Feb’09 -July ‘09: Freelance work: This included running the fibre consortium under the auspices of FDF (as part of freelance work). This involved working with the Food Standards Agency and the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition on the definition of fibre, as well as dealing with the EU and Codex on methods of analysis for fibre.
During this time I also organised and spoke at a conference titled Healthy Middle years and was the specialist dietitian at consultant lead women’s health clinic based at Queen Charlotte’s Hospital in London
Feb’03 – end Jan’09: Nutrition Manager for the Food and Drink Federation (on a 4 day a week basis from March 07 ). FDF represents the interests of the UK food and drink manufacturing industry. Much of my role involved being the interface on nutritional matters between industry and UK and EU authorities. I sat on a number of stakeholder groups that made nutrition policy decisions such as the School Meal Review Panel and the technical group involved in developing the first FSA nutrient profiling model for Ofcom. In this role I needed to ensure my nutrition team and myself were completely up to speed on nutrition matters and scientific developments that were of public health concern. I therefore worked with many leading academics and attended conferences on a wide variety if nutrition issues.
I was also in the forefront of developing some technical industry schemes such as Guideline Daily Amounts for food labelling and guidance on portion sizes. I recently helped to establish a fibre consortium comprising of experts in dietary fibre within the food industry and liasing with fibre experts within academia, and bodies such as Codex and the Food Standards Agency.
October ‘06 - January ’09: Worked 1 day a week doing a variety of freelance roles. The work I did included a variety of writing, addressing conferences and advising on women’s health issues. I also wrote a ‘Dummies Guide’ book on PCOS during this period.
June 1994-March’03 (unpaid role): Trustee, with responsibility for PR, to a women’s health charity called The National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome (NAPS). My role included managing the charity’s affairs, liaison with industry and editing their regular newsletter.
July’02-Jan’03 (part of freelance work): Dietitian to a consultant led Women’s health NHS clinic at London’s Hammersmith Hospital. Patients included those with PMS, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Menopausal problems.
Nov’01-Jan’03 (one day/week): The patients I saw, along with the psychiatrist, included the obese as well as anorexic and bulimic. I also supervised the diet plans and catering for these patients.
July’01-Jan’03 (part of freelance work): Nutrition Consultant and PR Adviser to The Menopause Exchange. This involved giving talks, attending conferences and exhibitions and writing articles. I still do some writing for this organisation
March’01-end Jan’03 (part of freelance work): Project Co-ordinator for CASH (Consensus Action on Salt and Health). This role involved gathering and communicating evidence on salt and health and conducting research on children’s attitudes to salt and health. It also included media work such as organising the yearly Salt Awareness Day event at The House of Commons.
March’01 – Oct’01: (part of freelance work): Two locum London dietetic posts: 1) covering a specialist weight management clinic at Whittington Hospital, 2) covering the diabetic and general clinic (mostly weight loss) at St George’s Hospital. The work included developing dietary advice and supervising dietetic students.
Dec1999 – Feb’01: Medical Research Council. Press Officer (full time): The work involved writing press releases and generally arousing interest in the scientific community and the media for research published by the MRC. It involved dealing with major newspapers and news media and liasing with the academics who conducted the research and relevant health charities.
Aug. 1997 - July 2000: University College London Hospital Trust: Osteoporosis specialist dietitian (Half day/week). This post involved seeing referred patients in a consultant led osteoporosis clinic. Treatment involved assessing current diet and advising on diet and supplements appropriately. I also conducted evaluation research whilst in this post on the treatment patients received and presented a poster at an American osteoporosis conference
Sept. 1993 – Dec 1999: While working part time in the jobs mentioned below I also did a number of freelance/consultancy roles which included writing journalistic articles, giving talks, working with PR agencies on a food related areas, cookery demonstrations and seeing private patients
Jul 1998 – Dec 1999: Public Relations Adviser to The British Dietetic Association (BDA) (3 days/week). This involved promoting the role of the BDA and Registered Dietitians and included media work. Previous to this post I had on the BDA PR committee for two years.
Sept 1993 – July 1999: I lectured to Dietetic undergraduates at Metropolitan and MSc students in Health Psychology at City University. My lectures covered several aspects of nutrition and dietetics such as diet and sports nutrition and dietary survey methodologies. I also developed and taught a ten-week module in Social Nutrition. I also supervised practical sessions and undertook exam setting and marking for both practical and course work
Mar 1992 - Jul 1998: University College London Hospital Trust. Women’s Health Dietitian (3 days a week). This was a unique specialist post, which I had the privilege of creating from the start and established the evidence base for the work I undertook. It involved seeing in and outpatients, giving talks to other health professionals, original research and media work. The areas I covered included the menopause, PMS, eating disorders, PCOS, pregnancy and pre-conception. While at this post, I occasionally covered other dietetic areas, which included a regular Allergy Clinic at the Middlesex Hospital.
Feb.1985-Sept.1991: While looking after my pre-school daughters, I taught a variety of health promotion daytime and evening classes, tough cookery in the local nursery school, locum work plus some nutrition lectures in the community
Nov.1982-Feb.1985: I worked as a Supervisor Manager for Boots the Chemist. I underwent a year of certified management training from Boots, for which I graduated with Distinction (92%), and then worked at one of their branches. My time at Boots gave me much experience in management, staff training and how a retail organisation functioned.
Sept 1981-Sept 1982: Health Farm Dietitian: Duties included giving talks, individual consultations with the clients and overseeing the menus.