Jean is a Consultant Endocrinologist with a sub-specialty interest in obesity management and bariatric medicine. She has been a member of St Columcille’s Hospital multi-disciplinary Weight Management Service since 2001. She is a member of the National Obesity Programme Clinical Advisory Group.

In 2009 she completed a PhD thesis focused on metabolic profile and adipose tissue morphology and function in patients with obesity undergoing bariatric surgery. Jean has a particular interest in education of health professionals on the genetic, biological and environmental drivers of obesity, with a view to reducing weight bias and stigma, and improving the lives of people living with obesity.

 Cathy qualified from TCD/DIT with a BSc (Human Nutrition and Dietetics) in 2002. She has worked as a Senior Dietitian specialising in diabetes and weight management in the Endocrine Service, St Columcille’s Hospital, Loughlinstown, Co Dublin since 2003. She has been a member of the Weight Management Interest Group of the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute (INDI) and has been involved in the development of guidelines and resources for the dietary management of obesity. She has represented the INDI on the Irish National Obesity Taskforce Treatment Algorithm- and Nutrition-sub groups and the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland Policy Group on Obesity and currently sits on Diabetes UK Nutrition Guideline Committee. Her research interests include the translation of evidence to clinical practice in weight and diabetes management, completing her PhD in this area through UCD in 2016.

 Karen qualified from the University of Liverpool with an MSc in Human Nutrition and Dietetics in 2006. She began her career in weight management in NHS Liverpool and has worked as a Senior Dietitian specialising in weight management and diabetes in the Endocrine Service, St Columcille’s Hospital, Dublin since 2011. She is a member of the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute (INDI), a committee member of the Association for the Study of Obesity in Ireland (ASOI) and a member of the HSE Making Every Contact Count (MECC) Knowledge Reference Group. She has a keen interest in communication skills and behavioural approaches in the management of obesity and chronic disease, and regularly provides training to dietitians and other health professionals on this topic. In 2017, she became the first INDI member to join the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, an international organization of trainers in motivational interviewing with a central interest to improve the quality and effectiveness of counselling and consultations with clients about behaviour change.

I’m Susie Birney from Dublin, Ireland. I have an eating disorder called ARFID which controls my eating behaviours since childhood. I was physically active until I had a serious knee injury as a teenager and my weight increased slowly. My serious health problems culminated  around 35  years old with diabetes, umbilical hernia, PCOS, depression. With multiple methods and attempts of weight loss, I re-gained more each time.

I had bariatric surgery in July 2015 and my diabetes, including retinopathy, reversed on the day. My health and quality of life has improved hugley despite having regained half of my weight loss since. In 2016 I became a patient representative with the ASOI, and an Irish representative in Europe with the EASO patient council, now known as ECPO. I am the acting Chair for ICPO, a patient led Irish organisation currently being formed. I firmly believe support of all kinds is vital. I share my experiences of living with obesity to raise awareness that obesity is a disease.

My name is Maura Murphy; I have been living with being overweight since the age of 12. I was always very active, I played sport for many years, yet in spite of having tried every diet available I still gained at least one stone annually. In 2008 I attended the Weight Management Clinic in St. Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown. I underwent bariatric surgery (sleeve) in 2013 and I lost ten stone. I believe this operation saved my life and also gave me so much more quality of life. My mobility has improved, I am no longer under pressure when walking. I was also able to finally undergo a hernia operation after suffering with it for many years. My diabetes Type 2 was no longer an issue. I will happily share my journey hoping it will encourage others understand more about obesity and also with the hope that science will someday figure out why we live with this disease. I became a patient advocate of the Weight Management Clinic in St. Columcille’s Hospital in Loughlinstown, Dublin. I am also a patient representative of ASOI, and I am acting Secretary of the newly founded ICPO (Irish Coalition for Patients with Obesity). I am passionate about representing patients who live with overweight or obesity who due to stigmatisation remain hidden and silent with no voice.

Oonagh holds a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition from Ulster University and a BSc. in Physiology from University College Cork. Oonagh has worked in the Public Health Nutrition team at FSAI since 2014. Her main responsibilities are providing technical secretariat to the Public Health Nutrition Subcommittee of the Scientific Committee, providing scientific support to the Department of Health on policy-related issues and representing Ireland as the Irish delegate at Codex Alimentarius. Oonagh is also a part-time PhD researcher at Ulster University, with her PhD focusing on the two most nutritionally vulnerable age groups – young children and older adults..

