Board members
- Debbie McGugan (Chair)
- Kathryn Duff (BDA Non-Executive Director for Northern Ireland and AHPFNI Representative)
- Lucy Hull (Dietetic Managers Forum Representative)
- Rachael Hawthorne (Trade Union/NIERC Representative)
- Jill Stewart (Member without Portfolio)
- Vanessa McMinn (Member without Portfolio)
- Rachel Ewing (Member without Portfolio)
- Hilary Friel (Branch Chair)
- Sam McConkey (DSW Representative)
- Sarah Laverty (BDA Campaigns and Policy Officer)
Board members biographies
Debbie McGugan
Debbie is the Chair of the Northern Ireland Board. Debbie McGugan qualified as a Dietitian in 2000. She commenced her dietetic career in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital, England, before returning home to Northern Ireland to take up post in Whiteabbey Hospital, NHSCT. She has held various dietetic positions within the HSC, but her interests and majority of HSC dietetic experience has occurred within the community setting. Early in her career, Debbie had the opportunity to work within specialist multi-professional teams and develop HSC dietetic roles within newly funded positions. In 2003, Debbie also began working part-time as a freelance Dietitian and has continued to work in private practice over the past 20 years. This has added valuable breadth to her dietetic practice. Debbie currently works in a community rehab dietetic role within Northern Health and Social Services Trust. She enjoys new challenges, and with the support of her management, she trained as a Covid-19 vaccinator in 2020. It proved to be a fantastic learning opportunity, working within a diverse Covid-19 vaccination team. Debbie is enthusiastic about quality improvement and remains passionate about multidisciplinary working. In 2023, she completed the Institute for Health’s Basic certificate in Quality and Safety, as part of the Health Trusts Safety Quality North programme. Debbie hopes that the experience of her career to date, combined with her energy and enthusiasm, will help her to contribute positively to 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.
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.
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.
Jill Stewart
Jill is a Public Health Dietitian working in the Northern Health and Social Care Trust and regionally with the Public Health Dietitians Group (PHDG) Northern Ireland. Jill’s special areas of interest include health inequalities and obesity prevention. Prior to working in public health, Jill has a range of acute dietetic experience having worked in the Ulster Hospital, Royal Victoria Hospital and Antrim Area Hospital. Jill is enthusiastic about service improvement and loves the challenge of introducing innovative ways of working, particularly using technology and virtual methods. A career highlight to date was winning the Advancing Healthcare Northern Ireland Government award for reform and rebuild of health and social care services post Covid-19 for project “Rebuilding Public Health Nutrition in a Virtual World” in May 2021. Twitter handle: @jillstewart_RD
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.
Rachel Ewing
Rachel is an Advanced Practice Diabetes Dietitian working within secondary diabetes care in the South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust. Rachel qualified as a Dietitian from the Ulster University, Coleraine in 2016. She has worked in three of the five HSC trusts in Northern Ireland and has gained experience across a range of clinical settings since she began her career. The majority of Rachel’s specialist clinical experience has been within renal and diabetes dietetics. Rachel has a keen interest in type 1 diabetes and pump therapy. She is passionate about the dietetic profession and hopes that her contributions sitting on the Board of the British Dietetic Associations as well as being a representative for AHPFNI can help enhance the role of dietitians within health care.
Hilary Friel
Hilary is the Chair of the Northern Ireland Branch. She qualified as a dietitian in 1992. She has been working as a Diabetes Specialist Dietitian in the Western Trust since 2004. She was happy to accept an invitation to join the Northern Ireland Board in her capacity as Chair of the NI Branch. She hopes that having Branch representation at Board level will enable greater communication between the Board and the Branch. She’s also looking forward to gaining a greater understanding of the function of the Board, and working towards a shared NI work plan and vision. Hilary is also happy to represent the Western Trust at Board Level.
Sarah Laverty
Sarah is the BDA Policy and Campaigns Officer for Northern Ireland. Her role involves building relationships with key stakeholders, engaging with government, developing policy expertise and ensuring that the voice of dietetics in Northern Ireland is heard by the right people at the right time. She also works with the wider BDA Policy and Campaigns team to forward the five campaigns that make up the BDA manifesto (link: BDA Manifesto - British Dietetic Association (BDA)). Sarah brings to the BDA a decade of experience engaging in Northern Ireland’s political arena and has worked on a wide range of campaigns. Most recently she worked as a political campaigner for Northern Ireland’s national students’ union, where she spent 3 years leading their policy, public affairs and communications work in Northern Ireland.
Minutes of meetings
Minutes are available for members. Please log in to download them if you are a BDA member.