Rate My Professor Rachael McLean

Professor Rachael McLean is a full professor in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the University of Otago's Dunedin School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine. As a public health physician specializing in nutrition, her research centers on the relationship between food choices, nutrition, and chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, obesity, and diabetes. She investigates environmental factors influencing dietary behaviors, public health interventions to reduce salt intake, precise methods for measuring population-level sodium consumption, and strategies for implementing effective nutrition policies. McLean earned a Master of Public Health and a PhD in 2013 from the University of Otago, with her doctoral thesis titled "Sodium in New Zealand: intake, consumer perceptions, and implications for chronic disease," supervised by Jim Mann, Sheila Williams, and Janet Hoek. After completing her PhD, she joined the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine, advancing to associate professor in 2020 and full professor in 2024. In 2024, she delivered her Inaugural Professorial Lecture entitled "Food and advocacy: measurement matters." She is a member of the Edgar National Centre for Diabetes Research and actively engages in public health advocacy.

McLean's scholarly impact is evident in her contributions to global health guidelines and practices. She has pioneered methods for assessing sodium intake that have shaped international best practices and informed dietary recommendations, including those from the World Health Organization. Her advocacy has focused on lowering salt content in processed foods to meet WHO targets, and she has evaluated initiatives like "traffic light" food labeling to improve consumer choices in New Zealand. As leader of a $2 million Cancer Society Research Collaboration involving the University of Otago, Massey University, and Victoria University of Wellington, she works to reduce cancer incidence, impact, and inequities. Key publications include co-authorship on the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration's "Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016" (The Lancet, 2017), "Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults" (Nature, 2019), and her own "Measuring population sodium intake: a review of methods" (Nutrients, 2014). She has secured grants from the Heart Foundation for projects developing heart-healthy bread and potassium-enriched salt substitutes, enhancing cardiovascular health outcomes. McLean's work extends to committee roles, editorial contributions, and public lectures on nutrition and disease prevention.