Janeane Dart receives Deans Award for Teaching Excellence

The future is in safe hands when you have educators like Janeane Dart, recipient of the Deans Award for Teaching Excellence, in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, guiding the next generation of dietitians and nutritionists. Speaking of her recent award, Janeane reflected that she is “thrilled and humbled to receive the award in amongst such talent in [her] Faculty. Personally, it is rewarding and affirming to be acknowledged and recognised for my teaching excellence.” She is also exceptionally humble, acknowledging that an award such as this “isn't possible without the support of an amazing team of colleagues, the team I work with and the inspiration I get from my students wanting to motivate them to be the best health care professionals they can be.”

Janeane established herself over the course of a decade as an expert dietetic practitioner both in Australia and the United Kingdom (UK). Her resume boasts diverse dietetic experience in rural, regional, remote and metropolitan settings in Australia and the UK and across the healthcare continuum from health promotion and policy development to acute tertiary clinical settings. One such role included specialising in Gastroenterology at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford for 5 years and managing a large dietetic team at the same hospital for 2 years. Janeane reflects that “it is this rich collection of experiences that I love to be able to bring to the classroom (and kitchen!).”

If we rewind the clock (we won’t say how far), Janeane commenced her career as a student educator as a new graduate dietitian working in a rural setting as a sole practitioner. A decade later, she was supervising and coordinating large numbers of students in the UK healthcare and education context. It was during this time that she observed that students were presenting to placement with what she considered sub-optimal interpersonal and communication skills and a lack of depth of food knowledge and skills. Janeane was concerned for the next generation of her profession. “Dietitians are entrusted to be the experts in human nutrition science and food. They able to influence the nutrition and health outcomes of individuals, communities and populations. Changing eating behaviour is complex and without highly-developed food knowledge and skills and the humanistic skills essential to engage and connect with individuals and communities, it is questionable how effective dietitians can be”. Quality, high standards and effective practice are hallmarks of Janeane’s approach to practice. Department Head, Professor Helen Truby noted that “Janeane’s commitment to impact on these issues clearly underpins her teaching philosophy, with her commitment evident in how she approaches every element of the teaching experience”.

Janeane has been at Monash University in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food for a decade now, initially joining us to review and redesign the dietetic curriculum. During this time she has taught across the nutrition programs but has focussed her teaching in the first year of the Bachelor of Nutrition Science and the Masters of Dietetics. “I am invested and committed in developing the personal adeptness, professionalism and humanism of our graduates to ensure they are ready for practice in a complex and uncertain work environment and am pursuing my doctorate in this area.”

Congratulations Janeane on the award.

Janeane with her son and Prof Christina Mitchell,
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences

More information

Janeane Dart is an Advanced Accredited Practicing Dietitian, Senior Lecturer and researcher within the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food who specialises in Gastroenterology and teaching dietetic education skills and person-centred approaches to dietetic practice. Janeane has a strong interest in strengthening professionalism and humanism within nutrition and dietetics and this is the focus of her doctoral research. Janeane has inspired and educated over 750 dietetics students, expanding their emotional intelligence, reflexivity, cultural capability, and interest in food, in addition to clinical dietetic practice and clinical reasoning. By drawing on her extensive international professional experience Janeane creates safe, supportive, inclusive and engaging learning situations that are valued by her learners.

Follow Janeane on Twitter via @JaneaneDart

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