Maria Packard is an Accredited Practising Dietitian with over 25 years’ experience. As part of the Heart Foundation’s food and nutrition team she currently leads the organisations culinary nutrition area. Her diverse role at the Heart Foundation has focused on food supply policy, advocacy, evidence translation for consumer and professional education and nutrition communications. She has a range of experiences in various settings including public health, university, consultancy, private practice and sports nutrition. Maria has long held a strong interest in translating nutrition science into practical and useful messages and has been a media spokesperson for the Dietitian’s Australia for over 10 years. Throughout her career she’s undertaken an extensive number of interviews for various media outlets. Maria’s interests include cooking and eating delicious food particularly inspired from her travel experiences.

Emma Stirling, Advanced APD, is the Director of Scoop Nutrition consultancy and an academic specialising in food science, gastronomy and culinary nutrition. Emma is recognised as one of Australia’s innovative, entrepreneurial and leading Accredited Practising Dietitians in the areas of food and culinary nutrition and effective nutrition communication. An early pioneer of social media her blog Scoop Nutrition won the prestigious BUPA Best Healthy Eating Blog award 2014  along with establishing mentoring for over 30 dietitians andover 100 members of the Storehouse Blog Directory. She is a well-recognised media commentator and nutrition writer and recently published her first academic textbook, Understanding the Science of Food: From molecules to mouthfeel. Emma has recently joined ACU as Senior Lecturer and Course Coordinator – Culinary Nutrition Science Lead.