Rate My Professor Jannah Jones

Dr. Jannah Jones is a Research Fellow in the School of Medicine and Public Health within the Faculty of Health and Medicine at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and a Bachelor of Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Newcastle. As an early career researcher, dietitian, and public health practitioner with more than 10 years of experience, she specializes in conducting large-scale innovative implementation interventions to promote healthy eating, physical activity, and obesity prevention in young children across settings such as schools and early childhood education and care services. Her career history encompasses her current role as Program Manager for Hunter New England Population Health and the University of Newcastle since November 2016. Previously, she served as Post-Doctoral Researcher in the Faculty of Health and Medicine from May to October 2016, Casual Academic in the Faculty of Health and Medicine from July 2015 to June 2016, and Public Health Nutritionist at Hunter New England Population Health from March 2010 to November 2012. She also holds the position of HMRI/Hunter New England Clinical & Health Services Research Fellow.

Dr. Jones's research interests include child health, early childhood, implementation science, nutrition, obesity prevention, physical activity, and public health, with fields of research encompassing implementation science and evaluation (40%), public health nutrition (30%), and health promotion (30%). She has authored 48 peer-reviewed publications and secured over $2 million in competitive grant funding and awards. Key publications include Barnes et al., 'Improving the adoption of a school-based nutrition program: findings from a collaborative network of randomised trials' (Implementation Science, 2025); Yoong et al., 'Impact of a multi-component implementation strategy to increase outdoor free play opportunities in early childhood education and care services: the get outside get active (GOGA) randomised controlled trial' (International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 2025); Herdegen et al., 'Understanding what drives schools to adopt effective school-based nutrition programs: a cross-sectional study of barriers and facilitators' (Translational Behavioral Medicine, 2025); Barnes et al., 'A collaborative network trial to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation strategies to maximize adoption of a school-based healthy lunchbox program: a study protocol' (Frontiers in Public Health, 2024); and Yoong et al., 'Healthy eating interventions delivered in early childhood education and care settings for improving the diet of children aged six months to six years' (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2023). Her work has led to the scale-up of the SWAP IT Healthy Lunchbox program across more than 800 primary schools in Australia, impacting over 200,000 students.