Alison Spence is a Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Population Health at the Institute of Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Deakin University. Alison is an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian passionate about public health nutrition. In particular, her research area is early childhood nutrition promotion, including family meals, feeding practices, and meals in Early Childhood Education and Care Settings.

Amelia Scott is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD) and PhD student in the Caring Futures Institute, Healthy Start to Life focus area at Flinders University. Amelia is interested in research around the health and wellbeing of caregivers and their families, with her current research focusing on the social norms that parents and caregivers face when providing food to their children.

Kate (Katherine) Dunn is a PhD candidate in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at the Queensland University of Technology. She is combining her background in marketing and advertising with the knowledge she gained from a Master of Public Health to explore the modern influences that are disrupting and assisting family meal practices. She is particularly interested in the concept of ‘foodwork’ – the often invisible aspects involved in planning, selecting, purchasing and preparing these eating practices of Australian families. Her research is also informed by lived experience as a mother and the role she plays in feeding her family.

Jeffrey is an Accredited Practising Dietitian and Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of the Sunshine Coast. He completed his PhD at QUT, where he explored fathers’ roles in child feeding within contexts of disadvantage. His research focuses on family and child nutrition, responsive feeding, family meals, food insecurity, and supporting culturally and linguistically diverse and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. Passionate about public health nutrition, Jeffrey aims to develop inclusive, practical interventions that strengthen families and promote child health and wellbeing.

Hannah Povall is a joint PhD candidate at Aston University in the UK and Deakin University in Australia. Hannah’s research focuses on the influencing factors on preschool children’s eating behaviour, and aims to understand how family contextual factors (e.g. stress, wellbeing, food insecurity) impact parents use of feeding practices, family mealtime goals and parents decision making at mealtimes.

Avril is a data coordinator for The Kids Research Institute.

Kylie Fraser is a PhD Candidate in the School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences at Deakin University. Kylie’s research areas of interest include early childhood and family nutrition, early childhood obesity prevention, food literacy, and behaviour change. Her research is focused on the potential to harness meal kit subscription services as a health-promoting tool to improve food literacy and vegetable intake among families with young children.

Celeste Bouchaud, RD, MScA is a PhD student in the Nutrition and Eating Behaviour Lab (NEBLab) at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada, under the supervision of Dr. Tamara Cohen. Her PhD work focuses on the interplay between child and parent eating behaviours and how parental feeding styles and practices occur during family meals.