the wholesome collective team

Meet Kerryn Boogaard

Kerryn is the Director of The Wholesome Collective and a passionate Accredited Practising Dietitian, Accredited Sports Dietitian and Credentialled Diabetes Educator. Kerryn just loves food and cooking, and enjoys showing people how to translate strategic nutrition recommendations to their plate, with interactive cooking classes and presentations. When she is not cooking, teaching, eating, posting foodie pics on instagram or writing, Kerryn can be found running, surfing or doing yoga (a new found outlet after a few years of triathlon and long-distance running).

Kerryn currently conducts individual consultations in the Newcastle area and is available for phone or skype consults for those outside of the area. She specialises in diabetes and sports nutrition and has a special interest in women's health and pregnancy planning. 

Kerryn's career so far has seen her:

• Work as a clinical dietitian at Wyong Hospital, NSW.
• Work as a dietitian and diabetes educator at Diabetes SA where she was responsible for individual coaching, group education, guest speaking, health professional training and writing. 
• Teach kids and adults lifestyle based cooking skills at Sprout Cooking School in South Australia, along-side dietitian Themis Chryssidis and Masterchef All-Stars winner Callum Hann.
• Write for various publications and magazines including Diabetes SA Living, Motherpedia online, Healthy and Heartwise, Runners World and Selector (food and wine magazine).
• Provide sports nutrition services for individuals and various sporting clubs and organisations including South Australia Sports Institute, Adelaide Crows Football Club, Lakers Triathlon Club, Running Domain, Newcastle Jets Football Club and Waterpolo SA.

You can read more about Kerryn's food and nutrition philosophy here.

Mary Wills

Mary is a Home Economist and member of The Home Economics Institute of Australia. The term Home Economist is quite old fashioned, with people linking it to school teaching, baking and home duties, yet it is a diverse and dynamic role within the community. A home economist is not a trained chef, but works in the community educating people to increase their cooking skills in the home, developing recipes for books, magazines and publications, food styling for photography and working in the health system as assistants to Dietitians. The role of a home economist is also evolving as an advocate for healthy eating.

Mary has a wealth of experience in the food industry and has worked with a broad cross-section of the community (from kids to our eldest community members). She is so passionate about helping people of all ages and stages develop the skills necessary to make every cooking experience an enjoyable one. She has a great understanding of how to make you feel comfortable and confident in the kitchen, using her tips and tricks to achieve fabulous and nutritious results.

Her career has seen her:

• Manage the very successful Cooking Coordinates Cooking School in Canberra ACT, which saw her teach various cuisines and culinary skills for corporate groups, kids and adults. As part of this role she also assisted in classes hosted by celebrity food personalities and was responsible for developing and testing recipes for all classes.
• Manage World Wide Cooking School on the Central Coast. 
• Develop recipes for The Australian Women’s Weekly cook books, Fresh magazine (recipes now appear on Taste.com and Murdoch publications.
• Guest present for the Dietitians Association of Australia, Australian Mushroom Growers, Heart Foundation and NSW Health promotion unit at various events.
• Join the research and development team for Goodman Fielder. 

You can read more about Mary's career and food and cooking philosophy here