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Professor Danielle Gallegos is Chair of the Centre for Childhood Nutrition Research funded by the Queensland Children’s Hospital Foundation. She has over thirty years experience as a practicing dietitian, with fifteen of those as a public health nutritionist, and ten years in academia.
Since arriving in academia, Danielle has built a research portfolio that emphasises qualitative methodologies in areas related to social justice and the evaluation of nutrition/physical activity programs. Her main area of research interest focuses on food security and early infant feeding. The majority of her work has occurred in the development and evaluation of programs for specific sub-populations, including refugee families, youth in transition and other potentially marginalised groups. She has a particular understanding of nutrition programs that operate at all three levels encompassing environmental, policy and educational strategies.
Under the auspices of the Centre for Childhood Nutrition Research she will be focussing on the following projects:
– Building a co-design framework for children’s nutrition research
– Developing a portfolio of solutions to assist feeding families in tough times and keeping children from being hungry
– Working with primary schools to develop a methodology to build bespoke food literacy programs
Danielle is currently supervising seven PhD students and one Masters by research. She has had 16 successful completions. Topics include: nutrition policy: infant feeding in Australia and Ethiopia; food security coping strategies; food security in the Mekong delta, Viet Nam; food security in urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; diabetes prevention and management in Pasifika women in Brisbane; infant feeding and nutrition practices in early childhood education and care settings; development of nutrition screening and assessment in acute care settings in Viet Nam; and dietary counseling of COPD patients in Viet Nam.
Her teaching has been in the area of community and public health nutrition and research. Her recent book edited with Mark Wahlqvist; Food and Nutrition: Sustainable Food and Health Systems (Allen & Unwin) was published in 2020 and provides an innovative approach to teaching nutrition in the tertiary sector.