Early Life Nutrition Committee

Associate Professor Jeff Craig leads the Early Life Epigenetics team within the Environmental and Genetic Epidemiology Research Group at the MCRI and is an Honorary Associate Professor within the Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne.

His work focuses on epigenetics, the musicians that play the symphony of life on our genes. He studies the role of epigenetics in mediating the link between environmental factors, development and disease, in particular cardiovascular and neurodevelopmental disorders. He aims to develop epigenetic biomarkers predicting future disease risk.

Dr Craig is also an internationally-recognised expert on twins and, Deputy Director of the Australian Twin Registry and Chief Investigator on the NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence on Twin Research.

 He is a keen science communicator, regular panellist on 3RRR's science show Einstein A-GoGo, and helped establish the MCRI Blog.

Murdoch Childrens Research Institute

Murdoch Childrens Research Institute (MCRI) is the largest child health research institute in Australia and one of the top five worldwide. Our team of more than 1900 talented researchers is dedicated to making discoveries to prevent and treat childhood conditions. 

Many of our researchers are also clinicians at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, where the Institute is based. Their research is informed by the problems facing their patients but it also means when a discovery is made, this is quickly transformed into practical treatments for children in the hospital

Joey Calandra is the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Engagement for PSA where he works with state and commonwealth government, pharmaceutical industry and consumer organisations to empower educational and practice support programs for pharmacists to improve the health of Australians through excellence in pharmacist care.

Joey is also a board director of the Victorian Pharmacy Authority and has been involved in a consultant role both in Australian and in Great Britain with the Royal Australasian College of General Practice, Bayside Medicare Local, Australian Health Practitioner Registration Authority, National Asthma Council of Australia, Heart Foundation of Australia, Wandsworth Primary Care Trust and the Hammersmith and Fulham Primary Care Trust.

Joey has also had extensive educator roles including Dispensary Assistant’s Course with the Pharmacy Guild, Pharmacy Interns with Monash University and Pharmacists by the provision of continuing professional development specialising in sexual health with the PSA.

Joey’s pharmacy experience spans 16 years with experience in community pharmacy in Sydney, Melbourne and London. Joey is currently completing his executive MBA to further develop his skills as a leader in the healthcare industry both globally and in Australia. 

Pharmaceutical Society of Australia

PSA is the peak national professional pharmacy organisation representing Australia’s 29,000 pharmacists working in all sectors and across all locations.

The core business of PSA is practice improvement in pharmacy by providing continuing professional development and practice support, in order to improve the health of Australians.

PSA provides an extensive program of education and professional development activities across Australia, including the PSA Intern Training Program.

Melanie McGrice is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian with a Masters degree in Dietetics. She is passionate about working with women to improve their nutrition, one bite at a time, whether through her books, presentations, online programs, clinic or social media.

She is the director of Nutrition Plus, a dietetic company which specialises in fertility, pregnancy and women’s health. Nutrition Plus dietitians are located Australia-wide and their dietitians are all experienced in early life nutrition. She personally consults from her private clinic in Melbourne.

Melanie was awarded the ‘excellence in dietetics’ award in 2012 for her outstanding contribution to the field of nutrition.  She has co-authored several papers published in peer-reviewed scientific journals, predominantly with a focus on weight and fertility.

Melanie has authored three books including ‘The Pregnancy Weight Plan’ and is regularly interviewed for television news, current affairs and lifestyle programs, as well as radio and print media.  She is the official dietitian for Good Health magazine, Cirrus Media, SBS Food and the Huffington Post and is a regular contributor to a range of women’s media including Women’s Weekly, NW magazine, Take 5 magazine, OK magazine, Yours magazine, Ninemsn and Kidspot.

Dietitians Association of Australia

The Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) is a company limited by guarantee and is the national association of the dietetic profession, with branches in each state and territory. In 1983, DAA superseded the Australian Association of Dietitians, which was established in 1976.

DAA represents over 6,400 members.

Professor Mark Vickers is based at the Liggins Institute at The University of Auckland. Dr Vickers’ research focus is on the effect of alterations in early life nutrition on the later health and wellbeing of offspring with a particular focus on the development of obesity and the metabolic syndrome. Dr Vickers has established a number of preclinical models utilizing the paradigm of altered early-life nutrition (including maternal obesity) to examine the mechanistic basis of programming during critical periods of developmental plasticity.

