Associate ProfessorPenny Love

I am an Advanced Accredited Practicising Dietitian (Adv APD) and senior lecturer for Public Health and Community Nutrition within the School of  Exercise and Nutrition Sciences (SENS). As a research fellow within the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), my research focuses on the translation, implementation and sustainability of early childhood nutrition intervention at scale to inform the identification of key leverage points within health and education service delivery systems.

Previously I was acting Director and Knowledge Broker for The CO-OPS Collaboration within the Global Obesity Centre (GLOBE), Deakin University. CO-OPS was a national knowledge, translation and exchange platform supporting practitioners, researchers and policy decision-makers in the implementation and evaluation of community-wide obesity prevention initiatives using a systems approach.

Between 2007 - 2012 I was Director of the Public Health Nutrition team within the central region of Queensland within Queensland Health. The team provided leadership and support for the coordination, development, implementation and evaluation of a range of complex multi-strategy nutrition-related chronic disease prevention programs and relevant initiatives to influence organisational and environmental change across the region.

I obtained my PhD Dietetics in South Africa in 2003 entitled "Developing and assessing the appropriateness of the preliminary Food-Based Dietary Guidelines for South Africans". During my career in South Africa I lectured for the University of KwaZulu-Natal as well as the Durban Institute of Technology, was Company Dietitian for Weigh-Less Health and Slimming Clubs, and consulted to the South African National Department of Health.