The Preeminent Forum for Academic Leaders in Nutrition & Dietetics in Australia & New Zealand since 2015.

Our Mission & Vision

Leadership and advocacy for nutrition and dietetics education and research. Excellence in nutrition and dietetics education and research for the optimal nutritional health of all people in Australia and New Zealand.

What we do

  • Policy advocacy on education, research, practice & workforce

  • Research & leadership in research

  • Advise & advocate on standards required for teaching, research, & practice

  • Protect professional integrity

  • Address education & accreditation issues

Our Focus

Education

Support innovative education for the future workforce in nutrition and dietetics, and in nutrition education, for our communities across Australia and New Zealand.

Partnering

Providing a dynamic forum for knowledge exchange between members, and with our partners to support informative policy and engagement with and between members and communities.

Research

Promote excellence and provide leadership in research to improve nutrition focused health and well-being and towards an ecologically sustainable, just and healthy world.

Meet the Council

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

Professor Andrea Begley
Chair

Curtin University, Western Australia

  • Andrea 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 and 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.

Professor Rozanne Kruger
Deputy Chair, Australia

Griffith University, Queensland

  • Rozanne is the 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.

Associate Professor Andrea Braakhuis
Deputy Chair, New Zealand

Auckland University, New Zealand

  • Andrea is an Associate Professor and the Head of the Nutrition Department at The University of Auckland.

    As a Registered Dietitian she has research expertise in nutrition interventions and food-related human behaviours within healthy and clinical populations. Andreas research focuses on the performance and clinical application of dietary bioactives and personalised nutrition, in topics related to ageing, malnutrition, modified diets, nutrigenomics, functional foods, sport nutrition and optimising food-related behaviours.


    Her doctoral degree investigated the effect of dietary antioxidants and their impact on health and athletic performance having previously worked as a registered practising dietitian in Australia, the United States and New Zealand, also an Associate Editor for the ‘Nutrition & Dietetics’ journal, and reviewer for multiple peer reviewed journals.

Dr Tameka McFadyen
Indigenous representative

University of Newcastle

Associate Professor Tracy Perry
Māori representative

University of Otago

Professor Margaret Allman-Farinelli (Immediate Past Chair)

The University of Sydney

  • Margaret 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.

Bree Murray
CDND Executive Officer

  • Bree is an Accredited Practising Dietitian with extensive expertise across the regulation and governance of the Australian health sector. Bree has held multiple leadership roles responsible for shaping health professional regulation in Australia.

    Professionally, Bree has worked with and led not-for-profit organisations across the areas of strategic planning, risk management, health policy, communications/marketing, health education and member/corporate services. Bree is passionate about creating a responsive and effective health workforce that values and fosters future community needs and demonstrates clear commitment to a culturally safe and diverse workforce. 

Dr Kirsty Seward
CDND Project Officer

  • Dr Kirsty Seward is a dietitian and researcher with over a decade of experience in health research, education, and program leadership. She is passionate about empowering women, including young women, to develop a healthy relationship with food and their bodies through her private practice, with a special interest in body image.

    In addition to her clinical work, Kirsty is the HDR Program Enhancement Coordinator at the University of Newcastle, where she leads strategic initiatives including the National Industry PhD program and fosters partnerships across academia, government, and community sectors. Her expertise spans nutrition and dietetics education, implementation science, and health behaviour change.

Professor Greg Cox

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.

Associate Professor Anita Star

Charles Darwin University, Northern Territory

  • Anita is an 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.

Professor Sharon Croxford

Australian Catholic University

  • Sharon is an award-winning academic and 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 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.

Professor Judi Porter

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.

Associate Professor Therese O’Sullivan

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.

Associate Professor Jane Kellet

University of Canberra, ACT

  • Jane is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian with over 20 years of experience working in clinical dietetics, food service, education and research settings.

    She 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, Jane held clinical and food service positions at St Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney, primarily working in aged care, oncology, HIV and palliative care.

Professor Regina Belski

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.

Professor Rebecca Golley

Flinders University, South Australia

Professor Rachel Bacon

Central Queensland University, Queensland

Associate Professor Amanda Patterson

University of Newcastle, New South Wales

  • Dr Amanda Patterson is an Associate Professor in the School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. She is Head of Discipline for Nutrition & Dietetics at the University of Newcastle and has over 25 years experience in Dietetics Education. Her teaching focus is around foundational nutrition knowledge, nutrients and Nutrient Reference Values, life stages, nutrition education tools, and dietary patterns in health and disease. Dr Patterson is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian with an extensive research track record. She is particularly well known for her research in the area of iron deficiency in women, but her expertise includes nutritional epidemiology, women’s health, student health and nutrition and secondary stroke prevention.

Professor Marijka Batterham

University of New South Wales

Professor Judy Bauer

Monash University, Victoria

  • Judy 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 Practising 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.

    Judy has worked at Monash University since Feb 2022. She is passionate about evidence informing nutrition practice and is widely published in international literature with a Scopus H-index of 41. She has supervised over 15 PhD scholars who are now leading clinical/academic researchers.

Associate Prof. Mary Hannan-Jones

Queensland University of Technology, Queensland

  • Mary 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). 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.

Professor Fiona Pelly

The University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland

  • Fiona is the Discipline Leader in Nutrition and Dietetics at USC. She is an Accredited Practising Dietitian, and a Fellow of Dietitians 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.

Professor Sarah McNaughton

The University of Queensland, Queensland

  • Sarah 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.

Professor Kathryn Beck

Massey University, New Zealand

  • Kathryn 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.

Professor Andrew McAinch

Victoria University, Victoria

  • Andrew 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.

Associate Professor Jimmy Louie

Swinburne University of Technology, Victoria

  • Jimmy is a highly accomplished researcher and practitioner in nutrition and dietetics with over 10 years experience in academia, specialising 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.

Professor Kelly Lambert

University of Wollongong, New South Wales

  • Kelly is Professor and Associate Head of School (Discipline Lead) of Nutrition Science & Dietetics within the School of Medical, Indigenous and Health Sciences at the University of Wollongong.  Kelly is a Fellow of Dietitians Australia and an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian with almost 30 years of clinical, research and academic experience. She has more than two decades of clinical experience as a specialist kidney dietitian and serves as a member of the Kidney Health Australia Clinical Advisory Committee, Polycystic Kidney Australia Scientific Advisory Board and International Council of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism Executive.

    Kelly is recognised internationally for her translational research in renal nutrition, health literacy, patient education, and development of evidence-based practice guidelines particularly in kidney disease. Kelly's research interests and values are supporting people with kidney disease to live better lives, improving patient education by health professionals and educating future dietitians.