Dr Vickers also investigates the potential for reversibility of developmental programming via both nutritional and pharmacologic interventions and was one of the first to show that developmental programming was potentially reversible with interventions in the early life period. Dr Vickers original work on developmental programming was named the most cited paper of the decade in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism for 2001-11. He has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and 12 book chapters in the field of early life origins of adult disease and is on the Editorial Board of a number of journals in this area.

Dr Vickers has established a number of international collaborations including the University of Cambridge, University of Southampton, Singapore Institute for Clinical Sciences and National University of Singapore, University of Western Australia and McGill and McMaster Universities in Canada. His major grant funding sources include: the Health Research Council of NZ (HRC); Marsden Fund of the Royal Society of New Zealand; the Auckland Medical Research Foundation (AMRF) andMinistry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

Professor Vickers synthesized his research vision in this quote, “Few other aspects of nutrient supply and metabolism are of greater biological importance than the feeding of mothers during pregnancy and lactation. Our research aims to develop platforms to examine nutrition during these critical windows and optimize the health of mothers and offspring to reduce risk of adult diseases such as obesity and diabetes in adult life.”

The Liggins Institute, University of Auckland

The Liggins Institute was the University of Auckland’s first large-scale research institute. Its vision is 'a healthy start for a healthy life' and mission is to improve life-long health through excellent research into the long-term consequences of early life events.

Professor Davies is the Director of the Children’s Nutrition Research Centre and the Children’s Health Research Centre at the University of Queensland.

Peter Davies holds a Professorial Fellowship in Children’s Health Research Centre within the University of Queensland and is the Director of the Children’s Nutrition Research Centre (CNRC). He took this Fellowship in 2013 having previously been Deputy Head of UQ’s Medical School as well Director of Research for the School of Medicine.

He has published over 450 articles and papers in the field of nutrition, growth, energy metabolism and body composition in both health and disease in infants and children over a number of years.

He is a past member of the NHMRC Dietary Guidelines Working Committee and the NHMRC Infant Feeding Committee and he also a member of the Food Standards Australia New Zealand, Infant and Young Child Scientific Advisory Group. He was made a Fellow of the Nutrition Society of Australia in 2015 

University of Queensland Child Health Research Centre

Established in 2015, the UQ Child Health Research Centre (UQ-CHRC) within the Faculty of Medicine brings together some of UQ’s leading researchers to tackle global challenges in child and adolescent health.

With research in nutrition and growth, respiratory disease, allied health, environmental health, burns, infectious diseases, cerebral palsy, rehabilitation and more, the centre is making a difference to the health of children everywhere.

The UQ-CHRC is co-located with research centres from Children’s Health Queensland and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) in the recently completed Centre for Children’s Health Research CCHR), a $134 million purpose-built research facility adjacent to the Lady Cilento Children’s Hospital.

Information relating to the activities of CHRC may be found at https://child-health-research.centre.uq.edu.au/.

Professor Wendy Oddy is Professorial Research Fellow at the Menzies Institute for Medical Research in Nutritional Epidemiology, and continues as an Honorary Fellow at the Telethon Kids Institute, University of Western Australia in Perth, where she was based since 1995. She is a Registered Public Health Nutritionist and led the nutrition program of research on the West Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study since 1995. 

In 2010 Professor Oddy received an NHMRC Achievement Award and Fellowship to continue her program of nutritional epidemiological work. As the lead international investigator on a prestigious NHMRC-European Union collaboration titled Early Nutrition (2012-2017) Professor Oddy is investigating the impact of early nutrition on growth and later metabolic health. She continues this work at Menzies, exploring nutritional effects on long term health in population cohort studies.

Menzies Institute for Medical Research

The Menzies Institute for Medical Research is an institute of the University of Tasmania, one of Australia’s leading health and medical research institutes and recognised worldwide for its research excellence. The mission of Menzies is to perform internationally significant medical research leading to healthier, longer and better lives for Tasmanians.

At Menzies we perform basic laboratory, clinical and population health research in themes that reflect the burden of disease in Tasmania. Menzies research is community focused taking a bench-to-bedside and disease prevention approach aimed at improving patient care and clinical outcomes by translating knowledge into clinical and policy actions.

 A key focus at Menzies is the training and education of future research scientists, clinicians and related health professionals.

