Rosie Mensah (she/her)

Ontario and Ghana

Editor

Rosie Mensah is a Registered Dietitian, Consultant, and Food Justice Activist dedicated to addressing health inequities, particularly in Black and marginalized communities. As a dietitian, she champions cultural food and educates audiences to honour and reconnect with their cultural heritage. With her roots in the Ashanti region of Ghana, she is a strong advocate for celebrating the diverse foods found across Africa. With an intersectional approach, she develops and leads programs aimed at empowering individuals to embrace diverse foods and advance health equity. Rosie holds a Master of Public Health in Nutrition and Dietetics from the University of Toronto and is a registered member of the College of Dietitians of Ontario.

Joie Shaw (she/her)

Ontario
Editor

Joie Shaw is a Registered Dietitian currently pursuing her MSc in Nutrition and Food Biosciences. Her love for food and culture inspired her career in dietetics, a passion that continues to feed into her work. Her master’s thesis, which focused on Food Literacy within a university population, involved designing and delivering a cooking workshop intervention catered to a diverse student body. As one of few BIPOC students in her undergraduate nutrition program, Joie witnessed firsthand the significant gap in education regarding dietetic care for diverse populations. She is dedicated to contributing to educational resources that foster cultural competencies in health care professionals. As such, she has partnered with interdisciplinary research teams to develop online learning modules for dietitians and dietetics students, emphasizing culturally competent care. Recently, Joie assumed the role of co-chair of the Canadian Black Registered Dietitians Association alongside Bianca Cordeiro, RD, MAN. She is enthusiastic to collaborate with fellow Black dietitians to foster a supportive and inclusive network.

Fatoumata Binta Balde (elle/she)

Quebec
Content Contributor & Editor

Fatoumata Binta Baldé is a Registered Dietitian and MSc candidate in Public Health Nutrition at the Université de Montréal. Her clinical practice focuses on women’s health, including metabolic health, hormonal conditions, fertility, and nutrition care delivered through a holistic, trauma-informed, and culturally safe approach. Beyond clinical practice, Binta is committed to advancing health equity for Black communities through research, community engagement, and knowledge translation. Her work explores the social determinants of health, anti-Black racism in healthcare, and culturally responsive nutrition practices that reconcile traditional foodways with evidence-based care. Binta has contributed to international public health and community-based research initiatives in West Africa, collaborating with local communities and multidisciplinary partners on projects related to nutrition, education, and health promotion. These experiences have strengthened her commitment to developing context-specific, community-driven approaches to health. She is also the co-host of Hangry & Critical, a podcast that bridges nutrition science with lived experience by exploring topics such as women’s health, food justice, culture, identity, and health equity through thoughtful and accessible conversations. Through her clinical work, research, teaching, and community initiatives, Binta strives to promote more equitable, inclusive, and culturally responsive health systems for Black communities and beyond.

Amirah Oyesegun (they/them)

Ontario
Content Contributor & Editor

Amirah is a Registered Dietitian, Community Organizer, and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Specialist, currently completing their MHA. Their work and advocacy focus on the intersection of food justice/food insecurity, race/anti-racism, and climate change.

Jennifer Brady (she/her)

Nova Scotia

Associate Professor, Acadia University (Full biography available in the Contributors section).

Phone: 902-585-1351
Email: jennifer.brady@acadiau.ca

Eric Ng (he/him/his)

Ontario

Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, University of Toronto (Full biography available in the Contributors section).

Email: erickh.ng@utoronto.ca

Caroline Wai (she/her)

Ontario

Caroline is a first generation immigrant and settler to Canada. She is a Registered Dietitian with a Master of Health Science in Community Nutrition from the University of Toronto. Caroline previously worked as a Public Health Nutritionist and as a Health Equity Specialist with a local public health agency in Ontario. In the latter role, she trained hundreds of health professionals, developed health equity indicators for local public health agencies, was one of the lead researchers for the City’s first Confronting Anti-Black Racism Action Plan, and successfully advocated for provincial health equity standards. Committed to social justice and changing systems, Caroline is also the co-author of the first definition of anti-oppressive dietetic practice with Eric Ng.

Jacqui Gingras (she/her)

Ontario

Jacqui Gingras is a researcher focusing on social health movements, fat studies, critical pedagogies, and the decolonization of higher education and health professions. Her work examines these fields through the lens of colonial neoliberal economics and intersectional feminisms. Published in the Fat Studies Journal, Journal of Sociology, and Critical Public Health, she is also the founding editor of the peer-reviewed, open-access Journal of Critical Dietetics.

Nadia Pabani (she/her)

Ontario

Nadia Pabani is a Registered Dietitian advancing health equity through policy, systems change, and community-informed approaches. She currently leads provincial projects at Ontario Health to support improvements in diabetes care for equity-deserving populations, including First Nations, Inuit, and Métis communities, as well as Black, South Asian, women’s, and 2SLGBTQIA+ communities. Her work focuses on increasing access to culturally safe and responsive care and reducing the impact of barriers to health, including poverty, food insecurity, and systemic inequities, through strategic partnerships, engagement, and evidence-informed action. Prior to her current role, Nadia worked as a community diabetes dietitian at Regent Park Community Health Centre and co-founded Dietitians for Food Justice.

Jennifer Atkins (she/her)

Ontario

Jennifer Atkins (she/her), MPH, RD, is a Registered Dietitian at Sherbourne Health. She is TMU alumni (undergraduate), and completed a specialization in Community Nutrition with a Concentration in Global Health at U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She has seventeen years of dietetic practice working primarily with newcomers to Toronto, and more recently 2SLGBTQ+ communities. Her approach to care is grounded in Health at Every Size, and interdisciplinary care to support positive relationships with our food and bodies and to de-mystify and personalize the complex world of nutrition. She believes food is a human right and is committed to facilitating access to good food.

Quotes from the Expert Panel:

“The whole time I was like feeling all the tingles. So I’m very proud of this project… and super excited about the work because I can’t even imagine how much work went into it, but to see the full product… I’m very excited to be part of helping push it forward.”

“This project is offering a heart and minds intervention previously absent from academia, and legitimacy and empowerment for Black students and professionals who have lacked this kind of institutional recognition.”

“I was going through the press book as someone who’s not in academia… and I kept thinking, like, other professionals in my sphere would love to take this press book… I would love for organizations that I think would be interested in partnering and exposing the dietitians who work there.”

“Anyone who’s doing anti-oppressive work in dietetics or in the social sciences [will find this speaks to them powerfully]… data will help students speak to the people who are making the decisions… that people need to have this information as part of their education as becoming dietitians.”