Our Team

Heather holds qualifications in Public Health and Project Management and has extensive experience in managing health improvement projects and fostering effective stakeholder engagement to deliver meaningful outcomes. Before joining the National Allergy Strategy in 2019, Heather worked on safety and quality initiatives in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Health, Western Australia. Heather also spent time in the UK, contributing to a medical leadership project with the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement. Heather is passionate about improving healthcare services for patients, and optimising the utilisation of healthcare resources, while ensuring effective communication and collaboration at all levels.

Bachelor of Health Science (Hons Public Health); Diploma of Project Management.

Krista comes to us after a decade in the Financial Advising space, with a speciality in Aged Care her passion has always been supporting and assisting vulnerable community members. Along with alleviating financial stress through strategic planning for her clients, Krista has many years experience as an Operations Manager, mentoring, motivating and leading a team as well as strategic business management through budgeting, reporting and leading payroll and accounts receivable and payable.

Krista is a Xero accredited Adviser with a Graduate Diploma and working towards her Masters.

Ingrid Roche is an Accredited Practising Dietitian who graduated from Curtin University in 1995. She worked clinically with children and families with food allergy in her role as Senior Paediatric Dietitian in the Immunology Department at Perth Children’s Hospital in Western Australia for 13 years and still works part time in her private practice.

Ingrid has been an active ASCIA member, serving as the Chair of the Dietitian Committee and leading the development of online training for dietitians, as well as an advanced face to face food allergy training course for dietitians which is a partnership between ASCIA and the Dietitians Association of Australia. Ingrid has a strong interest in food allergen management in food service. She was heavily involved in the development of the new menu and food service system at the new Perth Children’s Hospital

Dr Merryn Netting is an experience clinical paediatric dietitian and was based at the Adelaide Women’s and Children’s Hospital for over 30 years. She has contributed over 50 peer reviewed publications to the fields of infant feeding, and allergy prevention and management.

Merryn is an active member of ASCIA and was inaugural chair of the ASCIA Dietitians Committee. Prior to working with the National Allergy Council, she volunteered for the National Allergy Strategy as co-lead for several projects. Her work with the National Allergy Council involves coordinating translational projects aiming to improve the lives of Australians with allergic disease. She is project lead for the Schools and Children’s Education and Care project.

PhD (Adelaide 2015), Bachelor Nutrition & Dietetics (Flinders 1988), BSc (Flinders 1985), Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian.

Jillian has a diverse background in FMCG, community program development and healthcare operations. As a Food Technologist in the retail sector, Jillian worked closely with suppliers to help them meet food quality, safety and regulatory standards across a range of fresh food categories. Pursuing her passion for improving health and wellbeing outcomes, Jillian went on to complete her Masters in Health Promotion, while applying her project management and consumer engagement skills to deliver programs for people impacted by cancer at Breast Cancer Network Australia and Western Health.

Jillian managed the GP Integration Unit at Western Health, where she liaised with hospital clinicians, GPs and executives to break down barriers to effective communication in order to deliver best care to patients.

Masters of Health Promotion – Deakin University; Advanced Diploma Community Sector Management – Victoria University; Bachelor of Science (Food Science & Technology) – Curtin University; Diploma of Quality Assurance; Lead Food Safety Auditor; PRINCE2 Agile.

Erin is an experienced Project Officer in implementing local, state-wide and national health projects.

Her career journey has included multiple roles implementing projects and change initiatives where she has been able to significantly improve patient care and drive improvements and efficiencies in the healthcare sector.

BSc (Public Health), PRINCE2 practitioner

Samantha has a background in public health research and project management and is a Research Associate at the School of Population and Global Health at the University of Western Australia. She has worked across a range of research projects involving epidemiological and passive surveillance studies and has expertise in the use of linked health data. Samantha is currently undertaking her PhD at the University of Western Australia in the area of anaphylaxis epidemiology, which aims to provide an evidence base, to improve reporting and management of anaphylaxis across the health system.

PhD Candidate – University of Western Australia; Masters of Public Health – University of Western Australia; Masters of Infectious Disease – University of Western Australia; BSc (Biomedical Science) – Murdoch University 

Angela has a strong background in marketing, communications and graphic design. She has many years of experience managing and improving social media following and engagement. Her range of skills include developing and implementing social media and communications strategies, graphic design, website management and email marketing.

Diploma of Graphic Design; Bachelor of Business.