Niamh Arthurs is a Registered Dietitian and Researcher with a deep-rooted passion for helping people and families affected by obesity. Niamh began her career working in public health creating and delivering nutrition education programmes to preschools, primary schools and secondary schools. She also worked with various stakeholders in the delivery of health promotion and nutrition education at events and festivals and to community groups and in workplaces. Niamh currently works as a Registered Dietitian in Children’s Health Ireland at Temple Street. Being a committee member of the Association for the Study of Obesity on the Island of Ireland (ASOI), fuels Niamh’s motivation and commitment to make positive contributions to those affected by obesity. Niamh is also a member of the RCSI Obesity Care and Research Group and is keen to contribute to obesity research, in order to enable improvements in healthcare and service development for all individuals affected by obesity. Niamh regularly speaks on the radio and writes articles for various newspapers and publications. Further details on Niamh Arthurs’ skills, experience and expertise can be seen on her professional profile  

 Dr Mary Flynn is a public health nutritionist and a registered dietitian and has worked in public health, clinical nutrition and academia in Ireland, Canada and the Middle East. Currently she leads work on nutrient reference standards for infants and young children at Codex Alimentarius (WHO and FAO of the UN); and is an External Advisor on Health Canada’s new Food Guide (2019). Throughout her career she has led multidisciplinary teams in tackling some of the biggest challenges posed by obesity and related chronic diseases. She has implemented innovative prevention and treatment programs reducing risk of heart disease and diabetes for people of all ages. An understanding of how overweight and chronic disease can negatively impact a person’s self-esteem is evident throughout Mary’s work. Her insight and sensitivity around people’s need to ‘feel good about themselves’ so that they can be empowered to ‘enjoy healthy eating’ and ‘have fun being active’ is a hallmark of her approach. She attributes her empathy to the generosity and openness of the many children, teenagers, and adults she has been privileged to treat. Using her in-depth knowledge of food law and labelling, she has recently developed approaches to help consumers navigate the food environment to identify truly healthy food options. She led the allergen and calorie menu labelling work in Ireland to inform people about safe and healthier choices. As part of this, she led the team that created MenuCal – a calorie calculator and allergen management system for food businesses (www.menucal.ie). Mary has over 100 scientific publications and her work on childhood obesity has been recognized by the WHO. In 2014, Mary was awarded the inaugural medal for excellence in Public Health Nutrition by the Nutrition Society. She was appointed as a member of the first Healthy Ireland Council by the Minister for Health and has been a Visiting Professor at the Ulster University, Northern Ireland since 2012.

Louise is a researcher and PhD scholar in the Obesity Research and Care Group at RCSI, and on the SPHeRE programme. She holds a Master’s degree in Human Nutrition (specialising in Public Health Nutrition) from the University of Glasgow, and a BSc in Food, Nutrition and Health from the University of Abertay, Dundee. Louise’s PhD is aimed at investigating healthcare costs and applications of telemedicine for paediatric obesity.

 Dr Clare O’Donovan is a CORU registered dietitian and member of INDI and the Nutrition Society. Clare completed her PhD in Personalised Nutrition at University College Dublin (UCD) in 2015. She subsequently worked as a part-time Assistant Lecturer in Athlone Institute of Technology (AIT) and Post-doctoral Research Fellow on the Irish National Food Consumption Surveys in UCD. During this time, she completed a Certificate in Learning and Teaching at AIT. Clare is a recent alumni member of the European Nutrition Leadership Platform (ENLP). As Technical Executive in Public Health Nutrition within the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), Clare is responsible for products governed under Regulation (EU) No 609/2013 Food for Specific Groups (FSG) including food for special medical purposes, infant and follow-on formula, total diet replacements and processed cereal based foods and baby foods. She represents Ireland’s position at the EU FSG Expert Group meetings. Clare acts as a risk assessor on nutritional products including high dose vitamin and mineral supplements. Clare is also in charge of the FSAI Salt Monitoring Project, the aim of which is to monitor the reduction of salt in processed foods through reformulation.