Chair: Fiona Taylor

Fiona is a Registered Dietitian, qualifying in 1979 from Leeds Polytechnic. Fiona has a wide experience of dietetics and public health nutrition. She has worked in Primary Care for over 15 years and is acutely aware of the effect obesity has in the development of chronic disease. She works strategically to deliver the clinical elements of the obesity strategy for Redcar and Cleveland Primary Care Trust developing obesity pathways, BMI baseline data, weight management accredited training and establishing and managing a multi-disciplinary Specialist Weight Management Service based in the community.

Fiona is chair of Redcar and Cleveland’s Obesity steering group and Chair of DOM UK. Fiona is a member of the Association for the Study of Obesity (ASO)

In addition to her strategic role Fiona works in education in an innovative role as Senior Lecturer/ Dietetic Link Tutor at Leeds Metropolitan University. This role involves supporting both pre-placement preparation of students on PG Dip/ Masters in Nutrition and Dietetics and working closely with dietetic departments in the development of practice placement capacity and quality.

Vice Chair:

Secretary: Kate McCulla (Maternity Leave)

Kate graduated from the University of Ulster, Coleraine with a Masters in Human Nutrition and Dietetics. She is employed by the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust and based at the Ulster Hospital, Belfast.

Her current post is Weight Management Dietitian, running out-patient community clinics for adults using anti-obesity medication. She has been in this post since July 2004, and it is the only position of its kind in Northern Ireland at present. Given this, Kate considered it very important both personally and professionally to link with a specialist weight management group like DOM UK, initially as Ordinary Member.

Treasurer: Karen Thompson

Karen began working for NHS Wakefield District 2 and half years ago on secondment and it was developed into a full time post in January 2009.
She is based in Castleford and works closely with both the adult and childhood healthy weight project managers to improve the provision, access and equality of obesity services across Wakefield District.

Karen’s work is very varied and includes training volunteers to be group weight management leaders, developing a healthy eating in the workplace policy and leading service development meetings for bariatric services.
Before this Public Health role Karen had 2 posts advising patients on obesity management in Specialist Obesity Services. Before that her focus was on nutritional support for stroke and head and neck cancer.

Training Officer: Dr Hilda Mulrooney

Hilda Mulrooney is a Primary Care Dietitian, working for Leicestershire Nutrition and Dietetic Service since 2000. She has a Degree in Nutrition and Diploma in Dietetics (Trinity College Dublin and the Dublin Institute of Technology, Kevin Street, Ireland respectively). She has a PhD in Nutrition from the University of Southampton.

She previously worked as a Nutritionist with the National Dairy Council (Ireland), a University Lecturer in Nutrition (University of Greenwich, London), and as a Nutritionist in a rehabilitation hospital in Birmingham.

In all of these posts she has had the opportunity to be involved in training and teaching. She co-ordinated a spearhead-funded project on Obesity Management in adults, involving the development and delivery of a three day training programme for health care professionals. She also helped to develop and deliver a training programme for Health Trainers. Since 2003 she has been involved in training Exercise Professionals; she is a co-author of the course run by Loughborough College and endorsed by the BDA. She has a strong interest in obesity management and would like to combine this with her training background in the post of Training Officer for DOM UK.

PR Officer: Orla Adams

External Affairs Officer: Susie Longford

Susie Longford, a graduate of the University of Surrey, is a state registered dietitian. She is Senior Partner of The Diet Practice, the Surrey-based diet and nutrition consultancy, which provides nutritional services for individuals, schools, health professionals and businesses. Areas of interest include developing targeted strategies to help weight loss and weight loss maintenance and she has been involved for two years in the national MEND programme to encourage and support weight loss/management amongst children. She works also in a number of Surrey schools and companies and has recently become involved with a local sports club. Currently Susie is part of the team responsible for updating and revising the obesity training directory for the Dept of Health.

Before training to become a dietitian, Susie was in marketing and market research for 15 years working in major companies and advertising agencies. She finds that these combined skills helpful in the development and execution of a sponsorship strategy for Dom UK.

External Affairs Officer: Amanda Hallson

Best Practice Development Officer: Kate Lees

Kate is working as a Public Health Registrar for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Deanery, and currently studying for an MSc in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Previously, Kate worked in the Regional Public Health Group for London, as Food and Obesity Lead, responsible for disseminating the Health Weight Healthy Lives strategy throughout London; including getting obesity onto the agenda of non-health partners; and supporting PCTs to implement the strategy locally. Before this, she was the manager for the Community Dietetic team in City & Hackney PCT where she reviewed the dietetic obesity care pathway; led the Boroughs food strategy; was dietetic lead for the obesity strategy and provided training for a variety of healthcare staff and lay workers in obesity management and prevention.

As she is no longer employed specifically as a dietitian, Kate is keen to maintain links with dietetic colleagues, develop best practice and to share her public health experience as it develops.

Resources Officer: Sara Harrison (Maternity Leave)

Sara Harrison is Principal Dietitian, for the Specialist Adult and Paediatric Weight Management Team’s in Knowsley and St Helens’ PCT’s (Merseyside). They are a team of 20 , including dietitians, CBT therapists, Administration staff and Dietetic Assistants, who offer a 1- 2 year programme to overweight and obese patients, including children & families.

They work closely with GP’s , nurses, sport development , patients , public health and commissioners across Knowsley & St Helen’s to ensure they are providing a clinically and cost effective service, that meets the needs of the local population.

Sara has been qualified as a dietitian for 16 years, graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University in 1993. She has specialised in the management of obesity for the past 10 years, working mainly in Birmingham (managing the Primary Care Team and acting head of service) until last year. She has led a number of projects in obesity , being particularly interested in behavioural management and service re- design.

