A/Prof Gabriella Heruc (BScPsyc-Hons, MNutrDiet, PhD, APD) is a global leader in eating disorders, with 20 years’ experience as a dietitian in public, private, inpatient, day patient, and outpatient eating disorder settings. She has extensive advocacy and sector leadership experience at national and international levels. During her 10 years of elected service on the Executive Committee of the Australia & New Zealand Academy for Eating Disorders (ANZAED), she was elected the first dietitian President (2017-19). During her tenure she was instrumental in increasing access to safe, effective eating disorder treatment via her (1) work on the Medicare Implementation Committee contributing to the development of landmark Medicare Items for eating disorders; (2) leadership in developing the world’s first Clinical Practice Standards for Eating Disorders; and (3) direction in building the Australian eating disorder credentialing system (below). Other key contributions include being the first dietitian on the Steering Committee of the federally-funded government advisory body, the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC; 2017-), author of the world-first Clinical Practice Guideline for eating disorder management in people with higher weight (DOI: 10.1186/s40337-022-00622-w), and contributor to the 2024 international Academy for Eating Disorders’ Guidebook for Nutrition Treatment.

A/Prof Heruc is a global pioneer in eating disorder dietetic research. In 2021, alongside Conjoint A/Prof Susan Hart, she established the world’s first dietetic-focused eating disorders research team: the Eating Disorders and Nutrition Research Group (ENRG). ENRG has grown to include 13 members from 5 universities. Under her leadership, ENRG received the 2022 Western Syd U Vice Chancellor’s Excellence Award for Interdisciplinary Research.   Her research impact is demonstrated by her work leading a group of Australian and New Zealand clinical experts to develop the first-ever treatment principles and clinical practice standards for eating disorder treatment (full published collection: biomedcentral.com/collections/eating-disorder-treatment-practice-standards). This project involved synthesis of data from consultations with > 100 clinicians, specialist (NEDC and ANZAED) and general (e.g. Australian Psychological Society; Dietitians Australia) professional bodies, international expert advisors, consumers and carers.

Her work on the clinical practice standards led directly to funding ($2.75M) of a national credentialing system to facilitate access to safe and effective treatment (connected.anzaed.org.au). As Head of Credentialing at ANZAED, A/Prof Heruc oversaw the construction of a live database that verifies and provides information to the public about the availability of clinicians who are trained in eating disorder treatment. This project has seen >1700 clinicians become trained and credentialed, massively increasing the eating disorders workforce, and linking consumers to treatment providers. Due to this success, the Australian Government further funded her team in 2023 ($450K) to expand the credentialing system to general practitioners. A/Prof Heruc’s clinical practice standards also assure the high quality of clinical training in Australia, forming the basis for the NEDC’s National Training Framework, to assess eating disorder training programs (nedc.com.au/professional-development/credentialing/nedc-training-approvals/).

In 2025, A/Prof Heruc and her team have been awarded a MRFF Early-Mid-Career Researcher grant to implement safe nutrition messaging in schools. She is also a primary researcher on a MRFF Data Infrustructure grant building and expanding the TrEAT Clinical Quality Registry (https://www.uts.edu.au/about/faculties/health/faculty-health-research/treat-registry) to evaluate treatment outcomes of the MBS Eating Disorder items and credentialing system, as well as develop clinical prediction modelling for eating disorder treatment.