| Dr Kathleen Leahy |
|
Research Fellow |
| Biography |
Dr Kathleen (Katie) Leahy is a Research Fellow who recently completed her PhD in nutritional sciences in the United States. Katie’s PhD research focused on ingestive (eating) behaviour and obesity with a specific interest in the development of feeding strategies to reduce energy intake in young children. Katie conducted three experimental feeding studies examining the effects of energy density and portion size of foods on food and energy intake in young children (2- to 5-year-olds). As a doctoral student, Katie was an active member of two laboratories, where she gained additional research experience by participating in the study design and the data collection of fourteen other studies. The majority of these were feeding studies designed to investigate adult eating behaviour through the use of satiety and satiation protocols. Katie was also involved in data collection for a longitudinal project that followed girls from age 5 years to 15 years.
Since arriving in Australia, Katie has increased the breadth of her research interests to include oral health. She has also moved outside of the area of controlled feeding studies and into population health. Katie has maintained her interest in young children’s eating behaviour and obesity by becoming involved in a longitudinal project investigating the relationships between young children’s beverage consumption and their obesity risk and oral health.