NESI Leadership team

Kylie is a postdoctoral scholar at The University of Arizona Cancer Center (U.S.A.). Kylie has been part of NESI since 2021 when she joined the Networking subcommittee as part of the local programming team for ISBNPA 2022 (Phoenix). Her interdisciplinary research explores how environmental and social factors influence behavior and health outcomes, aiming to promote active schools and communities through co-designed, sustainable strategies. Her recent work focuses on the paradoxical relationship between hazardous environmental exposures and cancer-preventive behaviors like regular physical activity. 

EARLY CAREER RESEARCHER REPRESENTATIVES

Sarah Shaw

Sarah Shaw is a postdoctoral research associate at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, UK. Sarah currently works on the SALIENT project which aims to co-design and evaluate interventions that support healthier diets and reduce the environmental impacts of our food system. Sarah completed her PhD at the University of Southampton. For her PhD research, she used a mixed-methods approach to investigate the individual and combined influences of adolescents’ physical food environments and social environments on food purchasing and dietary behaviours. Sarah is a Registered Nutritionist (Public Health) in the UK. Sarah is the ECR representative on the Executive Committee for ISBNPA and a previous chair of NESI. 

COMMUNICATION TEAM MEMBERS

Cristina Gago (Communications Chair)

Cristina Gago, PhD, MPH is an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, where she applies implementation science principles and behaviour change theory to the evaluation of community health, food assistance, and social service interventions. Through her partnership-grounded, translational research practice, Cristina aims to identify actionable opportunities to increase health and social service accessibility and uptake. She is the chair of the NESI Communication team.

Danielle Gartner

Danielle Gartner is a second-year PhD student at Tulane University’s School of Public health and Tropical Medicine. Prior to starting her PhD, she worked on a variety of public health nutrition research projects in Philadelphia and throughout Texas. These projects range from pilot testing a mobile health nutrition education program and analyzing data from a wide-scale observational study aimed at identifying patterns in Texas school children’s eating habits. Her doctoral research is focused on assessing social-spatial drivers in food and nutrition security disparities in the United States and identifying equitable solutions to said disparities. Danielle is a member of the NESI communications team.

Olivia Alliott

Olivia is a Research Associate with the Population Health Interventions programme at the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge. She is currently working on an evaluation of the impact of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone on young people’s active travel to school. Prior to this Olivia completed her PhD studentship, also within the MRC Epidemiology Unit, where she explored the role of socioeconomic position in adolescent physical activity. Olivia is a member of the NESI Communication Team.

Merling Phaswana

Merling is a lecturer and part-time PhD candidate at the Department for Exercise Science and Sports Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She holds a Masters degree in Medicine from the University of the Witwatersrand. Her Doctoral work aims to address sedentary behaviour and improve cardiovascular health in South African office workers. Merling’s research area of interest is on developing strategies to address obesity and cardiometabolic diseases in South African working place. Merling is a member of the NESI Webinar/Workshop Team.

Mandisa Simamane

A lecturer and researcher in Biokinetics and Exercise Science at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. She focuses on physical activity interventions for preventing and managing non-communicable diseases, with a particular interest in integrating exercise therapy into primary healthcare. She is passionate about co-designing contextually relevant health solutions, advancing exercise therapy, and mentoring the next generation of health scientists.

 

WEBINAR/WORKSHOP TEAM MEMBERS

Emma Ostermeier (Co-Chair)

Emma is a PhD Candidate in Health Promotion at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. She received an undergraduate degree in Human Biology from the University of Toronto before completing her Master’s in Geography at Western University. Emma’s research interests include promoting physical activity and supporting healthy lifestyles among children. Her doctoral work examines the implementation of a free physical activity program for children in rural communities. Emma is a member of the NESI Webinar/Workshop Team.

