Fostering a positive culture in the workplace, Dr Brittany Johnson’s (BNutDiet ’11, PhD ’20) commitment to supporting future researchers as she continues to make significant contributions of her own field shows the outstanding leadership skills and generosity she possesses.
After initially graduating, Brittany took on casual work with a state-government funded public health nutrition initiative, Start Right-Eat Right – a program supporting long-day childcare centres to provide and promote healthy food in care.
“Coming from the Riverland, it was a great way to learn about Adelaide travelling all over the state visiting childcare centres,” she says.
This paved the way for further roles in the field, transitioning to the Eat Well Be Active Strategy and then working within the Riverland’s Aboriginal Health team.
As her knowledge grew, the desire to deep dive into her passion for public health turned into a PhD, which then led to her current position as a postdoctoral research fellow at Flinders.
“My undergraduate degree provided me with a strong foundation in nutrition and dietetics that I apply within my research,” Brittany says.
“Professionally, my time at Flinders as a student and now as a staff member has helped me to grow beyond what I would have thought possible.”
Her accomplishments to date are extensive, having published 22 peer-reviewed articles, four commissioned reports while holding an H-index 9 and over 300 citations. This sits along collaborations with prestigious research partners, including NHMRC Clinical Trials Centre at The University of Sydney and Human Behaviour Change Project at University College London.
Considering she is merely two years post-PhD award, Brittany could confidently be placed amongst the most productive early-career researchers at Flinders.
Of the many to highlight, Brittany regards her role in forming the Transforming Obesity Prevention in CHILDren (TOPCHILD) international collaboration as one of her greatest achievements to date.
“Bringing together researchers from over 15 countries and data from 40,000 infants collected through 50 randomised controlled trials is leading the way in evidence synthesis methods,” she says.
“Through the power of this collaboration, we have the ability to learn from so much research and improve the way we support families around the world.”
Dr Brittany Johnson was awarded a 2022 Early Career Alumni Award for significant contributions within the field of public health nutrition and behavioural change that support children and families to establish positive health behaviours.