Welcome to our committee page. The committee of the Public Health Specialist Group works on a number of workstreams, including supporting the BDA workforce and public health strategies, getting involved with projects led by other public health organisations, and developing and delivering our own projects. These include: running regular webinars, working with other specialist groups on topics such as food insecurity, supporting the development of public health training initiatives and supporting dietitians to incorporate public health initiatives into their roles. All dietitians are public health dietitians!
If you would like to know more about becoming a committee member, or would like to enquire about working on a specific project with us, we would love to hear from you! Please email us at [email protected]
Chair - Nicki Sumpter
I currently work as a PCN dietitian in Selby, North Yorkshire. I have a particular interest in bridging the gap between public health nutrition and clinical nutrition and reaching underserved communities to challenge health inequalities. I sat on the steering group committee for the BDA Primary Care project and am an advocate for the emerging 'expert generalist' dietitian.
I enjoy exploring innovative ways to deliver dietetics with efficiency and effectiveness. I would love to see dietitians becoming more involved in the development and delivery of primary prevention strategies. Dietitians have so much to offer to enhance primary prevention and it is a privilege to be a small part of enabling this cruicial area of dietetics to grow.
Contact me at [email protected]
Vice Chair - Avril Aslett-Bentley
Consultant Registered Dietitian & Nutritionist (Public Health)
Current professional roles: Freelance Public Health Dietitian, Nutritionist & Mentor; University Lecturer (Leeds Beckett University) and BDA Volunteer.
I am a Registered Dietitian & Nutritionist with much experience across a broad range of practice areas and settings within Nutrition & Dietetics, of which my main focus in more recent years has been mostly, but not exclusively, Public Health Nutrition, within Higher Education.
Resource and Education Officer - Rachel Gibson
Dr Rachel Gibson is a UK Registered Dietitian and Lecturer in the Department of Nutrition Sciences at King's College London. Rachel completed her PhD at Imperial College London in Nutrition Epidemiology. Rachel's research focuses on i) understanding the influence of the work environment on dietary intake and associations with employee health and wellbeing and ii) advancing assessment of diet (eating patterns, diet quality) at a population level. Rachel is Module Lead for Public Health and Healthcare Systems taught on the BSc and MSc Dietetic Programme at King's.
Rachel is accredited by the British Dietetic Association Work Ready Programme to deliver corporate nutritional wellbeing programmes. Prior to training as a Dietitian, Rachel worked in business management across various industries including the food service sector.
Research Officer - Vacant
External Affairs/Liaison Officer - Kirsty Goss
Kirsty joined the Public Health Specialist Group as Liaison Officer in 2024. She registered as a Dietitian in 2017 and has worked across a variety of different settings and roles including community weight management, general community, haematology, workplace health, diabetes remission and practice development.
Within Public Health, Kirsty is passionate about seeing the UK food system transformed so that healthy food is the most affordable, available and convenient option for everyone.
In addition to her role on the PHSG committee, Kirsty sits on the BDA UK Food Strategy and Universal Free School Meals campaign groups.
Treasurer - vacant
Communications Officer and Events Co-ordinator - vacant
Secretary - Kyle Kennedy
Kyle Kennedy is studyinig Human Nutrition & Dietetics Student at Glasgow Caledonian University. Kyle is the President of the Dietetics Society at GCU, a student member of the Faculty of Public Health and class representative for his year.
Apart for academia, Kyle spear heads a healthy eating project for a large British supermarket chain for Glasgow and The West of Scotland, has written articles for the BDA on topics such as 'The Social Normality of Alcohol Consumption in Students - and how we can help' and manages an Instagram and Twitter account to promote nutrition, dietetics, public health and how this relates to students.
In addition, Kyle volunteers as a Health Information Reviewer for the British Nutrition Foundation; reviewing the clarity of language, presentation, appropriateness, relevance and usefulness of BNF health resources.
Instagram/X: KyleKennedyRD2B
Web Editor - Laura Thomas
Laura is the clinical lead dietitian for health Improvement for Hywel Dda University Healthboard in west Wales. She has worked as a dietitian since qualifying in 2007 in a variety of roles including gastroenterology, weight management and type 2 diabetes. Laura has a keen interest in maternal health, behaviour change and reducing the gap in health inequalities.
Committee member - Sally Moore
Sally has been registered as a dietitian since 2008 and she has worked extensively in the food industry, including leading the Nutrition Team for a large UK supermarket when she guided consumer health and food labelling initiatives. She moved partly to academia in 2013 teaching UG and PG nutrition students at Universities in Leeds, whilst pursing her PhD ressearch in consumer use of UK nutrition labels. She currently works at the University of Leeds, School of Food Science and Nutrition. Sally's work with the BDA and local communities across Yorkshire aims to help consumers understand nutrition labels and to improve public health nutrition. Sally also undertakes freelance research and commercial projects, including with the Food Industry.
Contact [email protected]
Committee member - Sian O'Dell
I'm Sian, a registered dietitian and currently working towards a Public Health Nutrition MSc. Since I've been qualified I have worked in community dietetics, enteral nutrition, diabetes and prescribing. Public health nutrition is a passion of mine as it effects everyone, the topics within public health are vast and cover issues from small groups to worldwide nutrition problems. I believe there is great merit in supporting groups of people with their health journey in modern day healthcare systems to improve efficiency and health outcomes for the public.
Committee member and Newsletter Editor - Megan Cocksedge
I'm Megan. I am a student dietitian studying MSC pre registration dietetics at Sheffield Hallam University, I am in my second and final year of study. My undergraduate was paramedic science at the University of Suffolk and I worked as a paramedic from 2018 to 2023 until deciding to the make the significant career change into dietetics.
A large part of my decision to change careers was the desire to try prevent some of the diseases I encountered as a paramedic and where my interest in public health began.
I have recently adopted the role as co-editor of the public health newsletter, and hope this will enable us to better share any interesting public health knowledge and news to group members.