The Australian Dietetics Council (ADC) is the governance structure for our accreditation and recognition services and has been operating since 1 July 2009.
The main function of the ADC is to provide independent advice on accreditation and regulation to our Board.
The ADC provides impartial, specialist, and transparent advice on regulation and accreditation matters.
The guiding principles of the ADC are to:
- enable transparency for members, clients, health services and the Government
- enable separation of policy and operational functions
- enable broader representation
- enable greater independence thus reducing potential conflict of interest
- support a move to a business model ensuring a more sustainable service
- support corporate governance principles and enable greater accountability
Composition
The ADC comprises of 9 members that have been appointed by the Board to serve a 2 year term.
The 9 members consist of:
- 3 senior academic dietitians
- 3 senior practitioner dietitians
- 3 external members

BSc, MNutDiet, MPH, Grad Cert Hlth Prof Ed, PhD, FDA
Claire Palermo joined the ADC in 2018 as an academic member. She is a Fellow of Dietitians Australia and has over 20 years of experience as a dietitian.
Claire has been an academic since 2004 and graduated over 700 students into the profession. Claire is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food and Deputy Director of the Monash Centre for Scholarship in Health Education.
Claire has been awarded a national teaching citation (2016) and teaching excellence award (2017), and a national office for learning and teaching fellowship (2014).
She is an active member of the profession and served on the Board of Dietitians Australia from 2007 to 2011. Claire has forged a research career in competency-based assessment and workforce development. She is Associate Editor (Qualitative methodology) for the Nutrition & Dietetics journal.

PhD, MHlthSc, Grad Dip Nutr Diet, BSc, FDA
Judy Bauer joined the ADC in 2021 as an academic member. She was a member of the inaugural ADC as a practitioner member (2009-2013). Judy is a Fellow of Dietitians Australia (FDA) and has over 40 years of experience as a clinical and academic dietitian.
She is an Honorary A/Professor for the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at the University of Queensland. She is also the Acting Research Co-ordinator, Nutrition & Dietetics for the Royal Brisbane & Womens Hospital, Queensland.
Judy is a Board member of the Clinical Oncology Society of Australia (2019+) and is an active member of the profession having served on the Board of Directors (1989-1992: 2004-2009) and held the role of Translational Research Leader (2013-2020).
The major themes of Judy’s research are knowledge translation, medical nutrition therapy with a focus on disease-related malnutrition and oncology nutrition.

PhD, DipNutDiet, BSc, FDA, Fellow of Sports Dietitians Australia
Fiona Pelly joined the ADC in 2015. Fiona is the Discipline Leader in Nutrition and Dietetics at the University of the Sunshine Coast and was responsible for establishing this discipline. She has extensive experience in curriculum development and review.
She is a Fellow of Dietitians Australia with 27 years’ experience, including 20 years in the area of sports nutrition, and has experience in private practice and consultancy to The Wiggles (10 years), the International Olympic Committee (IOC), National Rugby League (NRL) teams, and individual Olympians.
Fiona is internationally recognised for her expertise in food provision at major sporting competition events, and has evaluated the menu for 6 Olympic and 2 Commonwealth Games since 2000.
Fiona is interested in the translation of knowledge about nutrition and nutrient requirements into food and whole diets, diet quality, and eating behaviours. She is also interested in nutrition and dietetic practice, and the relationship to student training.

BSc, GradDipNutrDiet, AdvAPD
Annabel Sweeney joined the ADC at the end of 2018. Annabel has been a member of Dietitians Australia for over 30 years and has been an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian (AdvAPD) since 2008.
Annabel is the Manager of Nutrition at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, South Australia (SA) and holds academic status for Flinders University SA.
Annabel has worked in all clinical areas of paediatric and women’s nutrition and after 30 years and continues to work in the speciality area of inborn errors of metabolism (IEM).
She has conducted and published research and presented nationally and internationally in IEM and has been actively involved in the Australasian Society of Inborn Errors of Metabolism (ASIEM).
Annabel has been a member of many Dietitians Australia accreditation review teams.

