in nutrition and dietetics with over 10 years of experience in academia, specializing in carbohydrate nutrition and food and nutrition policy. He is currently an Associate Professor of Dietetics at Swinburne University of Technology and an Accredited Practising Dietitian. Additionally, he is a Fellow of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine, the International Academy of Nutrition Educators, and the Royal Society for Public Health. Jimmy has made significant contributions to the scientific community, with over 130 manuscripts published in prestigious journals covering topics such as cardiology, diabetes, obesity, nutrition, and food science.Description goes here

Massey University, New Zealand

Professor Kathryn Beck is a New Zealand Registered Dietitian and Discipline Lead for the MSc in Nutrition and Dietetics at Massey University in Auckland, NZ. Her research interests include the development of dietary assessment tools, dietary pattern analysis, iron deficiency, and sports nutrition.  Kathryn has published over 85 manuscripts, is a fellow of the World Cancer Research Academy and in 2020 won the Massey University Early Career research award. Kathryn has supervised or co-supervised over 50 PhD and MSc students to completion.  She has received research funding from the NZ Health Research Council and the Heart Foundation of NZ.

Victoria University, Victoria

Professor Andrew McAinch is Associate Dean Research and Research Training - College of Sport, Health and Engineering at Victoria University. He has over 25 years of experience as a Sports Dietitian, Educator and Researcher. His research utilises a variety of methodologies from cell culture, animal through to human clinical trials to investigate the effects of various nutritional and exercise interventions on chronic disease and sports nutrition application.

University of Wollongong, New South Wales

Professor Karen Walton is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and Discipline Leader in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Wollongong. She has over 30 years’ experience as a dietitian, with roles including clinical, food service, private practice, and academic positions. Her research interests include nutrition support for older adults residing in the community, hospitals, and residential aged care, as well as food service dietetics. Many recent research publications have focused on nutrition support for older adults, including collaborations with Meals on Wheels services, General Practitioners, and hospital setting.