Board members
- Dr Julie Abayomi (Outgoing Chair)
- Paul McArdle (Incoming Chair)
- Tanya Rumney (Vice-Chair)
- Lucy Diamond (Board of Director's Representative)
- Diana Markham
- Gill Shinkwin
- Fiona McCullough
- Long Li
- Nusrat Kausar
- Becca Forster
- Sarah Williams
- Sophie McFarland
- Rasleen Kahai
- Linda Hindle
Contact: [email protected]
Board members' biographies
Dr Julie Abayomi
Julie is the current chair of the BDA England Board & has been in post since April 2020; she was a member of the Board for 2 years before this.
Julie’s usual job is in academia, where she helps to lead and manage a multidisciplinary team of staff in the school of applied health & social care. As a Reader, she is also very research active, and her area of interest is maternal nutrition and health. Julie is also involved with some teaching on MSc Public Health Nutrition, BSc Midwifery & Medical education programmes and she supervises PhD students. She is the research officer for the BDA Maternal & Fertility Nutrition Specialist interest group too.
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.
Tanya Rumney
Tanya has been a member of the BDA England board since 2020 and is the professional lead dietitian for Cheshire West based in Chester, northwest England. Tanya’s interest lies in workforce development and has previously held roles with NHS England working on the implementation of first contact practice in primary care, enhanced and advanced level practice. Tanya is a member of First Contact Dietitians specialist group, Advanced Practice and PENG.
Lucy Diamond
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.
Gill Shinkwin
Following a range of clinical posts Gill spent 10 years as a community/public health Dietitian in Northants before moving to Bedford Hospital as Nutrition and Dietetic Manager in 1996. This was a combined acute and community service. She has retired recently.
Gill is currently supporting her local Trust working bank shifts as an operational senior manager. She recently trained as a volunteer patient advocate for the vaccination programme and will be supporting the nationwide rollout of Covid vaccinations.
Gill has been involved with the board for over 4 years and continue to input on a range of issues including dietitians in Primary Care Networks.
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.
Long Li
Nusrat Kausar
Nusrat is a registered dietitian with multifaceted roles. She's the Clinical Director of Primary Care Dietitians, supporting dietitians across England's PCNs. Nusrat is also a director at Nutribytes, committed to reducing health inequalities through education. An advocate for the profession, she serves on the BDA England Board, and BDA Sport and Exercise Nutrition Register (SENR)Board. She has recently started in the Vice-Chair role of the BDA Diabetes Specialist Group. Nusrat chairs the BDA sports and exercise diabetes sub-group and hosts the Type 1's Talk Sports podcast. She supports the education of dietetic students as a Special Visiting Lecturer at dietetic universities across the UK.
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.
Rasleen Kahai
Rasleen (Ras) Kahai is a Respiratory Dietitian & the Disability & Wellness Network (DAWN) Co-Chair at the Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals (part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation trust).
Ras supports with first Respiratory Dietetic group in the UK to champion for specialist nutritional intervention for respiratory disease. She is also passionate about equalities, supporting to create accessible change & improving cultural competence. Her favourite hobbies are eating and sleeping!
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
Minutes of meetings
Minutes are available for members. Please log in to download them if you are a BDA member.