Professor Catherine Itsiopoulos Advisory Panel Member, Expert Contributor
Qualifications: BSc BSc (Hons) Grad Dip Diet MPH PhD APD AN
About: Professor Catherine Itsiopoulos
Pro Vice Chancellor College of Science, Health, Engineering and Education
Catherine has more than 25 years of clinical, academic and project management experience. Recent positions Catherine has held include Associate Professor and Head of Discipline Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of Canberra, Accreditation, Recognition and Education Services Manager with the Dietitians Association of Australia and Fellow of the Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Clinical Science in Diabetes at the University of Melbourne.
Catherine has extensive experience and a strong research interest in dietetic training, dietetic competency evaluation and implementation, and international benchmarking of dietetic examination systems. In her role at the Dietitians Association of Australia Catherine led projects in international benchmarking of dietetic systems and was instrumental in establishing the formal mutual recognition agreement with the New Zealand Dietitians Board. In this role she also championed the review of the examination systems for dietetic skills recognition and credentialing and led the development of an enhanced model of examination utilizing an on-line multiple choice questionnaire format.
Catherine’s major research interests include randomised controlled clinical intervention studies in diabetes, cardiovascular disease and the metabolic syndrome utilizing the Mediterranean diet as a model of intervention. Catherine is also investigating the positive health and mortality profile of Greek born migrants to Australia who have retained their positive CVD mortality profile despite more than 50 years since migration.
Research/Areas of Interests: Mediterranean diet in the prevention and management of cardiovascular diseases, and diabetes.
Website: https://www.murdoch.edu.au/about-us/governance/senior-executive-team
Email: Not available
Associate Professor Mary Flynn Advisory Panel Member, Expert Contributor
Qualifications: Bachelors, masters, and doctorate in nutrition; registered dietitian and licensed in Rhode Island, USA
About: Mary is a research dietitian at The Miriam Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University.
Mary M. Flynn, PhD, RD, LDN is an Associate Professor of Medicine (Clinical) at Brown University and a research dietitian at The Miriam Hospital, where she has worked since 1984. She is the outpatient dietitian at TMH for oncology, Men’s Health, Kidney Stone Center, and the medical clinic. Her main research interest is how food can be used as medicine and her main food of interest is extra virgin olive oil, which she has been researching since 1998. In 2013, she founded The Olive Oil Health Initiative of The Miriam Hospital at Brown University that has a mission of educating the public and medical community on the health benefits of olive oil. She has developed a plant-based, olive oil diet that she has tested for weight loss in women diagnosed with invasive breast; in men with prostate cancer for weight loss and improvement in components of the metabolic syndrome; and to decrease food insecurity in food pantry clients. She has been on the board of the RI Community Food Bank since 2005. She collaborated with the RICFB in a study that provided a cooking program of her plant-based, olive oil recipes to food pantry clients. The study showed that use of the recipes for 2-3 main meals per week decreased food insecurity, body weight, and money spent on groceries. She received a strategy grant from the RI Foundation to develop the cooking program for type 2 diabetes. The results of the pilot study showed significant decreases in fasting blood glucose and body weight after three months of follow-up.
She is co-author of the books LOW-FAT LIES, high fat frauds and the healthiest diet in the world (Lifeline Press, 1999) and A Pink Ribbon Diet (Da Capo Press, October 2010) which is a weight loss program and cookbook for women who have had breast cancer based on her research of the plant based, olive oil diet that she has developed. Her website is: www.medfooddiet.com.
Research/Areas of Interest: Health benefits of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, including improvement in body weight; how food can be used as medicine; improving food security in low-income populations
Website: www.medfooddiet.com, https://vivo.brown.edu/display/mflynnph
Email: Not available
Dr. Flavia Fayet-Moore Advisory Panel Member, Expert Contributor
Qualifications: Registered Nutritionist and Accredited Practising Dietitian
About: Flavia is a registered nutritionist and accredited practising dietitian. Her research focuses on the assessment of diet and nutritional status in large population studies and in the field of nutrigenomics. She graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours Bachelor of Science (Nutritional Sciences Specialist) obtained her Master of Nutrition and Dietetics and a PhD in nutrition from the University of Sydney. Currently, she is the director of Nutrition Research Australia and the director of operations of Nutrigenomix Australia. She is an active member of the Nutrition Society of Australia, the Dietitian’s Association of Australia, and a founding board member of the Australasian Society of Lifestyle Medicine.
Research/Areas of Interest: Assessment of diet and nutritional status in large population studies, Nutrigenomics
Website: www.nraus.com
Email: Not available
Dr. Simon Poole Advisory Panel Member, Expert Contributor
Qualifications: MBBS DRCOG
About: Dr Simon Poole MBBS DRCOG is a Cambridge based medical doctor, author, broadcaster and commentator and is an internationally renowned authority on the science and application of the Mediterranean diet and lifestyle, explaining and celebrating the combination of wonderful ingredients in this beautiful cuisine which can add years to life. He is an expert scientific consultant on extra virgin olive oil.
