NESI Leadership team

NESI CHAIR

Kylie Wilson

Kylie is a postdoctoral scholar for the Knowledge Exchange for Resilience at Arizona State University, USA. 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 research focuses on developing evidence-based, community-driven strategies to improve comprehensive school physical activity policies, infrastructure, and practices that benefit public health.

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

Amanda Folk (Chair Communications Team)

Amanda is a health and behaviour change scientist with a PhD in Kinesiology from  University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She also has her Master’s in Integrative Exercise Physiology from Temple University. Her research is at the intersection of behavioural aspects of physical activity, public health, and health communication – all while trying to look at it through a social justice lens. She’s particularly interested in making outdoor physical activity more accessible and approachable for folks with all identities. Amanda is a member of the NESI Communication 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.

Cristina Gago

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 a member of the NESI Communication team.

Heather Waddell

Heather Waddell, PhD, is a Data Scientist and early career researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University. She graduated in 2024, after completing her PhD (Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Programme) at the University of Edinburgh. Her research is focused on identifying the determinants of physical activity in the Scottish population, assessed through the employment of probabilistic graphical modelling known as Bayesian Networks. She is also interested in applying these statistical techniques to longitudinal multimorbidity data. Heather is a member 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.

WEBINAR/WORKSHOP TEAM MEMBERS

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.

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.

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.

Zhiguang Zhang

Zhiguang is a Research Fellow at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She has interdisciplinary expertise in behavioural epidemiology, education, and sport science and is highly skilled in qualitative research methods. Her research focuses on understanding and promoting healthy physical activity, sedentary behaviour, sleep – collectively referred to as 24-hour movement behaviours in children. Zhiguang is a member of the NESI Webinar/Workshop Team.

Jennifer Gale

Jennifer is a New Zealand Registered Dietitian and a PhD candidate at the Department of Human Nutrition, University of Otago, New Zealand. She completed a Bachelor of Science in Human Nutrition and Master of Dietetics before pursuing a PhD. Her research is 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 a member of the NESI Webinar/Workshop Team.

NETWORKING TEAM MEMBERS

Alexandra Descarpentrie (Chair)

Alexandra Descarpentrie completed a master’s program in Epidemiology at Université de Paris-Saclay. Her PhD research at the Center for Research in Epidemiology and Statistics (CRESS, Université de Paris, Inserm) focused on the effects of early childhood lifestyle patterns and associated factors on health outcomes in both general and homeless populations. Currently, Alexandra is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), where she continues her research on social inequalities affecting Latino children. She is also passionate about teaching and science communication.

Umar Hassan

Umar Hassan is second-year doctoral student in the Population Health program at the College of Health Solutions at Arizona State University. His research focuses on the built environment, heat, and promoting the health and well-being of children through physical activity, particularly in school settings. Umar aims to understand how environmental factors influence physical activity levels among children, advocating for strategies that promote healthier lifestyles. He is a member of the NESI Networking Team.

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. 

Yijun Zhang

Yijun Zhang is a Post Doctoral fellow at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has a background in Landscape Architecture. Her research focuses on the quantitative analysis of complex data sets to understand the intricate relationships between the natural environment and adolescent health outcomes (e.g., physical activity), while exploring equity in health-promoting environments. Her professional speciality is using quantitative data analysis to investigate environmental factors that influence health outcomes from the perspectives of public health and landscape design.

Jutarat Kongpet

Jutarat Kongpet is a PhD student at the School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has a background in pediatric nursing in Thailand before pursuing her PhD. Her research interests include child health promotion, child development, and pediatric nursing. Currently, she is investigating the health communication needs of Southeast Asian migrant children residing in Aotearoa, New Zealand.

Ziang Li

Ziang Li is a PhD student at the School of Nursing, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand. His research focuses on the impact of health and physical education on physical activity among sociodemographically diverse adolescents in New Zealand. Before his doctoral studies, he obtained bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physical education and sports science from Macau, China, and accrued several years of experience as a physical education teacher. This background has ignited his interest in promoting physical activity among adolescents through health and physical education curricula. Given New Zealand’s demographic diversity, his research also involves health inequities in adolescent health and wellbeing.