Lynne Kennedy

Lynne was previously employed in the department of public health as a Lecturer in Public Health Nutrition at the University of Liverpool (1994-2009). Where she was heavily involved in national work on food poverty, nutrition inequalities, had significant input into the development of the community food worker model and health trainers and was involved in initiatives such as the Low Income Nutrition Task Force (Department of Health) Heart of Mersey. She moved to the University of Chester in SEptember 2013 after 4 years in Wales, at Glyndwr University (2009-2013). Here she was promoted from Senior Lecturer in Public Health to Reader (2011) and Head of Department for Health & Medical Sciences (2011), with responsibility for the University’s partnership in the Cardiff University North Wales (Medical) Clinical School and subsequently (2012) Director of the University Research Centre for Health, Wellbeing & Society. In 2013 she was awarded an Honorary Research Fellow by Public Health Wales (2013-15) to progress research and policy developments in the area of health assets and health improvement. Also this year she was selected onto the nationally acclaimed Welsh Crucible programme for advancing leading researchers in Wales.

Since 1994 she has been a long term member of the European Training Consortia (ETC) for Public Health and Health Promotion in Europe, resulting in considerable experience of public health and health improvement approaches in the European and international context. In the past two decades she was engaged European collaborative research projects involving innovative particpatory action research to promote nutrition and healthy eating in socially disadvantaged communities; this builds on her work around empowerment and nutrition education with mothers and low-income families. She is currently engaged in establishing international research collaboration with Nordic countries, Netherlands and Spain around exploring the salutogenic (origins of health) approach to study food and eating in todays complex society, understanding how some people are capable despite living in 'obesogenic' environments - of developing positive relationships with food to enhance health and wellbeing. She is passionate about the role of diet in health from a socail justice and human rights perspective.