Guest biography

Dr Olivia Wright is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and Director of the Master of Dietetics Program at The University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

In the past, Olivia has worked in the food industry, designing functional foods for a variety of groups. She also has experience in the clinical management of chronic disease and clinical education.

Olivia’s research interests include:

– Investigating the impact of nutrients on gene expression (also known as nutrigenomics)

– Investigating how genetic variation impacts nutrient intake (also known as nutrigenetics)

– The role of macro- and micronutrients in modulating metabolic risk underpinning a range of chronic conditions

– Developing innovative models of dietetics service delivery to prevent nutritional decline and improve quality of life in acute care hospital patients and residents of aged care facilities.

Additionally, Olivia is an Associate Editor for the Dietitians Association of Australia national journal: Nutrition and Dietetics. Olivia is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Mater Medical Research Institute and an Affiliate Lecturer with the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation.

 

In this episode, we discuss:

 

– Olivia’s passion for helping people and keen interest in the science behind dietetics.

– How Olivia’s undergraduate experiences informed her career journey.

– Olivia’s diverse career background.

– Teaching nutrition science, her role as director of Master of Dietetics and pioneering a number of research fields: healthy ageing, mediating the side effects of chronic disease, gene expression testing, just to name a few.

– Gene expression testing, nutrigenomics and nutrigenetics – where we are now and applications for the future.

– Seeing challenges as opportunities and how this enables you to thrive in your dietetics career.

– The essentials for career enjoyment and growth:

Move away from your comfort zone

Try new approaches

Learn new skills

Know your mentors are there to help.

– Olivia’s career advice and how you can stand out from the crowd.

 

Additional resources

 

Click here for Olivia’s UQ Researcher profile

Click here for Olivia’s ResearchGate profile