My professional life commenced as a clinical dietitian, completing both my Masters and PhD whilst working at the Royal Children’s Hospital (Melbourne). I joined an international nutrition group at the at the University of Surrey, UK and after 6 years returned to Australia in 2006 to the University of Queensland. I was appointed as Professor and the inaugural Head of Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at Monash University in 2009. In 2020 I retrurned to Queensland, and I have an Honourary Professor (Research) at Monash University.

My research interests stem from my desire to solve practical problems. I developed the Children's Body Image Scale (CBIS), to measure the gap between a child's perceived and actual body size. The CBIS is a recognised outcome measure for childhood obesity intervention studies by the National Insitute of Clinical Excellence. The desire for thinness is more cultural than inbuilt, but it means parents and health professionals need to tread carefully when trying to help children who are above a healthy weight. Combating obesity is hard because we don't know why it affects some children in a family but not others. You're obviously born with a unique genetic profile but your early environment – what you eat and what you do - may lead to interactions between your genes and environment that trigger changes that profoundly impact your health. My research seeks to find effective interventions for weight management from pre-conception through to adulthood as there is much we need to do to assist in preventing the modern epidemics of adult heart disease, stroke and diet related cancers.

As an Advanced Practicing dietitian, a Fellow of the Association of Nutrition and a Fellow of the Nutrition Society, I have extensive expertise in measuring metabolic parameters relating to diet and activity.

My research targets key points in development where positve changes can have lasting impact. 

Communication of research outcomes and facilitating the adoption and engagement of whole population in evidence based nutrition and exercise habits underpin my research. Using technology and harnessing social media for communication combined with training and supporting the professional development of health professionals is key to ensuring that research findings make their way into practice promptly and effectively.