Rate My Professor Courtney Barnes

Dr Courtney Barnes is a Research Fellow in the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle, within the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing. An Accredited Practising Dietitian, she holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Behavioural Science, awarded by the University of Newcastle in November 2021, and a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics (Honours), completed in 2016 from the same institution. Her academic and professional journey at the University of Newcastle began as a PhD candidate in the College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing from May 2018 to June 2021. Concurrently, she served as a Project Officer with Hunter New England Population Health's Good for Kids. Good for Life program from May to June 2021. Following her PhD, she progressed to Post Doctoral Researcher in the School of Medicine and Public Health from June 2021 to September 2022, before assuming her current role as Research Fellow since September 2022.

As a public health researcher and implementation scientist, Dr Barnes focuses on the development and evaluation of chronic disease prevention programs in community-based settings, including schools and early childhood education and care services. Her research includes large-scale projects such as the national roll-out of a childcare web-based menu planning program and state-wide school-based nutrition programs, as well as strategies to prevent e-cigarette use among children and adolescents. She conducts systematic reviews using novel and rigorous methodologies. Dr Barnes is a Research Associate with Cochrane Public Health. Key publications include 'Interventions to prevent or cease electronic cigarette use in children and adolescents' (2023), 'Healthy eating interventions delivered in early childhood education and care settings for improving the diet of children aged six months to six years' (2023), 'Nutrition and physical movement behaviours in education and care settings' (2023), 'A theoretically designed scale-up intervention increases adoption of an effective school nutrition program SWAP IT: outcomes of a randomised trial' (2026), 'Learning health system for implementation, scale-up, and sustainment: a systematic review to consolidate guidance for improvement' (2026), 'Adapting the Nutrition and Physical Activity Self-Assessment: A Cross-Country Case Study of Improving Early Childhood Health Environments' (2025), and 'Improving the adoption of a school-based nutrition program: findings from a collaborative network of randomised trials' (2025). Her scholarship has amassed over 1,190 citations, underscoring her influence in implementation science and public health nutrition.