Profile

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Kerry Ann Brown

    • About Me:

      I’m from Brighton in Sussex and now live in Exeter, Devon. I love surfing, snowboarding, and being outside in the fresh air!

    • My Work:

      I work at the University of Exeter, as a senior lecturer in nutrition. I teach students about the relationship between food and health, and carry out research to try and make sure the food we eat is healthy, fair, and sustainable – so we can all eat food to make us healthy today and tomorrow without harming the environment.

    • Read more

      I teach nutrition to students completing degrees at the University of Exeter. This involves giving lectures, running seminars, and setting assessments (sometimes exams, yes sorry!) to help students learn about the relationship between food and health. We also go on fieldtrips to local farms!

      I teach a sustainable nutrition module. This is all about how we can make the food we grow, sell/buy, and eat the best quality it can be without harming the planet.

      My research is in Europe, India, Madagascar, and the UK. I work with other academics to analyse dietary patterns, review scientific evidence, or speak to people to ask their opinions. This helps me identify problems and develop solutions, so our governments  can improve the health of populations, whilst also protecting the planet.

    • My Typical Day:

      An example UK day might be walking to work around 8am. I always have a cup of tea when I arrive and say hello to the technicians who work in the same building as me. I check my e-mails, give a lecture for students, and perhaps hold a meeting over Zoom to discuss research with one of my colleagues. I go for a walk at lunchtime, and always take time to enjoy my lunch. In the afternoon I tend to write lectures or write up research results or speak with PhD students who are completing their research doctorates. I walk home around 5pm, unless I go for a swim straight after work!

      This week I was in Birmingham for a conference where we ran a seminar, which involved presenting and discussing our research with a panel of speakers and a room full of public health experts. I spent a lot of the day chatting to new people and bumping into old colleagues. Today I am going to a school where we will be using creative methods [collage] to help young people come up with some new research ideas that they think are important and worthwhile to investigate.

    • Read more

      On Friday I walked to work on a sunny day and had a cup of tea. I turned on my laptop and answered e-mails. One of these e-mails was from a colleague in India who has asked me to join a workshop on Monday to discuss a report they have written titled ‘diet and food systems for health, climate, and planet’. I accepted!

      I had a meeting online (Zoom!) with a colleague in the Geography department at 11.00. I invited them to teach a lecture on the new sustainability module I have developed, as I believe the students will learn a lot from this person who works with local Devon food banks and Devon schools.

      Another colleague came by to say hello at midday and we chatted about our teaching for next term, as well as the surf in Bude! I then went for a walk around the campus and had some lunch before coming back to my computer to write this!

      I tend to teach in the mornings and answer my e-mails. I tend to use the afternoons to conduct research and complete my writing. This could be writing a lecture, writing up the results of my research, commenting on a colleagues research, or writing a proposal to do more research.

    • What I'd do with the prize money:

      Wow, if I won £500 I would be very grateful! I would use it to print out a card game on sustainable diets and send versions of these cards to schools to help students learn about sustainable nutrition.

      The card game is a form of top trumps. Each card represents a food. For each food there is information on nutrition (e.g., how much energy strawberries give you!), as well as information on the environment (e.g., how much water does it take to grow strawberries!).

      I think these cards are a good way to learn something new! They are easy and quick and could take up a lot of a lesson and involve playing a game with your classmates rather than writing anything down!

    CV

    • Education:

      I went to my local village primary school in Hurstpierpoint, Sussex, and then the local (state comprehensive) secondary school in the nearest town Hassocks until I was 16 years old. Once I completed my GCSE’s I decided to go on to do my A Levels and had to choose a sixth form college. I decided to go a local college in Brighton, called BHASVIC, as it wasn’t far and I could sit on the beach at lunchtimes!

    • Qualifications:

      GCSE’s, A Levels, BSc, MSc, PhD

    • Work History:

      I had a comprehensive state school education. I went on to do an unusal degree: sport science & psychology. I then went to work and live in Canada for a couple of years, so I could snowboard every day – I was very lucky and lived off porridge for a lot of this time!

      I came back to the UK and worked in London whilst I studied for a Masters in Nutrition. I then started working as a researcher at the University of Surrey.

      I completed A LOT of overtime at Surrey working on a survey for the Ministry of Defence. This helped me fund a trip to join a good friend in New Zealand. I lived in NZ for a short while, whilst working at the Auckland University (there was also some surfing involved). I then came back to the UK to work at the University of Surrey and completed my PhD part time whilst working on a number of different research projects. These projects involved a lot of travelling around Europe, and I met some very inspiring people who I continue to work with today.

      I moved on to work at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine where I joined a project with my excellent colleagues at the Public Health Foundation of India. I moved to the University of Exeter at the end of 2021 to be near to the sea and further my work on sustainability.

    • Current Job:

      I currently work at the University of Exeter as a senior lecturer in nutrition.

    • Employer:

      University of Exeter.

    • My Interview

      • How would you describe yourself in 3 words?

        surfing nutrition lecturer

        What did you want to be after you left school?

        A carpenter

        Were you ever in trouble at school?

        I asked a lot of difficult questions sometimes but was not particularly in trouble

        Who is your favourite singer or band?

        Christine and the Queens

        What's your favourite food?

        Marmite on toast

        If you had 3 wishes for yourself what would they be? - be honest!

        To be happy, to be healthy, to be kind

Questions answered by Kerry Ann

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