Our experts play a key role in reviewing the quality and effectiveness of research and initiatives published on the VegKIT resource registry.
Dr Rachel LawsSenior Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition, Deakin University. MSc(Nutr & Diet), PhD
Rachel is a Senior Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition at the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University. Her research interest focus on the development and translation of effective nutrition promotion interventions into policy and routine service delivery. Rachel’s research has spanned both chronic disease prevention in both adults and children and in recent years has focused on obesity prevention in early life using novel and scalable interventions. As part of the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (EPOCH) Centre for Research Excellence, Rachel is co-leading a stream of research on Translation of evidence in policy and practice. Rachel is passionate about conducting research that makes a difference and translating research into the real world.
Dr Sarah TakiBSc (Nutrition and Food), MND, PhD/Postdoctoral fellow and Senior Research Officer
Dr Sarah Taki is a Senior Research Officer and Postdoctoral Research Fellow with Population Health Research and Evaluation Hub and Health Promotion Unit at Sydney Local Health District, NSW Health. She is also a postdoctoral fellow with the Centre of Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood (EPOCH CRE). Sarah is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and completed her PhD which focused on engaging parents in an mHealth intervention supporting with infant feeding behaviours that promote healthy weight gain. Sarah’s current research focuses on translating the evidence from an obesity prevention program, the Healthy Beginnings program into the real-world setting and using mHealth interventions. Her role includes facilitating with the development, implementation and evaluation of the Healthy Beginnings programs.
Dr Flavia Fayet-MoorePhD, MNutrDiet, APD, RNutr, FASLM
Flavia Fayet-Moore is the CEO of Nutrition Research Australia, where she leads a team of highly skilled researchers to conduct end to end nutrition and communications projects. She is a Registered Nutritionist, Accredited Practising Dietitian, Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney, Fellow of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine and the first dietitian in Australia to be board certified in Lifestyle Medicine. Flavia’s research interest is in population health, childhood nutrition and has recently published on the vegetable intake of Australian children and adolescents.
Dr Carley GrimesPhD (Nutrition), Senior Lecturer in Population Nutrition
Dr Grimes is a Senior Lecturer in Population Nutrition working in the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition at Deakin University. She is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and a Member of the Nutrition Society of Australia. Her research interests include assessment of dietary intakes and developing strategies to improve the diets of Australian children.
Dr Rebecca ByrneLecturer in Nutrition & Dietetics
Dr Rebecca Byrne is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology. Rebecca practised as a clinical dietitian in hospital and domiciliary settings before commencing her PhD at QUT. Her PhD examined the dietary intake of toddlers, within the NOURISH randomised controlled trial. NOURISH was one of the first trials internationally to evaluate the impact of maternal responsive feeding practices on infant intake, eating behaviour and growth. After two years as a postdoctoral research fellow within the NHMRC funded Centre for Research Excellence in the Early Prevention of Obesity in Childhood, Rebecca was appointed as a lecturer at QUT. Her research focuses on what and how young children are fed, particularly the influence of feeding practices used by parents as well as educators in the Early Childhood Education and Care setting; and understanding how eating behaviours – such as fussy eating – develop.
PhD, AdvAPD, FHEA/Lecturer (Education/Research Focused) in Nutrition and Dietetics
Dr. Jani is an Advance Accredited Practising Dietitian (AdvAPD) with the Dietitians Association of Australia since (2010-ongoing). Dr. Jani commenced her position at the University of Canberra (2017-ongoing) as Assistant Professor in Nutrition and Dietetics. She is the domain lead for community and public health nutrition. She completed her master’s degree in nutrition and dietetics from Griffith University (2008-2010) followed by her doctorate studies at Queensland University of Technology (2010-2014). Her doctoral thesis was innovative as it was the first study to examine child-feeding practices and its association with childhood obesity among Australian-Indians. Building on her doctorate work, Dr. Jani is currently establishing a multi-centric project (India-Australia-Greece) examining environmental and phenotypic determinants of picky eating in children and its association with their weight status.
Dr Rebecca WyseSenior Lecturer & Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Newcastle, PhD
Dr Rebecca Wyse is a National Heart Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Newcastle. Her research focuses on novel interventions to encourage healthy eating among children and their families. As part of her PhD she developed the 'Healthy Habits' telephone-based for intervention for parents, and she is now evaluating the first ever patient-preference trial of interventions to increase child fruit and vegetable consumption. She is also an author of the Cochrane Living Systematic Review of interventions to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among children aged 0-5, one of only a handful of "living" systematic reviews worldwide, whereby the evidence for effective programs is consistently updated following active monitoring of the evidence. Her research interests and expertise include intervention development, translation of research to practice, implementation science, systems-based interventions and interventions within the school and childcare-settings.