Biographies

Biographies of our Contributors

Kathleen Warren

Doctor of Education
Master of Arts (Hons)
Licentiate of Art of Speech in Australia
Fellow of Trinity College London

Teacher, adjudicator, early childhood and drama consultant

Kathleen Warren has worked with young children and early childhood educators in Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Canada, United States of America, Holland, Portugal, Taiwan, and Sweden. She has worked as a volunteer consultant to preschool programs in traditional villages in Papua New Guinea and Samoa.

Previously a Senior Lecturer at Macquarie University she has also taught at the University of Western Sydney and the University of Newcastle and was for a time a tutor with NIDA’s Open Program, working with pre–school children and with open program tutors. She has been a guest lecturer at other universities in Australia and overseas.

She is a writer and early childhood consultant for “The Wiggles” and has worked as a consultant with Asia Disney. She is currently a teacher, drama adjudicator and early childhood and drama adviser who has published widely in her field and who has presented papers, often by invitation at national and international conferences.

Dr Fiona Pelly

Dr Pelly has 19 years experience as a dietitian both in private practice and as a consultant. She has had experience working with elite and recreational athletes from all age groups, and a wide variety of sports. She has been the consultant dietitian to the Wallabies rugby union team, Penrith, Parramatta and West Tigers rugby league teams (NSW), Sydney Olympic soccer club and was previously a member of the executive committee of Sports Dietitians Australia. Dr Pelly has contributed to a number of academic texts including Clinical Sports Nutrition and Nutrition for Athletes (in press). Dr Pelly completed her PhD on the impact of an environmental nutrition intervention for athletes competing at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. A key part of this project included development of a website that allowed athletes to access the Olympic menu prior to the Olympic Games. She continued her research at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and led an expert committee that reviewed the menu for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. She also was the project leader and developed content for the website www.sportsdietitians.com.au (Sports Dietitians Australia). Dr Pelly has been the nutrition consultant for the Wiggles since 2002. She developed the menu for the Wiggly Play Centre and is currently researching the development and evaluation of a food labelling system and the impact on food choice for preschool aged children in collaboration with The Wiggles.

Professor John Lowe

Professor John Lowe is currently Professor and Head of the School of Health and Sport Sciences at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. His research interests are in cancer control and prevention and injury prevention. Since 1980, he has worked in the area of intervention studies for the cessation of smoking among adults, pregnant women, and the prevention and cessation of smoking among youth. He is internationally known for his work in the area of skin cancer prevention. Today, Professor Lowe continues to focus his research on community development and empowerment to make sustainable long-term changes to promote health. His previous posts include Professor and Head of the Department of Community and Behavioural Health, College of Public Health, University of Iowa in the USA. While at the University of Iowa, he also held the position of Associate Director for Population Science of the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Centre and directed two research centres, the CDC funded Iowa Prevention Research Centre and the Iowa Tobacco Research Centre. Prior to this he was Director of the Cancer Prevention Research Centre at the University of Queensland, Faculty of Medicine. Professor Lowe received his doctorate in Community Health/Behavioural Science from the University of Texas Health Science Centre, School of Public Health. He is a fellow of both the Australia Health Promotion Association and the American Academy of Health Behaviour. Professor Lowe was previously Editor of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health and prior to that, Editor of the Health Promotion Journal of Australia.