About Us

DR ROSAN MEYER, INDANA CHAIR 2022 – 2024

Welcome to INDANA!

INDANA has accomplished much to promote the international community of dietitians and other professionals working in the area of food allergy. As your Chair, I follow Marion Groetch, Allergy Dietitian and Director of Nutrition Services at Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Previous chairs include Dr. Isabel Skypala, Dr Berber Vlieg-Boerstra and Prof. Carina Venter, who were all founders of INDANA. You will be able to read more about our founding members under “Our History”.

All of our previous chairs are well known in the field of food allergy and have contributed to our current knowledge of dietary management of food allergy patients with their research and publications. I have therefore very big shoes to fill. I hope to honour the vision set out by our founding members that Marion has driven forward so well, in the last couple of years.

We have come a long way since the inception of INDANA and we are now affiliated with the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology as a Sister Society. Our members are active serving on or leading countless committees and, and our contributions in these societies has not gone unnoticed. In addition, members have published numerous studies and are continuing to work jointly within the multidisciplinary groups to improve nutritional support for patients.

I have been very fortunate, to have a very diverse dietetic background with my training in South Africa, specialisation in paediatrics in the United Kingdom and research career at Imperial College in London, where I am honorary Reader and co-lead the MSc Allergy module on Food Hypersensitivity. In the last 10 years, I have also had the privilege to live in Switzerland and now France and have also an academic appointment at KU Leuven in Belgium. This has allowed me to understand the nutritional challenges around food allergy in a variety of countries and taught me the importance of collaboration and the benefit of having a nutrition and dietetic community to support each other.

With this, I would like to welcome existing and new INDANA members to our community of healthcare professionals working in food allergy. I also call on each and all of you, to actively participate in research and educational projects, to further our endeavour to improve not only our knowledge as healthcare professionals working in this field, but most importantly the care of our patients. As always, our goals for the coming year are ambitious and I encourage you to attend our open Steering Committee meetings (dates shared on our website under “Conferences and Events”), which you can join remotely and to learn how you can get involved. Do take a look at the “Information” webpage which has important date’s resources and information on worldwide allergy associations.

Best Regards,
Rosan Meyer, RD,MSc, PhD
Chair 2022-2024

Steering Committee

Click here to read our latest terms of reference

Chair
Dr Rosan Meyer

Rosan completed her degree in dietetics in South Africa in 1996 and finished her MSc in 2004 and PhD at Imperial College London in 2008. She was the principal research dietitian at Great Ormond Street Hospital until December 2015, and after this worked with the allergy team at St. Thomas Hospital until 2018.

She has a busy paediatric dietetic practice in London and has published numerous articles and books. She is currently module leader for the Food Hypersensitivity Module of the MSc in Allergy at Imperial College and is visiting Professor at KU Leuven, on their MSc on Deglutology. She is also the secretary for the Allied Health and Primary are Section for EAACI and chair of the task force working on non-IgE mediated allergy.

Immediate past chair
Marion Groetc

Marion Groetch, MS, RDN, is the Director of Nutrition Services at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute and Assistant Professor in the Division of Allergy & Immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

She is a registered dietitian nutritionist with over 25 years of paediatric experience, most of which has been focused on caring for patients and their families living with food allergy.

Her awards include the 2015 AAAAI Allied Health Professionals Recognition Award acknowledging her role as a leader, mentor and educator. Marion enjoys collaborating with health care professionals and patient advocacy groups in her quest to improve the lives of families living with food allergy.

Chair Elect
Position vacant

Secretary
Allison Schaible

Allison Schaible MS, RDN is Clinical Nutrition Coordinator at the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.

She works primarily in the Food Allergy Treatment and Research Center where she spends her time preparing food challenges, implementing various research studies and providing nutrition education to pediatric patients and their families.

The International Network for Diet and Nutrition in Allergy (INDANA) was established in 2009 by three allergy dietitians

Why INDANA was formed: Indana was formed to act as an allergy nutrition specialist group for healthcare professionals working focusing on the nutritional aspects of food allergy.

Isabel Skypala

Isabel is a Consultant Allergy Dietitian, and lead for the adult food allergy service at Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals, part of Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust, London UK. She is also honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College London and co-leads the Food Allergy module of the Allergy MSc.

Prior to co-founding INDANA. Isabel established the Food Allergy Specialist Group of the British Dietetic Association and championed the role of dietitians in allergy with the British Society of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (BSACI). She was also a founder member of the Allied Health Interest Group of the European Academy of Allergy & Clinical Immunology (EAACI) and has been an Executive Committee member since 2015.

In 2014, Isabel received the BSACI William Frankland award for services to clinical allergy, and the Allied Health Professional of the year award in 2022 from the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology.

Berber Vlieg-Boerstra

Dr. Berber Vlieg-Boerstra (PhD RD) is an allergy specialist senior research dietitian at OLVG Hospital, department of Paediatrics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

She is principal investigator of several studies on the immune-supportive role of nutrition in allergic disease and during breastfeeding.She is also owner of her own private practice for allergic conditions. She was the first chair of INDANA and one of the founder members.

Carina Venter

Dr. Venter (PhD RD) is an Allergy Specialist Dietititan and Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Section of Allergy/Immunology at the Children’s Hospital Colorado and University of Colorado Denver, where she is conducting research in allergy prevention and working with children with food allergies.

She is the newly elected chair of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology work group on Immunomodulation and nutrition.