Ms Christel Leemhuis

General Manager Public Health

FSANZ

Christel Leemhuis is the General Manager of Public Health at Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ). Christel is a public health nutritionist and has worked in the food regulatory system for over 20 years for both government and the private sector.

Christel is responsible for public health work of the agency including labelling and provision of information standards, social science and economic analysis, nutrition data, analysis and standards. Key work areas include preparatory work to potentially mandate the Health Star Rating System, reviewing the Nutrition Information Panel and consideration of infant and toddler foods among others.

Associate Professor Alexandra Jones

Program Lead, Food Governance

The George Institute For Global Health

Alexandra Jones is a public health lawyer and researcher leading a program of work on regulatory strategies to promote healthier, more sustainable diets. Her work uses an innovative mix of law and science to generate evidence that supports policymakers to design and implement policies with maximum public health impact. She works closely with UN agencies, national and state governments, public health and consumer organizations, and academic collaborators to translate evidence into effective action.

Ms Jane Martin

Executive Manager

Food for Health Alliance

Jane has worked in public health advocacy and policy since the mid-1980s covering the risk factors of tobacco, diet, weight and alcohol. She heads the Food for Health Alliance, a leading advocacy agency working to reduce diet-related disease nationally and alcohol and healthy diet programs at Cancer Council Victoria. Her role incudes developing the strategic advocacy and policy research agenda for the programs as well as coordinating public education and advocacy campaigns on healthy weight and alcohol use.
 
Jane’s career has involved extensive engagement with policy and advocacy-oriented research to advance regulatory reform around tobacco, diet and alcohol control policies. She is experienced in both researching and applying advocacy strategies to encourage governments to adopt evidence-informed public health policies.

In 2019 Jane was honoured with the Public Health Association of Australia’s President’s Award. She is a past Board Member of Sexual Health Victoria and past President of the Australia New Zealand Obesity Society (ANZOS). She has been recognised for her contribution to public health advocacy with an Honorary Doctorate by Deakin University and was awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study successful strategies for the adoption of policies to improve diets.

Ms Andrea Schmidtke

Senior Legal Policy Adviser

Food For Health Alliance

Andrea is a public health lawyer dedicated to transforming the food environment to improve diets and prevent non-communicable diseases. With expertise in food regulatory reform and a strong background in law, Andrea works to at the intersection of health, policy and the law to shape polices and laws to improve the food environment.

Andrea jointly leads the development of the Food for Health Alliance’s policy and advocacy agenda which aims address the structural drivers of unhealthy diets – the way food is made, labelled, sold and marketed, to shift food environments toward one that supports long-term public health.

She works closely with public health and consumer organisations, as well as academic researchers, to translate the evidence base into policy and with government agencies to encourage the implementation of evidence-based regulations.

Mrs Natalie Stapleton

Executive Officer

Alcohol Change Australia

Nat is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian, who aims to strengthen health and nutrition policy to improve health and wellbeing outcomes for all Australians. 

Nat currently works as the Executive Officer for Alcohol Change Australia.  Her diverse experience spans clinical practice as a dietitian and exercise physiologist, association work, public health program and policy work and leadership roles.

Professor Kathryn Backholer

Professor And Co-director, Global Centre For Preventive Health And Nutrition

Institute For Health Transformation, Deakin University

Kathryn Backholer is a Professor of public health policy and Co-Director of the Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition, within the Institute for Health Transformation at Deakin University.  She holds a National Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellowship and is a Fellow and Vice President of the Public Health Association of Australia.

Her research is focused on building the evidence to support the design, adoption and implementation of healthy and equitable policies that address the social, cultural and commercial determinants of health, with a particular interest in food policy and online harms.

Ms Katarnya Hickey

Distinguished Professor of Public Health and founding Director of the Global Obesity Centre, Food for Health Alliance

Katarnya jointly leads the development of  Food for Health Alliance’s policy and advocacy agenda. Her program of work focuses on regulatory solutions to improve the food environment, with a particular focus on protecting children from unhealthy food marketing.

Ms Sally Witchalls

Senior Policy Adviser

Australian Medical Association Federal

Sally Witchalls is the Senior Policy Adviser on the Australian Medical Association Public Health team. Some of her key focus is on preventive health and health equity.

Sally has a passion for improving child health outcomes, and an interest in better understanding the social, commercial and political determinants that impact health outcomes. This includes the commercial determinants of industry's interference with food systems. She is a PhD candidate with Deakin University, looking at youth engagement, health-harming industries and public relations tactics.

Ms Naomi Hull

PhD Student

University Of Sydney

Naomi Hull is a Registered Nurse, IBCLC and has a Masters of Public Health (Nutrition) and currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Sydney on Advancing Global Food Security for Infants and Young Children. Naomi volunteers as a peer counsellor with the Australian Breastfeeding Association (since 2001) and as the National Coordinator for the World Breastfeeding Trends Initiative Australian team. Through the work of this team Naomi focuses her advocacy on the structural issues that impact women and how they feed their babies recognising the importance of this period on lifelong health for all.  Naomi is also on the executive team of the Infant and Toddler Foods Research Alliance.