Chair - Nicki Sumpter
I graduated from Leeds Beckett University in 2019 and currently work as a dietitian at York Hospital. 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 sit 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.
Outside of dietetics, I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen with different cuisines and exploring the Yorkshire countryside with my family and dogs. I am also a novice allotmenter and last summer the York dietetic department benefitted from my glut of courgettes. This year, I'm going to try and grow my own loofahs - might need plenty of luck and good weather.
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 - Tom Butler
Tom is a senior lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Chester. Tom completed his PhD in 2012, examining the role of dietary fat and carbohydrate on cardiac functional and metabolic remodelling in response to hypertension and obesity. He is a HCPC registered dietitian and registered nutritionist with the Association of Nutrition. Tom is the lead for the BACPR diet working group and along with other dietitians, aims to improve the quality and amount of diet information delivered to those people progressing through cardiac rehab. Tom delivers group education sessions as part of Warrington’s “Fit to Tackle” weight loss programme, as well as cardioprotective diet sessions as part of phase 4 cardiac rehab. He is a strong believer that advice around nutrition should be available for everyone, and should not just focus on recommending quinoa or organic ancient grains. Tom lives in Merseyside in a small town called Newton-Le-Willows, the birthplace of Rick Astley.
Treasurer - vacant
Communications Officer and Events Co-ordinator - Isabel Rice
Isabel graduated in 2017 from King's College London, where she continued to work in research exploring food insecurity in the UK. She then worked at Centrepoint, a youth homelessness charity, managing a small dietetics team. Her time was split between clinical work, public health projects and research and advocacy, with much of the work focused on food insecurity, including setting up and managing a social supermarket. In 2022 she completed a Master's in Nutrition for Global Health at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and has now joined Sustain as the London Food Poverty Campaign Coordinator. Isabel is passionate about tackling root causes of poverty and inequality and exploring the dietitian's role in supporting people experiencing food insecurity.
Contact [email protected]
Secretary - Kyle Kennedy
Kyle Kennedy is a second-year 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.