Board of Directors and Executive

Julie Dundon
President

Julie has been an active member of DAA since she graduated as a dietitian and particularly so since 1990.  She has served  in various capacities on the DAA (South Australian Branch) Executive, and has held various roles at national level.  She has acted as Chairperson of the DAA Quality Assurance Sub-committee, on the Marketing and Public Relations Committee, and was the South Australian Branch  Spokesperson in 1999 and 2000. 

More recently she has served as a Board member and has been involved in the negotiations with the Federal government regarding Medicare Plus.  Julie has shown great leadership and acted as a mentor to others in both a formal and informal manner.  She has excelled in many areas of her working career, and has established nutrition and dietetic services in many organisations within South Australia.  In recent years Julie has been at the forefront of promotion of dietetic and nutrition services in private hospitals and nursing homes and continues  to advocate strongly for dietitians and on nutrition issues in all  aspects of her work.

Margaret is currently Associate Professor in Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Sydney. She teaches in both the undergraduate and postgraduate dietetic training programs and is active in research into public health aspects of both overnutrition (obesity) and undernutrition (malnutrition in disease and elderly) including surveillance, determinants, economic costs and prevention. Margaret is interested in the translation of research into dietetic practice and nutrition policy. Her interest in obesity began when she undertook a Master of Philosophy in Public Health completed in 2005 and disease and malnutrition relationships were the topic of her PhD completed in 1989.

Throughout her professional life Margaret has been an active member of DAA with a number of roles over the years including:- continuing education subcommittee in NSW; Branch committee member; associate editor and then editor of Nutrition and Dietetics (it was during her time as Editor that the journal assumed a new name and more contemporary appearance); reviewer for DSAAC and a member of JSPAC and she has held office in other nutrition bodies, such as AuSPEN, and been on the editorial boards of two international nutrition journals.

Having worked in clinical dietetics, education and research and more recently public health nutrition Margaret believes she can relate to a wide cross-section of the DAA membership. She is keen to ensure that dietitians continue to become increasingly acknowledged as the nutrition experts by government sectors. She advocates for appropriate DAA representation in national decision-making including the Preventative Health Agency proposed by the 2020 summit and for appropriate funding to improve community access to dietitians.

Kim Crawley 
Director responsible for Finance

  Danielle Gallegos

Danielle is currently Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Health at the Queensland University of Technology. She teaches community and public health nutrition in both the undergraduate and postgraduate programs. She is an active researcher in areas related to social nutrition including food literacy, food security and breastfeeding duration. Danielle completed her PhD at Murdoch University in the area of sociology and is passionate about an interdisciplinary, community participatory approach to nutrition. Her particular area of expertise is working with community groups who are potentially marginalised in particular those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, those who identify as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and those experiencing levels of social disadvantage.

Danielle has been a member of DAA since 1988 contributing in a number of different roles at the State and National level. She has worked across the continuum of practice from clinical dietetics through to public health nutrition practice in Queensland and Western Australia. She has worked in hospital and community settings, for non-government organisations, government public health bodies and in private practice with foci on clinical, food service and public health nutrition practice.

 Roslyn Giglia

 Mary
Hannan-Jones

Mary is an active member of DAA, notably serving on the Queensland branch executive since 2003 in various roles, in particular in relation to the coordination of branch professional development events.  Mary's professional experience is strongly focussed in the area of foodservice management, dietetic education and research, with Mary being a lecturer in the nutrition and dietetic training programs at Queensland University of Technology since 1995.

Mary currently holds a joint position with Queensland University of Technology as a Lecturer and Queensland Health, Offender Health Services as their Senior Advisor.   Mary was instrumental in the creation of this position with the purpose of establishing formal dietetic services for Queensland Corrective Service facilities and developing and implementing their food and nutrition policy.

Mary completed her nutrition and dietetic qualification at Queensland University of Technology in 1991 and in 1994 completed a Masters in Health Science.  Mary is currently completing a PhD in the area of food and nutrition policy in correction and detention centres in Australia.

Mary is passionate about nutrition and dietetic training, in particular in the promotion of the advocacy roles nutrition and dietetic professionals play in food and health for vulnerable groups.