Jennifer Gale (Co-chair)

Jennifer is a Lecturer in the Physical Activity and Nutrition Department at Auckland University of Technology. She is also a New Zealand Registered Dietitian and Research Fellow with Te Hau Kori, Victoria University of Wellington. She completed her PhD in 2024 which focused on the benefits of interrupting evening sitting time with short bouts of physical activity, on metabolic health and 24-hour movement patterns. She is passionate about cardiometabolic disease prevention and promotion of healthy lifestyles. Jennifer is Co-Chair of the NESI Webinar/Workshop Team.

Stephen Barrett (Co-Chair)

Stephen works as an Allied Health Research and Knowledge Translation lead in Bendigo Health, Victoria, Australia. Stephen is an Adjunct Research Fellow within the Holsworth Research Initiative at La Trobe University, Bendigo.  He completed his BSc in Physiotherapy at University College Dublin, a Masters in Public Health at the University of Melbourne and finished his PhD at La Trobe University, Bendigo in 2021. His PhD research focussed on the role of behaviour change interventions in ambulatory hospital care. Stephen is co-chair of the NESI Webinar/Workshop Team. 

Adriana Verdezoto Alvarado

Adriana is an Assistant Professor at the University of New Mexico. She completed her dietetics internship in 2025 and PhD in 2024. Adriana’s research focuses on the home food environment, diet quality and cardiometabolic outcomes. Her work is grounded in primordial prevention and she was trained in behavioral-based interventions for the prevention of chronic disease development in children. 

Yijun Zhang

Yijun is a research fellow in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland. She completed her PhD in Health Sciences in 2024. Her research focuses on health-promoting environments, especially on the relationship between natural space and youth health. She is a member of the NESI Webinar/Workshop team.    

NETWORKING TEAM MEMBERS

Alexandra Descarpentrie (Chair)

Alexandra Descarpentrie is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), where she conducts research on the social and structural factors likely influencing health in underserved populations among children and, more recently, adults. Her work aims to better understand how environments, policies, and early-life conditions shape health outcomes across the life course. She joined NESI in 2020 as a PhD candidate and became Chair of the Networking Committee in 2024.

 

Umar Hassan

Umar Hassan is a third-year doctoral student in the Population Health program at the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University (USA). His research focuses on the influence of the built environment on physical activity, promoting the health and well-being of children, particularly in school settings. Umar advocates for strategies and interventions that promote healthier lifestyles. He has been a member of the NESI Networking Team since 2024.

 

Mary Von Seggen

Mary Von Seggern is a Ph.D. student in Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Research at the University of Nebraska Medical Center’s College of Public Health. Her research is focused on studying physical activity systems within rural American communities, particularly those with growing ethnoracial diversity. Currently, Mary is exploring local youth sport systems in rural Midwest communities to determine if/how structural urbanism and other “rules of the game” are impacting these systems and population-health physical activity outcomes. Mary is also passionate about community-driven research and spends time facilitating community members through an iterative, trial and error data-driven learning process to design more equitable food and physical activity systems and ultimately, improve the local wellness landscape. She is a member of the NESI Networking Team.    

Ruben Viegas

Ruben is a pharmacist with a degree in Physical Exercise and Health from Portugal currently engaging in a PhD in the Faculty of Pharmacy in Lisbon in the area of physical activity promotion. He is interested in public health, physical activity and behaviour change, health-related non-governmental organizations, and soft-skills. Through his research, he has been working with different stakeholders in the promotion of physical activity through healthcare professionals and pharmacists. He also has worked in the past in community pharmacy and different projects related to health promotion. He is a member of the NESI Networking Team. 

Ziang Archie Li

Ziang Archie Li is a PhD candidate at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand. His doctoral research examines the role of the Health and Physical Education (PE) curriculum in promoting physical activity among sociodemographically diverse adolescents in Aotearoa New Zealand. Alongside his studies, he teaches PE and Health, building on several years of prior experience as a PE teacher. He obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in PE  and sports science from Macau, China. This combined academic and teaching background has ignited his passion for promoting physical activity among adolescents through health and PE curricula in the school setting. Given New Zealand’s demographic diversity, his research also addresses health inequities in adolescent health and wellbeing. He is a member of the NESI Networking Team.