Laurel Edmunds

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Biographical Information

"Laurel has a background in biological sciences and has had a varied research careers. She is a qualified teacher and has sixteen years experience of working with children and their parents in a pastoral setting. Whilst teaching in inner London she became concerned about the extent of overweight in the children. This resulted in her doing a PhD at the University of Exeter in the prevention of childhood obesity, for which she was awarded the Association for the Study of Obesity Junior Researcher Prize in 1999.

"Since 1993, she has focused her research in this area. At the University of Oxford her research included children’s dietary and physical activity behaviours as well as the psycho-social implications of overweight/obesity for both parents and children. She also reviewed prevention and treatment studies and was part of the Cochrane Systematic Review team. She was an author of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health/National Obesity Forum’s ‘Approach to weight management for children aged 2-18 years’ document and acted as a Co-opted Expert for the development of the NICE guidelines on obesity. She was also one of the five Specialist Advisors to the House of Commons Health Select Committee for their inquiry into obesity."

Books

• Poskitt E, Edmunds L. Management of Childhood Obesity. Cambridge University Press, April, 2008.

Affiliations

• Former Director, Obesity Awareness and Solutions Trust