Elizabeth Kellett

Liz graduated as a dietitian from the University of Sydney in 1975, having completed a science degree at the University of  Adelaide in 1973.  Since that time she has worked in a range of organisations and settings in South Australia, including the position of Chief Dietitian Adelaide Children's Hospital, and roles in community health and private practice.  She also worked in public health and nutrition education for 10 years at the Children's Health Development Foundation, where she was part of the team which developed the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating.  Her current position is Manager of Dietetics and Nutrition at Flinders Medical Centre.  Liz has held various roles in the past on the DAA (SA) executive and PD committees, including  chairperson, and chaired the conference organising committee for the 2000 National conference in Adelaide.  She was one of the two  SA board members on the inaugural DAA  (then AAD) board in 1976. 

Claire graduated from Deakin University with a Masters in Nutrition and Dietetics in 1997.  She commenced her career in the Northern Territory and then moved back to the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria.  Her career has been focused on community and public health nutrition and projects and as such she completed a Masters of Public Health in 2004.  With the commencement of an academic appointment as lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at Monash University in 2004 she has embraced teaching and education completing a Graduate Certificate in Health Professional Education in 2005.  She is currently completing her PhD with a research interest in public health nutrition workforce development and education.

Prior to moving to Hobart Jen worked on a food security project in Adelaide where I completed a Food Policy Short Course at FlindersUniversity. She was employed as Senior Dietitian for the regional community health service, based in Mount Gambier, South Australia from 1996 to 2003 (with breaks for overseas travel and study).  She have also worked in clinical dietetics in Canberra and aged care in Warrnambool.

In 2000 Jen received a Rotary Foundation International Ambassadorial Scholarship. She spent a year at the University of Alberta, in Edmonton, Canada where she completed a Post Graduate Diploma in Health Promotion.
Jen completed a Master of Nutrition and Dietetics at DeakinUniversity, Geelong in 1992 following a Bachelor of Science at MonashUniversity, Clayton in 1990. Besides public health nutrition Jen is also passionate about good food, travel and various outdoor pursuits such as cycling, walking, sea-kayaking and skiing.

Claire Hewat

Chief Executive Officer

Claire holds a BSc (Hons 1) and a Dip Nutr & Diet (Syd). In 2004 Claire was the first Accredited Practising Dietitian to be appointed to the position of Executive Director of DAA. Prior to this she had been a Director on the DAA Board for four years and a member of the NSW Branch Exec for seven years as well as undertaking a number of other voluntary roles in DAA.

Claire's role is overall management of the association's three divisions of Administration, Professional Services and Communications and Marketing as well as policy development, environmental scans, representation and media spokesperson.

Claire has had many years of experience as a practising Dietitian in the areas of clinical, food service, community and public health nutrition, diabetes education and private practice and in various aspects of health service management. Her previous position was as the director of the Division of Community and Allied Health at Wingecarribee Health Service with over 100 staff and 17 different departments. Prior to that Claire was in rural practice and managed the nutrition and dietetic departments at Bowral, Shoalhaven Hospitals Group, Macarthur Area Health Service and the NSW Central Western Region. She is the DAA voting delegate to the International Confederation of Dietetic Associations and Australian representative on the council of the Asian Federation of Dietetic Associations. Claire is currently Chair of the National Primary Health Care Partnership and on the management group of Allied Health Professions Australia.

Annette entered the profession in 1983 with a postgraduate Diploma in Nutrition and Dietetics from Flinders University. During her career she has had a number of roles including clinician, educator, and manager in rural and remote areas and major metropolitan hospitals in four Australian States and Territories. She has worked in the public and private health sectors providing services to adults and children, and also in the tertiary education sector. Postgraduate studies have included an upgrade of her nutrition qualifications, a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Public Health. Annette has been an active participant in DAA committees at branch and national level, and was Vice President in 2003-2004. She joined the staff at DAA in 2007 as Policy Dietitian before taking on the role of Professional Services Manager in 2009.
 
As Professional Services Manager with the DAA, Annette manages the Professional Services Unit and is a member of the organisation's executive team. Her role involves the management of the APD program and a large range of other professional services. Annette also oversees a number of projects funded by the Association, the Australian Government, or Corporate Partners.

Eleanor commenced a full-time PhD in 2006 on her thesis titled, "Evidence for effects of oat â-glucan on satiety and weight control", which was then awarded in December 2009.  In addition to these roles, Eleanor was a member of the Membership and Reinstatement Advisory Committee for almost 10 years and on the Accredited Practising Dietitian Advisory Committee of DAA for five years prior to commencing on DAA staff in February 2010.  Eleanor holds an Advanced APD credential and maintains research interests in nutrition innovation through an Honorary Senior Fellow position at the University of Wollongong.