Join us for Nourish & Thrive, a seminar hosted by the NSA Adelaide Branch dedicated to exploring how nutrition shapes our health and well-being from childhood through to older age.
This year’s seminar features two dynamic speakers:
🔹 Dr. Mavra Ahmed (University of Toronto) will present Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds, sharing powerful insights from Canadian school food programs and what student voices can teach us about designing inclusive, equitable, and health-promoting food environments for youth.
🔹 Evangeline Mantzioris (University of South Australia) will discuss Avoiding the Mid-Life Nutritional Crisis, offering a practical and evidence-based look at diet and wellness in adulthood (including menopause)—drawing on her expertise as a dietitian, educator, and public voice in nutrition.
Together, these talks will span the nutrition landscape—highlighting key challenges, opportunities, and innovations that can support thriving at every stage of life.
Whether you're a researcher, clinician, student, or nutrition advocate, come along to connect, learn, and reflect on the evolving science of food and health.
About our Speakers:
Dr. Mavra Ahmed
Dr. Mavra Ahmed is a Research Associate at the Joannah and Brian Lawson Centre for Child Nutrition and the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto. She also holds adjunct faculty and lecturer positions at Ontario Tech University, Toronto Metropolitan and York University. Her areas of expertise include food and nutrition policy (e.g., food labeling, marketing, nutrient profiling, and consumer nutrition literacy), dietary assessment, digital health interventions, and the application of machine learning/artificial intelligence in nutrition research.
Dr. Ahmed’s research focuses on equitable, evidence-based approaches for informing public health nutrition policy, including areas such as the nutritional quality of the packaged food supply, front-of-pack labelling, marketing to children, school food programs, nutrition education, and behavior change through digital interventions. She currently leads several projects investigating the role of food environments in shaping children’s and adolescents’ dietary choices and health outcomes. This includes Feeding Kids, Nourishing Minds (FKNM), a national initiative examining school food programs across Canada, and Nutrition Equity, a project aimed at characterization of food environments.
Dr Evangeline Mantzioris
Evangeline is the Program Director of the Nutrition and Food Sciences Degree. She is an Accredited Practicing Dietitian (APD) and Sports Dietitian (AccSD), with experience in clinical dietetics and clinical teaching. In 2021 she was appointed to the NHMRC Australian Dietary Guidelines Expert Review Committee. Evangeline is passionate about communicating nutritional science to the public. She is an invited talker and media communicator for radio, television and print. She is an author and editor, and writer for The Conversation. Evangeline's research interests include: Fats; Sports nutrition, Mediterranean Diet and the Environment-Food nexus.
