Marita is a Health Research Board-funded SPHeRE PhD Scholar within the Health Behaviour Change Research Group at NUI Galway. For her doctoral studies, she is examining behavioural interventions delivered by health professionals during the first 1,000 days to prevent childhood obesity.
Marita holds a BSc in Nutrition and a Diploma in Youth and Community Work from University College Cork, and a MA in Health Promotion, and a Specialist Diploma in Teaching, Learning and Scholarship from the University of Limerick. After graduating in 2001, she worked in the food industry for four years in managerial and technical roles. From 2005 to 2015 she held research roles with safefood, University College Cork, the Children’s Research Centre-Trinity College Dublin, the National Cancer Registry, and Waterford Institute of Technology. Her research interests include childhood obesity, health behaviour change, implementation science, food insecurity and men’s health.