As predicted 2017 has been a year of ongoing change for Flinders Nutrition and Dietetics, and Flinders as a whole. We have now officially entered into the newly formed College of Nursing and Health Sciences, whilst at the same time have been busy ensuring that our own discipline remains strong and our colleagues and partners are not adversely impacted on during this time of change.
Some staff changes include promotion of Amanda Wray to a Level C Teaching Specialist position and Dr Kacie Dickinson promoted to Level B Lecturer. We also recruited an additional 1.8FTE Teaching Specialist staff as follows: 0.4FTE Level B: Olivia Farrer, 0.6FTE Level A Dr Carly Moores, 0.4FTE Level A Marian McAllister and 0.4FTE Level A Dr Jayne Barbour. This collective of teaching specialist positions will bring great pedagogical research and curriculum improvements to the suite of Nutrition and Dietetics programs and we are very much looking forward to the contribution from each and every one of our new staff.
Earlier this year Heidi Jak, our Community Nutrition Engagement Officer, resigned from her position and this role has been generously supported by both Marian McAllister and Hannah Rohrlach throughout the first two placement rotations this year. Fiona Smith was seconded into a senior administrative role until recently supporting professional staff for numerous disciplines work in a hub style of service which is the model for the new College professional support services so it has been useful having Fiona leading this project and ensuring that our needs are listened to.
Some less positive news, at least for those staff left behind, Dr Jacqueline Miller has announced her retirement, reducing her time to 0.5FTE from July 1 with full retirement on December 31, 2017. Jacqui has been a long serving member of staff who has contributed at a very high level to the strategic directions of the discipline and will certainly be missed but we do wish her the best as she transitions into the next stage of life. Finally, and hot off the press, after spending the last 12 weeks as Dean School of Health Sciences, I will be taking on a new leadership position in Senior Management for the new College of Nursing and Health Sciences from July 2017 for 12 months as Dean People and Resources. It has been a challenging decision for me to make given I have a strong sense of responsibility to the profession and our staff but this new role will give me great insight into the higher level workings of the organisation which I believe will be of great benefit for when I return in 12 months time. I leave the discipline in very capable hands and look forward to watching it flourish from afar for a little while.