Jim Mann has been Professor in Human Nutrition and Medicine at the University of Otago and Consultant Physician (Endocrinology) in Dunedin Hospital for the past 19 years. For the preceding 15 years he lectured at the University of Oxford and worked as a Physician in the Radcliffe Infirmary. He is Director of the Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research and the WHO Collaborating Centre for Human Nutrition. His research and clinical work have principally been in the fields of lipids and carbohydrates as they relate to coronary heart disease and diabetes.

Dr Kirsten Coppell is a specialist in public health medicine and has also trained and practised as a general practitioner. Prior to undertaking diabetes research she was involved with monitoring the National Cervical Screening Programme and worked as a medical officer at the Family Planning Association. Kirsten has a particular interest in monitoring and evaluation, and using registers as a tool to improve quality of care and community interventions.

Dr Kirsten McAuley is a medical practitioner with extensive experience in clinical and community-based studies regarding weight loss, obesity, diabetes and insulin sensitivity in adults. Dr McAuley’s previous research includes studies assessing the estimation of insulin sensitivity using simple surrogates and she has implemented a number of clinical studies involving lifestyle intervention in insulin resistant individuals.

Rachael is a specialist in public health medicine and has also trained and practised as a general practitioner. She is undertaking doctoral research into the role of sodium (salt) in New Zealand: looking at intake, consumer perceptions, and implications for chronic disease, supported by a Clinical Research Training Fellowship from the Health Research Council of New Zealand. She is also involved with the evaluation of the Healthy Eating, Healthy Action (HEHA) strategy currently being undertaken by the ENCDOR, CTRCD (Centre for Translational Research in Chronic Diseases) and collaborators.

Assoc Prof Rachael Taylor, previously a lecturer at the Department of Human Nutrition, is the first incumbent of the Karitane Senior Research Fellow in Early Childhood Obesity. Rachael is interested in body composition and obesity during growth and particularly in developing sustainable effective interventions for the prevention and treatment of obesity in youngsters.

Photo of Assoc Prof Rachael Taylor courtesy of the Otago Daily Times

Victoria's Masters research involved isolating bacteriocins produced by Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus warneri.  A move from a communicable disease research environment to the ENCDOR in 2004 has led Victoria to assist with running the Centre and involvement in numerous research projects carried out by the ENCDOR such as APPLE and MInT. Victoria is the Project co-ordinator for the Play Study.

Margaret has a background in Chemistry and has many years teaching experience at the high school level. She joined the ENCDOR at the end of 2006 and is particularly involved with the evaluation of the Healthy Eating, Healthy Action programme currently being undertaken by the centre and collaborators.

Lisa is a nutritionist with interest and experience in dietary intervention studies investigating the effects of macronutrient composition on weight loss, metabolic syndrome and risk of diabetes. She is based primarily in the Department of Human Nutrition and is an associate researcher with the Riddet Institute - Centre of Research Excellence.

Kim is currently the director of the Bone and Body Composition Research Unit which undertakes innovative prospective studies evaluating bone density and quantifying body composition and regional body fat distribution in children and adults using dual energy x-ray absorptiometry (DXA).  She is also involved in two research projects carried out by ENCDOR (MInT and PLAY) in several capacities, including motivational interviewing, physical activity recommendations for children and families, analysis and management of accelerometry for physical activity and sleep assessment. Kim's previous research includes studies assessing exercise prescription for disease prevention and health promotion in older adults and children.