She is a committee member of DOM UK (Dietitians in Obesity Management) specialist group, and sits on 2 of it’s working groups; Resources and Dietetic Interventions ( which is a ‘gold standard’ statement for dietetic management of adult obesity in an individual setting)

Sara has also been the lead for clinical governance & audit, student training and has also spoken at many local and national conferences, as well as providing training & supervision in weight management .

Web Site Coordinator: Adrian Brown

Adrian is currently employed by Heart of England Foundation Trust and works out of Birmingham Heartlands Hospital as a Senior Weight Management and Bariatric Dietitian. Adrian qualified as a Registered Dietitian in 2006, graduating from Leeds Metropolitan University. He has specialised in weight management and weight loss surgery for the last 18 months and works in the regional specialist weight management clinic.

His job role is split equally between weight management and bariatric patients, which enables a valuable insight into the patient journey. He is currently helping set up and run intensive specialist group sessions and redeveloping the obesity care pathway within the weight management and bariatric service. More recently he has lead in the development of support groups for bariatric patients within Birmingham.

Adrian graduated initially in 2001 from Leeds Metropolitan University in Sports and Exercise Science and spent two and half years as a personal trainer before deciding to become a dietitian. Adrian has recently graduated with a Masters in Nutrition and Dietetics researching key themes of patient satisfaction within a bariatric dietetic service, and looks forward to further research within the area of dietetics.

He is a committee member of DOM UK (Dietitians in Obesity Management) and is website coordinator. Adrian is also a member of the British Dietetic Association (BDA), the Association of the Study of Obesity (ASO) and the National Obesity Forum (NOF).

Temporary Resource Officer: Zoe Hellman

Zoe Hellman qualified as a State Registered Dietitian from UWIC, Cardiff in 2004. She worked in Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust throughout primary, secondary care and mental health. During this time Zoe also undertook various freelance projects in lecturing, training and writing.

She has a series of books published, providing readers with evidence based nutrition advice they can trust. The first titled; ’The Ultimate Nutrition Guide for Cancer Sufferers, their Family and Friends’.

Since leaving the NHS, Zoe has worked with Weight Watchers as the Company Dietitian, with responsibilities spanning across all departments including programme development, the global scientific office, research and development, training and public health.

Zoe advises on and has articles published in the weekly in-meetings programme supplement ‘Your Week’, the Weight Watchers monthly magazine and online platform. She regularly provides informed comment on unfolding health and weight management issues through the range of media platforms.

Zoe is a member of the British Dietetic Association (BDA) and has previously served on a branch committee. She is a member of the Association of the Study of Obesity (ASO), the National Obesity Forum (NOF), the Dietitians in Obesity Management group (DOMUK) and the Nutritionists In Industry group (NII).

Zoe has always been passionate about helping people to lose weight in a healthy and sustainable way.

Ordinary Member: Linda Hindle

Linda is a Consultant Dietitian specialising in Obesity in Birmingham. She has been in this post since March 2004; having previously been the Head of Service for the Birmingham Community Nutrition and Dietetic Service. She has undertaken other leadership roles such as allied health professional coordinator, membership of the professional executive committee and clinical director for health improvement. Within her current post she provides clinical leadership to support the management and prevention of obesity which involves acting as a local champion for obesity and driving the implementation of clinically effective practice in line with the modernisation agenda. This requires engagement with key stakeholders in primary and secondary care plus those in other agencies to develop clinical pathways to effectively manage obesity within available resources.

Since coming into post Linda has written the strategic framework for obesity in Birmingham and Solihull and as part of a strategy group developed a local care pathway for adults and children. She has provided leadership to define the role of health visitors and school nurses in obesity management and has initiated a service re-design for obesity within the dietetic team. She has established a specialist service for adults and driven forward the establishment of Watch IT in Birmingham

Ordinary Member: Joanne Jones

Joanne trained at the University of Newcastle, Australia and has ten years Dietetic experience in Australia and the NHS both as a clinician and manager. She has held a variety of posts within the NHS including her current position as Dietetic Services Manager for Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust.

Joanne has been responsible for developing and redesigning Dietetic Services across Kensington and Chelsea Primary Care Trust and ensuring equity and access to services. Joanne’s main interests are in the areas of weight management and public health.

Joanne recently joined the DOM UK committee as Treasurer and is looking forward to actively contributing to the work of DOM UK.

Ordinary member: Helen Croker

Helen has been based at Cancer Research UK’s Health Behaviour Unit at University College London (UCL) for 6 years. Here she has worked on developing and evaluating interventions for both adult and childhood obesity, although the majority of her work is now centred around children. She is currently project managing an RCT to evaluate a family-based behavioural intervention for overweight children and their families and co-supervising a project to examine the impact of providing child weight feedback to parents.

Helen is also involved with the development and delivery of training courses for health professionals in the management of child and adult obesity, and the development of resources for parents and health professionals. Additionally, she is secretary for Dietitians working in Obesity Management (UK)TM and part of the clinical group at the charity Weight Concern.

Ordinary Member: Eileen Gunessee

Eileen worked in Dublin in the acute sector until moving to the UK 9 years ago to develop a community dietetic service in Kirkby. She became very interested in the area of weight management; setting up weight management clinics, undertaking a postgraduate course in behavioural management of adult obesity and became involved in training practice staff in weight management. In 2006 Eileen moved to Halton to develop a community weight management service. The service was developed with Halton Primary Care Trust’s Healthy Living Team, providing dietetic, exercise and cooking sessions to service users. Eileen is currently completing a MSc in Weight Management.

Ordinary Member: Amanda Avery

DOM UK ADMINISTRATION TEAM

Administrator/Temporary Secretary: Denise Whatmore

Book keeper: Lynda Durr

WEIGHTWISE REPRESENTATIVE

Tracy Purbrick