Dietary Guidelines Governance Committee

Professor Bero has an interest in the translation of science into clinical practice and health policy, with a particular focus on methods for assessing bias in the design, conduct and dissemination of research. Professor Bero has sat on a number of international committees related to conflicts of interest and research. She has widely published in many journals and her current research program covers bias, meta-analysis and systematic reviews, pharmaceutical policy, tobacco control policy and methods for environmental hazard and risk assessment.

Doctor Bastian has an interest in epidemiology and effectiveness research. She was a founding member and has held multiple roles at the Cochrane Collaboration. She was formerly a senior clinical research scientist at the US National Institutes of Health, in its National Centre for Biotechnology Information. Doctor Bastian headed the Health Information Department at the National Institute of Quality and Efficiency in Health Care in Germany. Her research interest is in factors affecting the validity of systematic reviews.

Professor Olver has been instrumental in establishing multiple oncology clinics across Australia. He has held many leadership positions in the area of oncology and research. In 2020 he accepted the position of Professorial Research Fellow, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Adelaide and Adjunct Professor, School of Public Health, in the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences. He has published over 330 articles in journals, 28 book chapters and 4 books.  

Professor Olver has served on many ethics committees including the Australian Health Ethics Committee of the NHMRC for 9 years and was chair for 6 years until 2018. He also served on the NHMRC Council for 6 years. He serves on the Cancer Monitoring Advisory Group of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. He currently chairs the Board for the Sax Institute in Sydney and the Adolescent and Young Adult Advisory Board to Canteen. Professor Olver was awarded Membership of the Order of Australia (AM) in 2011 “for service to medical oncology as a clinician, researcher, administrator and mentor, and to the community through leadership roles with cancer control organisations”. 

Associate Professor Richards has an interest in the intersection of healthcare, law and ethics. Her research has focussed on consent to treatment, technology and healthcare and organ and tissue donation. She was previously employed at the University of Adelaide Law School for many years and then spent a short period of time researching responsible data governance at the Singapore ETH Centre, Future Health Technologies Project. She serves on two NHMRC Principal Committees and has been involved in public consultations on mitochondrial donation. Her co-authored book, ‘Technology, Healthcare and the Law: An evolving relationship’ was published in early 2022 and she has published over 80 journal articles, book chapters and books.

Professor Ghersi was the Senior Principal Research Scientist at NHMRC. She advised on aspects of the evaluation and use of research evidence, including research funded by NHMRC and clinical practice, public health and environmental health guidelines produced by the agency. She is experienced in leading clinical trials, cohort study and guideline reform. Professor Ghersi has published extensively in peer reviewed journals on the topic of best practice methodologies and processes for public health and guideline development.