B App Sc/ B. Nursing, MNutDiet, MPH, APD
Andrea Elliott joined the ADC in 2021. Andrea is the Director of Dietetics at Eastern Health, a 6 hospital metropolitan health service in Victoria and a PhD candidate at Monash University in the Department of Dietetics, Nutrition and Food.
Andrea has been a Dietitian Australia member for over 20 years and has extensive clinical and leadership experience in a variety of clinical settings. She has a passion for workforce re design and exploration of models of care that are responsive to client need. She project managed Stage 2 and 3 of the delivery of the DHHS allied health workforce project that resulted in the Victorian Assistant Workforce Model.
Her doctorial thesis is focused on design research using the Design Thinking approach, to design a ‘patient centred model of nutrition care for weight loss’ for patients who co-present with overweight and obesity in the acute hospital setting. The outcomes of this research will inform a framework that will address national health priorities and enhance health system effectiveness to provide dietetic care engineered for the ultimate end-users, patients, while also informing curriculum design to ensure we are producing ‘fit for purpose’ graduates.

BSc, MNutDiet, Grad Cert Hlth Mgmt, PhD Candidate, AdvAPD
Andrea was appointed to the ADC in 2021 as a senior practitioner. Andrea is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian, an adjunct senior lecturer for La Trobe University and is currently the Allied Health Education Lead for Monash Health.
Prior to her current role at Monash Health, she held joint roles as the Senior Endocrinology Dietitian at the Royal Melbourne Hospital and as Course Co-ordinator of the Dietetics program at La Trobe University.
Andrea brings to the council a wide perspective on health profession education as an academic, clinical teacher and employer. Andrea is currently a PhD candidate who is investigating the use of Entrustable Professional Activities to support competency-based education and work-based assessment in dietetic education.

PhD, BSpPath, MSPA
Simone Arnott joined the ADC in 2021 as the professional education representative. Simone is a Certified Practising Speech Pathologist.
She is currently employed at Speech Pathology Australia as a Senior Advisor of Professional Standards where her portfolio focuses primarily on university accreditation, competency based assessment, professional recognition and qualification assessment. Since commencing at Speech Pathology Australia in 2018, Simone has been heavily involved in the development and implementation of the profession’s new Professional Standards and subsequent development and alignment of new accreditation standards.
Simone has previously held senior clinical, professional practice and academic roles in two Australian universities. Simone also works privately; providing training and supervision to speech pathologists in the area of stuttering, as well as providing clinical services to individuals who stutter.

DEd, MEd (Curriculum), Dip T (Primary), Grad Dip Ed (TESOL), BA
Susanne Owen joined the ADC in 2014 as an accreditation expert from other professions. Susanne holds a Doctor of Education and Master of Education (Curriculum) qualification and Bachelor of Arts, Diploma of Teaching and several other post-graduate qualifications.
For over 35 years, she has worked as a teacher, high school leader and state education department manager. She has also worked for the South Australia teacher registration board where she led the development of registration standards and competency standards.
As Director of Owen Educational Consultancy, Susanne developed accreditation standards and competency standards for various national health bodies and led national projects related to university programs in pharmacy and law.
She has over 50 publications, book chapters and conference papers that reflect her academic research work. She is currently the community representative on the Qualification and Skills Assessment Committee for the podiatry profession.

John Stubbs joined the ADC in 2019. John holds degrees in Accounting and Arts and is a regular speaker at medical conferences in Australia and internationally about health policy, cancer advocacy, clinical trials, research and related issues.
19 years ago John was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia. He had a successful bone marrow transplant in 2001 and called upon his experience to become a committed and passionate advocate for people affected by cancer.
John was awarded an Honorary Associate of the University of Sydney – School of Medicine in 2009 for work in the promotion of clinical trials in Australia and a Recognition Award from the Federal Department of Health in 2011 for – “Long standing commitment to advancing the quality of radiation oncology services in this country”.
He currently holds 3 Board positions:
- Cancer Institute NSW
- Health Consumers NSW,
- NSW Illawarra and Shoalhaven Health District
He is also a member of Federal and State Government health and research committees.
John has contributed to over 44 research papers as an Investigator and Associate Investigator.
Get in touch
For information about accreditation and recognition services please contact accreditationadmin@dietitiansaustralia.org.au.