Last month we welcomed Amy to the BDA as our Clinical Leader, a newly created part-time role. Amy is already busy meeting with members and getting a flavour of the challenges and opportunities available.
Here we asked Amy a few questions to introduce her to you all.
Tell us a bit about yourself
I’m on a part time secondment to the BDA from my role as principal dietitian for a mental health and learning disabilities trust in Yorkshire. I’ve been a dietitian for ten years – my previous career was in marketing, where I worked for several food brands and was involved with lots of public health education campaigns for the Department of Health and Food Standards Agency.
As well as mental health, I specialise in catering dietetics, and volunteer on the BDA Food Services Specialist Group Committee, where I’m passionate about creating changes in catering for mental health and learning disability inpatient settings to help reduce physical health inequalities. I also volunteer as a governor for my NHS trust. Outside of work, it’s all about my family and kids – and trying to find time for my hobbies of running, yoga and reading (I read at least a book a week!).
What’s your favourite thing about being a dietitian?
I think what drew me into dietetics is still the thing I love about it most – and that is how real it is. By which I mean our work is very tangible for people, it’s about the supermarket, the kitchen cupboards, it’s about breakfast time, it’s about giving our bodies what they need, and when and how they need it. For me dietetics is the perfect combination of a real depth of expertise and understanding, that for the people we help boils down to something they can really connect with.
If you could change one thing in our sector, what would it be?
I think as dietitians we know in our bones how much of a difference we make, but not all of us have the data and evidence we need to prove it, or the capacity and skills to convince everybody else how great we are!
Why did this role interest you in the first place?
I was drawn to the role because it sounded such an exciting new challenge. My career is a really important part of who I am and I always try to squeeze as much out of it as I can, to really participate, see my profession from as many different angles as possible and be always learning. The opportunity to be Clinical Leader for the BDA feels like a real honour and privilege. I’ve only just started and already I’ve had the chance to learn so many new things about dietetics and to meet such a broad range of fascinating people doing incredible things in our profession.
How will your previous experience benefit this role?
I think the combination of marketing communications experience and dietetics is a rare one and I hope will allow me to bring something a bit different to the party. As an active BDA volunteer I have an understanding of the enormous breadth of ‘behind the scenes’ activity at the BDA. And, as a dietetic professional lead I am passionate about advocating for and elevating the interests of dietetic teams.
Why do you think it’s important the BDA has invested in this clinical role?
I think having a voice for clinical dietitians in the work of the BDA is really important. Already I’ve been able to help shape BDA activities and decision-making by sharing how things really are for dietetic professionals ‘on the ground’, and bringing alternative perspectives to discussions around all sorts of things, from corporate partnerships to media coverage and policy making. My hope is that BDA colleagues find my input valuable in supporting them to do their jobs, and that BDA members feel heard and represented.
What are you looking forward to working on?
Obviously, no dietitian can be an expert in everything and I can’t pretend to have a specialist knowledge of every topic that comes up. I think what I’m looking forward to most is getting to know the work of the BDA Specialist Groups and Sub-Groups, learning about what the ‘hot topics’ are in different specialisms and figuring out how I can best support the profession. The passion and expertise out there amongst BDA members is astonishing – and I feel really lucky that I’m going to be able to get an insight into what everyone is up to!
Is there anything that has surprised you about joining the BDA’s internal team?
It’s been fascinating getting a peek into just how much goes into running a professional body – there is a constant buzz about courses, communications activity, events, campaigns... and more! As members we only see the bits that are relevant to us at any given time so to see everything happen all at once is an eye opener.