Tanya has been awarded a Professional Achievement Honour in recognition of her outstanding personal commitment and exceptional contributions to the profession for over 10 years as a leading educator and communications expert in public health nutrition, with a focus on sustainability.
Tanya has demonstrated exceptional and sustained leadership that has transformed dietetic practice, public health influence and national policy engagement. She has driven systems-level change by co-founding national summits and leading initiatives that position dietitians at the forefront of prevention and healthcare sustainability. As Chair of the Sustainable Diets Group, she revitalised engagement and advanced integration of sustainability into professional practice. Through extensive collaboration and commitment to mentorship, she has strengthened professional capability and inspired future leaders. Her vision, courage and strategic influence have significantly enhanced the profession’s credibility, reach and impact, making her a worthy recipient of the BDA Professional Achievement Honour.
Tanya has shared what receiving this BDA Professional Achievement Honour means to her.
What does it mean to you to have been awarded with the Professional Achievement honour?
I feel deeply honoured, grateful and surprised. To receive this recognition from my own profession means an enormous amount to me. Dietetics has given me a career I love, lifelong friendships and the opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives. I have been fortunate to work alongside extraordinary colleagues and this honour also reflects their generosity, expertise and shared determination and work. I sometimes feel like a black sheep in the family when championing sustainable plant-rich diets in dietetics and food system change. Its not yet widely understood and it’s very political. So this strengthens my resolve to keep going - to help make food as medicine a reality across UK healthcare influencing the communities it serves, with nutrition embedded in prevention, treatment and recovery and where healthy sustainable plant rich food is accessible to everyone.
What drove you to become a dietitian in the first place and be where you are today?
My love of food began at home. Both my parents nurtured a love of home-grown food and cooking and an appreciation of the care and pleasure involved in growing, preparing and sharing a meal. Alongside that, I had a strong interest in nature and ecology. When I entered dietetics in the early 1990s, it brought together these interests with a desire to understand the science of food and nutrition to help people eat well and live better lives.
My early NHS career, particularly as an HIV specialist dietitian, deepened that commitment. I saw how nutritious food could affect someone’s strength, wellbeing and quality of life - and how it could offer comfort and dignity during serious illness. My work is also deeply personal. I have seen family members suffer under the current system, and witnessed how failures around food can compound illness and distress. I promised my late father that I would do my utmost to use my expertise during my lifetime to help prevent other families experiencing what ours endured. These experiences all shape my work today. From founding and building the MyNutriWeb community and education hub, to championing healthy sustainable food systems, my ambition is to help make food as medicine a reality across UK healthcare - bringing together nourishment, practical food skills, food systems thinking, care and connection for people and our natural world.
Who would you say inspires you both dietetically but also non-dietetically?
Within dietetics, I am inspired by colleagues who combine scientific rigour with compassion, curiosity, creativity and the courage to challenge and evolve established practice. I particularly admire those working to make healthy, sustainable diets accessible, often with limited resources. My colleagues who help to develop the learning opportunities at MyNutriWeb as well as those that learn and take knowledge back into their services are a constant source of inspiration.
Beyond the profession, I am inspired by people who are kind and who use their talents for social good. Patients, families and carers have taught me a great deal about resilience and what good care really means. I draw inspiration from people working across food, farming, academia, community groups, environmental protection, communications and more recently in policy, whose different perspectives remind me how closely our health is connected to the world around us.
What advice would you give to future dietitians?
Stay curious, stay compassionate and never underestimate the value of your expertise. Read your code of conduct at least once a year. Listen carefully to the people you support - evidence becomes meaningful when we understand someone’s circumstances, culture, bias and everyday life. Build relationships beyond the profession - with community groups, clinicians, chefs, caterers, researchers, business leaders and policymakers. So much of the change we need depends on working together. Be willing to speak up and think beyond the consultation room. Dietitians can influence the environments, services and policies that shape people’s choices. Find the work that matters to you, seek good mentors, develop your soft skills and protect your own wellbeing along the way. There is so much this profession can contribute. We are in our infancy in terms of the science and practice.
What has been the highlight of your dietetic career to date?
Receiving this honour is certainly a special highlight. But the greatest joy comes in seeing an idea become something that helps others - from supporting an individual patient to building a community through MyNutriWeb that turns learning into better practice.
Helping initiate One Blue Dot and now working with the NHS and partners through the Plants First Healthcare Coalition have been particularly meaningful. They bring together my commitment to nutrition, public health and environmental sustainability.
The thread running through my career is a belief that food deserves a much stronger place in all our lives, particularly in healthcare which has such enormous yet untapped potential to improve the lives of the communities that it serves; benefiting health, our environment, our healthcare system itself and our economy. Seeing more people who share that ambition and working together to make it happen, is what gives me the greatest satisfaction and hope for the future.