He is a member of Council of the highly influential US based True Health Initiative. He is a member of the Public Health Medicine Committee and General Practitioners Committee of the British Medical Association as well as a Council member of the Royal College of General Practitioners and a founding member of the British Society of Lifestyle Medicine and the European Lifestyle Medicine Organisation
Simon has regularly published on the subject of nutrition and lifestyle and public health in scientific journals including Nutrition and Food Science and the International Journal of Clinical Practice in addition to articles in the Guardian, for magazines such as Cook Vegetarian and Body Language and local, as well as international, radio and television appearances.
His new book The Olive Oil Diet takes a fresh and exciting look at diet, foods, cooking and health, on a gastronomic journey which tells the story of ingredients from around the Mediterranean – from different olive oils, mountain herbs and near eastern spices to regional vegetables and fruits, cheeses and wine. Unlocking the secrets of this most healthy of diets. The book has just been awarded the accolade of national 2017 winner in the international Gourmand Prize for food and cookery writing, and shortlisted for the “Best of the World” which is described as the food writing equivalent of the “Oscars”.
Conference addresses in recent years have included institutions such as;
The National Association of Primary Care, The Royal College of General Practitioners and the International Congress of the European Society of Cardiology, The Food and Drink Network, The Italian Trade Commission, the Fine Food Fair at OIympia as well as the Institute of Health Sciences of the USA , The Boston Common Ground Convention, Food Matters Live, London 2016.
Simon was co-organiser and chair, in association with the University of Florence, of the Food Values 2017 conference at the Academy of Pontifical Sciences, privileged to be hosted at the Vatican.
Research/Areas of Interest: Mediterranean Diet, Lifestyle Medicine
Website: http://fletcherassociates.net/, www.oliveoildiet.org
Email: Not available
DR. Tassos C. Kyriakides Advisory Panel Member, Expert Contributor
Qualifications: PhD Yale University
About: Dr. Kyriakides, biostatistician/epidemiologist, provides methodological and statistical consulting in the design, execution and analysis of multiple collaboratory clinical research projects. He is a statistical reviewer for high-impact medical journals (Lancet Infectious Diseases, Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology, Public Health and American Journal of Public Health) and has served as an abstract mentor for young researchers at the International AIDS Conferences since 2012. In addition, he leads the internship program at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Cooperative Studies Program (VACSPCC-West Haven) where he has been appointed Director. As a Senior Biostatistician he has worked on pivotal clinical trials (The OPTIMA Trial, a multi-national HIV/AIDS treatment clinical trial; a surgical clinical trial (The OVER Trial); and a PTSD clinical trial (The VIP-STAR Trial).
Research/Areas of Interest: Even though his primary research focus is in the area of infectious diseases with particular emphasis on HIV/AIDS and its treatment, he has an interest in the history of medicine, social determinants of health and the socio-cultural dimension of the benefits of Greek/Mediterranean nutrition. He is a certified Olive Oil Sommelier (International Culinary Center and the Olive Oil Education Lab in New York) and leads the efforts to establish the Yale Olive Institute.
Website: https://publichealth.yale.edu/people/tassos_kyriakides.profile
Email: Not available
Dr. Michael Kingsley Advisory Panel Member, Expert Contributor
Qualifications: Lead academic for the discipline of Exercise Science and Exercise Physiology at La Trobe University.
About: Michael has held academic positions for over 20 years in the United Kingdom and Australia. As an Accredited Sport & Exercise Scientist and Chartered Scientist from 2006 to 2016, a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine his academic skills and experience have been broadly recognised.
In addition to his passion for sports nutrition and high-performance sport, Michael has extensive experience in exercise testing and prescription for participants with pre-existing conditions, including cardiac disease, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, renal disease and transplant recipients. Michael serves as an editorial board member of three international journals ‘Nutrition’, ‘Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity’ and ‘Research Quarterly in Exercise and Sport’ and he reviews regularly for various national and international funding agencies.
As an expert in the measurement and evaluation of cardiovascular responses to stress and oxidative stress, his research in the areas of lifestyle interventions and health, heart rate variability analysis, applied nutritional supplementation has culminated in the publishing more than 100 peer-reviewed publications in leading international medical, nutrition and sports medicine journals. His research group strives to understand the mechanisms responsible for disease and disorders and to develop evidence-based interventions for patients with a range of chronic disease (e.g., cardiovascular disease, arthritis, diabetes, kidney disease) and elite performers with the aim to enable more people to be more active and to live longer and stronger.
Research/Areas of Interest: Sport’s Nutrition, High-Performance Sport
Website: http://www.latrobe.edu.au/she/staff/profile?uname=mkingsley
Email: Not available