 As Tasmania’s only medical research institute, Menzies has a unique role and profile benefitting from a relatively stable population base and an environment where there are substantial challenges to the provision of health care based on funding limitations and specific challenges relating to disadvantage

After attaining a Bachelor of Health Science (Nutrition and Dietetics) at the University of Newcastle in 2002, Rachel spent 3 years working in Inpatient/Outpatient Service roles within various locations in New South Wales and Victoria within the public health system. This work experience provided Rachel with clear insight into the needs of patients with diabetes and a desire to develop a meaningful career in this field.

In 2007, Rachel obtained a Graduate Certificate (Diabetes Education), as well as establishing a private dietetics and diabetes education consultation practice in Perth of which she was the Director until 2011.

From 2011-2013 Rachel continued clinical work as a Diabetes Dietitian and Diabetes Educator for NSW Health. During this time, Rachel was also involved in national policy reviews and national guideline development for various projects relating to people with diabetes.

In 2015 Rachel completed a Master of Science (Diabetes) with a project to evaluate the ADEA mentoring program.

As Professional Services Manager at ADEA, Rachel responds to all enquiries from members, health care professionals and the general public regarding professional matters. Her role includes liaising with stakeholders on various projects and programs to continually support ADEA members and to improve the health care of people with diabetes.

Australian Diabetes Educators Association (ADEA)

The Australian Diabetes Educators Association (ADEA) is the peak national organisation for multidisciplinary health professionals who are committed to the provision and excellence of quality, evidence-based diabetes education, care and management with over 2,100 members working in all sectors and across all locations.

ADEA aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people with diabetes by:

1. Assessing diabetes educators based on their qualifications, skills, knowledge and             experience through the credentialing program
2. Supporting multidiscipline health professionals through its various programs, including mentoring, education and research
3. Developing and updating relevant policies, standards of practice and clinical guidelines

For more information, visit our website at www.adea.com.au.

Associate Professor Clare Wall is the Head of the Discipline of Nutrition and Dietetics at The University of Auckland, Medical School and Director of the MHSc Nutrition and Dietetic Programme After qualifying as a dietitian in the UK in 1984, she specialised in paediatric dietetics, working in both the UK and Australia. She has had many years of practical experience assisting parents, children and adolescents with nutrition advice and support. Clare is an active member of the nutrition community in New Zealand and serves on a number of national review panels and committees in the infant and childhood nutrition area 

Claire’s main research focus is the interrelationship between the determinants of nutritional status and health outcomes in the paediatric population. She is currently a collaborator on a number of research projects in pregnancy and early life including:  Growing up in New Zealand; the Auckland Birthweight Collaborative Study; the SCOPE study; the HUMBA study and the Growing up Milk lite study.

The University of Auckland, Department of Nutrition

The University of Auckland is home to high quality nutrition research and teaching. The Discipline of Nutrition is integral to this, with distinguished researchers undertaking vital research in nutrigenomics, functional foods, prostate cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and paediatric nutrition.

Jacinta Sherlock is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian and an Accredited Nutritionist who graduated with her Masters in Dietetics from La Trobe University.

Jacinta is the former co-chair and Nutrition and Dietetics Representative, on the Future Health Leaders Council, having completed the Leadership Victoria Health Sector Leadership program in 2016. 

Jacinta is a passionate advocate for chronic disease prevention, healthy eating behaviours and positive body image, embracing a person centered approach to healthy weight management throughout the life course  Jacinta is currently undertaking her Honours in Nutrition, exploring the impact of smartphone technology, social media and celebrity nutrition advice, on the eating behaviour and food choices in pregnant women.

Future Health Leaders

Future Health Leaders was established in 2011 to ensure ongoing engagement of students and early-career health professionals in the health reform process.  Future Health Leaders is the first multi-professional organisation in Australia for both student and early career health professionals to work together in shaping tomorrow, today!

We believe that every student and early career health professional can make a significant contribution to improve the health of all Australians regardless of their location, background or discipline.  We aim inspire and empower new ideas on current health issues in Australia and overseas, and ensure that tomorrow's health leaders are engaged in solving the problems that they will likely inherit.

Frank is Director of the Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, and immediate Past- President of PSANZ.  He also has been President of the Perinatal Society of New Zealand between 2010 and 2014 and is a current council member of the Perinatal Research Society of the USA.  Frank’s research covers basic science through to clinical trials in neonatal nutrition, growth and development, and he serves on the Ministry of Health National Maternity Monitoring Group and the Clinical Governance Board of the National Intestinal Failure Service.

