I am a Registered Public Health Nutritionist and Senior Lecturer within the Department of Built Environment and Life Sciences. Until 2015, I was a Research Nutritionist at the Centre for Public Health Nutrition Research, University of Dundee for 16 years where I completed my PhD.

My PhD research, “An exploratory analysis of the Scottish Diet 2001-2009 using Household Purchase Data” continued to be the main focus of my research until 2021 - conducting secondary analysis of the Living Costs and Food Survey, investigating dietary patterns within the Scottish Population and monitoring progress towards the Scottish Dietary Goals. My work remains focused on public health nutrition where I am interested in food choice, disease prevention through diet and lifestyle intervention, and food and nutrition policy.

As a member of the Scottish Government Cross Party Group on Food, I am involved in contributing to policy development on food issues in Scotland. 

I was a member of the Scottish Section Committee of the Nutrition Society from 2016-2021 and am currently a member of the Membership Committee. I am a peer reviewer for grant applications and technical reports for Food Standards Scotland, and a member of the Food Technical Working Group on Scottish Dietary Goals. In addiiton, I am a STEM Ambassador.

Programme leader for BSc (Hons) Fitness Nutrition and Health (2016-24) and Subject Lead for Food Science Nutrition and Wellbeing Programmes (2024-25).

Lecturer on the following Programmes:

• BSc (Hons) Food Science, Nutrition and Wellbeing
• BSc (Hons) Food, Nutrition and Health
• BSc (Hons) Food and Consumer Sciences
• BSc (Hons) Fitness, Nutrition and Health

Module Leader:

• Health Promotion and Public Health Nutrition 1 (stage 2)
• Health Promotion and Public Health Nutrition 2 (stage 4)
• Placement (stage 4)

Contributing tutor:

• Fundamentals of Nutrition (stage 1)
• Nutrition and the Consumer (stage 1)
• Food Design and promotion (stage 2)
• Honours Project (stage 4)

Karen’s research to date has been in the field of nutrition and has involved coordinating public health nutrition research projects including work on food choice, dietary assessment methodology, diet and lifestyle interventions for disease prevention, and food and nutrition policy. A large focus of her work has been on diet survey methodology and assessment. In particular, secondary analysis of the Living Costs and Food Survey, investigating dietary patterns within the Scottish Population and monitoring the Scottish Dietary Targets (funded by Food Standards Scotland). This project also formed the basis of her PhD studies.

At the Centre for Medical Education, University of Dundee Karen coordinated the JISC funded ‘Interactive Assessment and Collaboration via Technology’ (interACT) project which aims to re-engineer assessment and feedback systems in online distance learning to promote dialogic feedback and the NHS Education for Scotland funded project: Setting the agenda for dental education research in Scotland: A priority setting exercise (PSE) including multiple stakeholders.

• Member of the Nutrition Society
• Committee member of the Scottish Section of the Nutrition Society (2016-21); member of the Membership Committee (2024-date)
• Registered Nutritionist (Public Health) RNutr
• STEM Ambassador, STEMNET (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Network), North East of Scotland Region
• Member of the Scottish Government Cross Party on Food
• Peer reviewer for Appetite, Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Journal of Nutritional Science, Nutrition Journal, Public Health Nutrition and Children
• Peer reviewer of grant applications and technical reports for Food Standards Scotland
• Grant assessor for Scottish Medical Education Research Consortium (SMERC)
• Mentor for British Science Association, Gold Crest Award

As a STEM Ambassador I have carried out a number of public engagement events in the area of food science and nutrition. I have also used these events as an opportunity to promote Abertay University as a place to study.