Board members
- Paul McArdle (Chair)
- Amy Pratt (Vice Chair)
- Lucy Diamond (Board of Director's Representative)
- Alison Jowett
- Raphaella Rookes
- Matt Keogh
- Fiona McCullough
- Long Li
- Becca Forster
- Sarah Williams
- Sophie McFarland
Invited Members
- Linda Hindle
- Diana Markham
Contact: [email protected]
Board members' biographies
Paul McArdle
Paul became Chair of The BDA England Board from April 2024, following in the footsteps of Julie Abayomi. Paul has a broad dietetic background including research, clinical practice, operational and strategic leadership across AHP professions. Paul previously chaired the BDA Diabetes Specialist Group and has been a committee member of the group for many years. Paul’s role in the NHS is within Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust where he is Trust Professional Lead for Dietetics alongside his role as a Service Clinical Manager and specialist in diabetes. Paul is passionate about continuing the great work of the England Board as part of the new BDA Strategic Plan, whilst improving engagement with members and making sure the work of the board becomes more visible with our membership.
Amy Pratt
Amy is Principal Dietitian and Lead Governor at Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which provides mental health and learning disability services in Yorkshire. She has previously been seconded to BDA staff in the post of Clinical Leader. She is a previous committee member of the BDA Food Services Specialist Group, a contributor to the BDA Nutrition & Hydration Digest and the author of the mental health & learning disability supplement to the Digest, and an author of two chapters of the Manual of Dietetic Practice 7th edition. Prior to retraining as a dietitian, Amy had a successful career in marketing, where she worked on campaigns for international food brands and specialised in public health communications for bodies including Department of Health, Food Standards Agency and Drinkaware. Amy joined the BDA England Board in 2025.
Lucy Diamond
Fiona McCullough
Fiona is based in the Midlands and has worked as an acute and primary care dietitian, prior to moving into academia. She has been involved in curriculum development at both pre-registration and post-registration levels and have served on the Education Board and Quality Standards Committee.
Fiona has been a member of the England board for the past 4 years. She joined, when her term of office as BDA Chairman ended, since she is passionate about improving the channels of communication between local Branches and the Board.
Raphaella Rookes
Raphaella is the Chief Dietitian at Dorset County Hospital, where she leads a multidisciplinary team comprising administrative staff, dietetic support workers, dietetic apprentices, dietitians, trainee Advanced Clinical Practitioners (ACPs), ACPs, and nutrition nurses working across both acute and community services. She is a member of the paediatric diabetes specialist subgroup committee and has previously held roles including Chair, Ordinary Member and Education Officer. Clinically, Raphaella works with paediatric patients and has a particular interest in diabetes as well. She is passionate about team engagement and development and, in recent years, has supported staff through return-to-practice programmes and performance management processes. Raphaella also has a strong interest in community engagement and work experience opportunities, alongside supporting colleagues in enhanced and advanced practice roles.
Long Li
Becca Forster
Becca joined the BDA England Board in June 2023. Becca qualified as a dietitian from UWIC (Cardiff Met) in 2001 and started her career at Harefield Hospital before moving to Northampton General Hospital where she gained ten years of clinical experience. In addition to her work in the NHS Becca pursued an interest in weight management and set up a private bariatric clinic. Working in weight management sparked an interest in mental health which saw Becca move to working for just under ten years in a secure mental health setting. Becca stepped into a lead position for the dietetic department before accepting an opportunity to set up a dietetic service for Cleveland Clinic London. In June 2023 Becca commenced in post as Head of Service for Dietetics and Speech and Language Therapy at University Hospital Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW).
Sarah Williams
Sarah joined the board in 2023. Sarah works in Gloucestershire leading the Home Enteral Feeding service, a multi-disciplinary team of Dietitians, Dietetic Support workers, Enteral Nutrition Nurses and administrative staff. Sarah has been recently working with the BDA on the Dietetic Support workforce project, producing the new Dietetic Support workforce framework and other resources. It was the work in this area which lead Sarah to apply for a position on the BDA England Board and is looking forward to contributing this knowledge and learning more about the BDA from the Board meetings and activities.
Sophie McFarland
Sophie works as the Lead for the Primary Care Dietitian Service in Westminster, covering 4 Primary Care Networks for Healthcare Central London, a GP Federation. She joined the BDA England Board in May 2023. Sophie's usual work includes clinical time, service development and innovation. She has a PhD in Chronic Disease Management and this is where her area of interest lies, in improving preventative care, and better multidisciplinary team approaches to managing complex patients. She is also keen to publish more research in Dietetics within Primary Care.She joined the BDA England Board to facilitate improvement in Dietetic Service Provision, and awareness of the work of Dietitians at a national level.
Linda Hindle
Linda Hindle is the Deputy Chief Allied Health Professional Officer; she works for Public Health England as Lead AHP and Public Health Engagement Lead for the Emergency Services. She is responsible for championing and supporting the contribution of the 14 Allied Health Professions, Fire, Ambulance and Police services to improving the public’s health across England, as well as supporting the national health and wellbeing programmes co-ordinated by Public Health England.
Linda is a co-founder of AHPs4PH, a social media community of practice for AHPs with an interest in public health, and a trustee for the charity Sport Inspired. Linda has previously worked as a consultant dietitian as well as in commissioning and service management. She has experience of working in and with Local Authority, NHS, private sector, research and education organisations.
Follow Linda on twitter @hindlelinda
Diana Markham
Diana has been a member of the England Board for several years now and has enjoyed helping with various projects and campaigns that the group has worked on to advance and highlight the role of Dietetics in so many areas of health. She was originally asked to join the England Board in her capacity as a BDA TU Board member.
Diana’s clinical work for the last 17 years has been in the area of Diabetes – Type 1 in particular – as well as being the Dietetic Service lead for the hospital in which she worked. Diana has recently retired from the NHS but is continuing to do clinical work part time in the area of Diabetes.
Chair's Summaries
Minutes of meetings
Minutes are available for members. Please log in to download them if you are a BDA member.