The Liggins Institute, University of Auckland

The Liggins Institute was the University of Auckland’s first large-scale research institute. Its vision is 'a healthy start for a healthy life' and mission is to improve life-long health through excellent research into the long-term consequences of early life events.

Emily leads United Way Australia’s special program initiatives to overcome social disadvantage, with a focus on innovation and incubation of new approaches to targeting specific issues. With more than 15 years’ experience in community development and community engagement, Emily has worked internationally, leading the Australian Government’s Pacific Islands technical assistance program in the North Pacific, Samoa and Tonga with a focus on Health and Education. Emily has also worked in Australia with national and local governments to tackle complex issues and with communities to mobilise networks for a common purpose. 

Emily brings her expertise and technical knowledge to managing projects at United Way Australia focusing on children aged 0-5 years. Emily has a Bachelor of Arts (Social Sciences) and a Masters of Arts in Development Studies.

United Way Australia

OUR VISION is that every Australian community thrives. 

OUR PURPOSE is to unite community, business, philanthropy, government, and social purpose organisations in collaborative action to improve education, employment, health and housing outcomes in communities experiencing disadvantage.

WE BELIEVE that the postcode people are born in should not determine their destiny, that the causes of entrenched community disadvantage in Australia are complex and that no single organisation can solve these issues alone. We need to work together to achieve change.

Nik Loveridge is a Head of Healthcare Nutrition Science, for Danone Early Life Nutrition, ANZ, based in Sydney.

Nik received a BSc in Biology/Physical Education (2002) and an MSc in Nutrition and Dietetics (2004) from the university of Liverpool, UK, to achieve his registration as a UK dietitian. Nik worked as a dietitian in the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and later in the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, specialising his practice in Upper GI Oncology and Intensive Care Nutrition. 

He joined Nutricia Advanced Medical Nutrition Research, a division of Danone, in 2006, focusing on Inborn Errors of Metabolism and the Ketogenic Diet, Clinical Trials and Clinical Nutrition, and was based in Liverpool, UK. From December 2011 until May 2017, he was Senior Global Science Manager, Healthcare Nutrition, for Danone Nutricia Early Life Nutrition in Amsterdam, focusing on the areas of Young Child Nutrition, Functional GI disorders, Mastitis and Allergy.

In May 2017, Nik moved to Sydney to head up the Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) Healthcare Nutrition science team. The role of the ANZ Healthcare Nutrition science team is to support Health Care Professionals in research around the role of nutrition in early life and the subsequent education to additional Health Care Professionals in Australia and New Zealand. Tailored nutrition for populations of infants with allergy or at risk of allergy, the role of nutrition in the management of functional GI disorders and nutrition for infants born preterm or with a low birth weight are currently some of the main focuses of the ANZ Healthcare Nutrition Science team.

Danone Early Life Nutrition 

Founded in 1896, Danone Nutricia works with parents, carers and healthcare professionals to educate about early life nutrition through advice and support, as well as products and services. For over 100 years Danone Nutricia has been at the forefront of research in infant nutrition and our pioneering efforts continue today. At the heart of our work is our commitment to stand by mums, dads and caregivers to nurture new lives through science-driven research and development, as well as quality manufacturing.

Sara Thompson is a NZ registered dietitian and Healthcare Nutrition Science Manager for Danone Nutricia. She specialises in paediatric and neonatal nutrition. She also leads the company's work to raise awareness of the importance of early life nutrition in the First 1000 days which covers conception through to toddlerhood.

Sara commenced work as a graduate dietitian in 2007, working first in clinical practice in New Zealand and then in Ireland. In 2007, she then moved to the United Kingdom to take up a role as Health Care Professional Team Leader at Diabetes UK. In 2010, Sarah moved back to New Zealand to take up a role as Healthcare Nutrition Science Manager at Danone Nutricia to further pursue her career in Early Life Nutrition.

Danone Early Life Nutrition

Founded in 1896, Danone Nutricia works with parents, carers and healthcare professionals to educate about early life nutrition through advice and support, as well as products and services. For over 100 years Danone Nutricia has been at the forefront of research in infant nutrition and our pioneering efforts continue today. At the heart of our work is our commitment to stand by mums, dads and caregivers to nurture new lives through science-driven research and development, as well as quality manufacturing.