Find an expert

Olivia is a Senior Lecturer in Nutrition and Dietetics at the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences, The University of Queensland and a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre for Nutrition and Food Sciences (CNAFS), The Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI). Olivia has a strong track record in leading multidisciplinary research. Her main research streams include clinical trials examining the bioavailability of nutrients and the impact on clinical outcomes and/or gene expression; the uptake and maintenance of healthy and sustainable dietary patterns; innovative models of service delivery to prevent nutritional decline and improve quality of life for older people; service co-design, delivery, and evaluation across various areas of dietetics practice. Olivia also collaborates with industry partners to trial novel foods and ingredients.

Olivia is a highly supportive postgraduate advisor, mentoring 13 PhD students (5 to completion, 3 as primary; 8 continuing). She regularly supervises Master of Dietetics Studies coursework research students (around 22 projects 2009-2022) and supervised 2 honours students (2011).

Olivia is an Associate Editor for the international journal, Nutrition Journal, (BMC, Springer Nature). In 2010, she received Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian status, as recognition of her professional leadership and expertise and in 2011 won the Women in Technology "Rising Star" Award. She has received significant research funding, including support from the Australian Research Council, the National Health and Medical Research Council, Queensland Health and Horticulture Innovation Australia.

I am an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian (AdvAPD), and currently hold positions at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital (Research Coordinator, Nutrition and Dietetics), and University of Queensland (Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Health Services Research).

My research program aims to improve nutrition care in Australian hospitals to prevent avoidable hospital-acquired complications and optimise patient outcomes, particularly for older inpatients. My research program consists of extensive observational research to establish the size and impact of the problem, qualitative research to understand patient, caregiver and staff perspectives and opportunities, and pragmatic implementation research to test, compare and evaluate different models of nutrition care in practice. Through my research, I am to improve care of people accessing health services across the continuum of care, with a particular interest in frailty, preventing delirium and functional decline, and person-centred care.

My research has been of interest nationally and internationally, receiving Research in Practice awards at national Dietitians Australia conferences, Young Achiever Award by the Dietitians Association of Australia in 2014 and New Researcher Award at the International Congress of Dietetics in 2012. My leadership and contribution to the dietetics profession was recently recognised through receiving the prestigious Barbara Chester Memorial Award.

I have an interest and developing expertise in consumer engagement in research and health service improvement, and I am regularly asked to speak on this topic at conferences, forums and panel discussions. I am proud of work I co-led with a health consumer to develop a co-design framework in Metro North Health. This framework is freely available online for anyone to use: https://metronorth.health.qld.gov.au/get-involved/co-design.

I am an implementation scientist and have facilitated workshops on this topic at UQ, QUT, University of Adelaide and Metro North HHS within a team of local and international experts. I was part of the team that developed the Allied Health Translating Research into Practice (AH-TRIP) initiative, which aims to increase knowledge translation capacity for health professionals. https://www.health.qld.gov.au/clinical-practice/database-tools/translating-research-into-practice-trip/translating-research-into-practice.

As a passionate advocate for the training and career pathways for clinician-scientists, I have supervised 3 PhDs to completion, and is currently supervising 6 research higher degree candidates (5 of whom are embedded health professionals within the health system), 4 early career research fellows and nearly 40 dietetics research honours students.