In this section

Board Members

  • Sharon Martin (Chair)
  • Rachael Hawthorne (Trade Union/NIERC Representative)
  • Lucy Hull (Dietetic Managers Forum Representative)
  • Alyson Hill (Education Representative)
  • Zoe Fletcher (Member without Portfolio)
  • Paula McGurk (Member without Portfolio)
  • Vanessa McMinn (Member without Portfolio)
  • Kathryn Duff (BDA Non-Executive Director for Northern Ireland)
  • Ruth Balmer (BDA Policy Officer)

Board Members Biography

Sharon Martin

Sharon Martin is Chair, NI British Dietetic Association’s Board. Sharon previously chaired the Ulster Branch BDA in the early 1990’s. Sharon started her career in Belfast City Hospital and was there until 2014. Sharon was Team Leader Dietitian for Diabetes and Inherited Metabolic Disease, from 2009 to 2014 having been a diabetes dietitian for many years. Sharon’s last role in BHSCT was Assistant Nutrition and Dietetics Manager, overseeing Community, Eating Disorders, Diabetes and Inherited Metabolic Diseases, Health and Wellbeing, Mater Hospital, Mental Health & Learning Disability, and Royal Maternity Jubilee. Sharon formed the NI Dietitians Diabetes Group in 1993 and assisted in the developmental and teaching of the University of Ulster, Multi-professional Diabetes Course. Sharon was on Diabetes UK Professional and Conference Organising Committees for several years during the 2000’s. Sharon also led on the development and delivery of NI diabetes competency based courses for dietitians. From 2016 -2020, Sharon chaired Public Health Dietitians Regional group. Sharon retired from full-time employment in September 2021. Sharon is currently involved with the Diabetes Regional Strategy in the Dietitian’s Workforce Group, New Models of Care Group and Inpatients Group.

Rachael Hawthorne

Rachael has spent the majority of her career working in the community setting, with a particular interest in obesity and is currently working as an Advanced Practitioner Dietitian in maternal weight management whilst completing her PGCert in Obesity and Weight Management. Rachael is Chair of the NI Employee Relations Committee (NIERC) and sits on the NI board as the TU representative to advocate for the working rights of BDA members in NI. She is passionate about equality and diversity and represents NI on the Trade Union National Executive Committee (TU NEC). Rachael has joined the BDA Future Leaders Programme and is keen to use the knowledge and skills gained to continue to contribute to and advance the dietetic profession.  

Lucy Hull

Lucy represents the Northern Ireland Regional Dietetic Managers Forum. This  provides a vital  link between the  Northern Ireland Board and the Trust Dietetic Managers thus ensuring a joined up approach to promote and advance the Dietetic profession at all levels. Lucy is the Nutrition and Dietetics Manager for Belfast Health and Social Care Trust which is a combined acute and community service and provides a large number of adult and paediatric regional specialities. Previous to that she worked in a variety of different clinical areas including Diabetes, Hepatobiliary, Care of the Elderly and Community Clinics.

Alyson Hill

Alyson Hill is a registered dietitian and is currently a senior lecturer in Dietetics at Ulster University in Northern Ireland with over 15 years teaching experience in nutrition and dietetics at both undergraduate and postgraduate level. Prior to this she has worked as a clinical dietitian in Belfast for over 17 years mainly specialising in the area of diabetes. Her research at Ulster University is focused on the role of diet and nutrition in the prevention and treatment of disease, also structured education to enhance diabetes care. She gained her PhD in 2005, which was completed on dietary assessment studies in pregnant women with and without diabetes in Belfast Hyperglycaemia and Adverse Pregnancy outcome Study (HAPO) and Diabetes Pre eclampsia Intervention trial. Dr Hill holds a number of key professional positions both nationally and internationally, professionally and clinically which include BDA committees including, NI Board member, BDA quality Standards Board and also Diabetes specialist dietitians group and European Federation of the Association of Dietitians.

Vanessa McMinn

Registered Dietitian, Freelance Dietitian and Sports Nutritionist. Vanessa qualified as a Dietitian in 2000. She began her dietetic career in Greater Manchester before returning home to NI in 2002.   Vanessa has had various opportunities within the NHS. She set up the dietetic provision for the home from hospital service in the legacy Homefirst Community Trust. She was seconded as the “Investing for Health Dietitian” within the legacy United Hospitals Trust to help tackle the issue of childhood obesity. Then in 2008, Vanessa moved to the Southern Health and Social Care Trust and took up the position of Diabetes Specialist Dietitian, where she continues to work to this date. Vanessa has always had a keen interest in sport nutrition. In 2003, she successfully completed her BDA Accredited Sports Dietitian course and started up her own Part-time Freelance Sports Nutrition Consultancy: Victory Nutrition. This has given her the opportunity to work within the Sports Institute of Northern Ireland where she got experience working alongside elite athletes, County Football teams and the NI football team. She continues to support the IFA lady’s development squad and other aspiring athletes through various clubs and societies. With her varying roles over the past two decades, Vanessa has gained extensive experience in many medical conditions, health promotion, school nutrition and performance nutrition. From December 2020. Vanessa has volunteered to sit on the Board of the NI British Dietetic Association.

Kathryn Duff

Kathryn Duff is the Northern Ireland Non-Executive Director for the British Dietetic Association, a role she undertook in June 2020.  Prior to this from June 2018 until June 2020 Kathryn was the Chair of the Northern Ireland Board for the BDA and also Non-Executive Director for the company.  Over the past 3 ½ years she has worked as a Prescribing Support Dietitian within primary care across Belfast, supporting, medical, nursing and GP colleagues in the field of appropriate oral nutritional supplement prescribing.  Her real passion lies within primary care, treating the right patient at the right time in the right place and much of her career within the U.K involved being based as a general dietitian across a number of GP practices.  Kathryn will be pressing the ‘pause’ button on her dietetic career here in Northern Ireland over the next few months as she takes on the role as Service Development Lead ‘No More Silos’ Programme for the Northern Health and Social Care Trust.

Ruth Balmer

Ruth Balmer has been BDA Policy Officer with responsibility for Northern Ireland since August 2017. She has been a member of the BDA for over 30 years, working as a registered dietitian within a variety of health and civil service settings in NI since 1991. Over the 29 years of working as a dietitian in NI, Ruth has observed extensive changes within the profession, with dietetic practice developing and expanding into areas of public health, food industry, education, freelance as well as new innovative specialist and extended scope healthcare dietetic roles. Her goal in her current post is to inspire and motivate BDA members working in Northern Ireland to promote their roles and the impact they have, particularly on the primary care and public health agendas.

 
 

Minutes of Meetings

Key Documents and Links