Liza Barbour on planetary health, dietetics and building a career with room for yes and no

Liza Barbour trained as a dietitian and now teaches planetary health to the next generation of nutritionists and dietitians at Monash University. She also runs a pickle business with her husband and works the farmers markets on weekends. Ruth Vo speaks with Liza about how she holds three kinds of work together without it draining her, and what keeps the mix feeling meaningful rather than scattered.

Her view is especially useful for listeners thinking about non-clinical dietetics, transferable skills and destination roles beyond private practice or hospital work. She also speaks from lived experience of combining academic work, small business ownership and family life.

We Explore:

• Why Liza builds her roles around energy rather than a job title
• How she treats remote dietetics, overseas work and academia as moves, not destinations
• Why saying yes early built her breadth, then became something she had to limit
• Why planetary health sits at the centre of her work now, and the planetary empathy she wants dietitians to carry
• How to get a foothold in planetary health work as a dietitian or allied health professional
• How shared systems at home and a team culture at work make room to be less than optimal

00:00 - Liza Barbour introduces her many hats
01:33 - Systems that keep work and family running
05:14 - Sharing the mental load at home
07:19 - Team culture, brain fog and not being optimal all the time
12:11 - Teaching in the age of artificial intelligence
13:33 - First remote dietetics role in Western Australia
18:33 - Pressure to do a PhD and waiting for the right topic
22:56 - What the PhD taught her about being a project manager
25:22 - Building Australia's first sustainable food systems unit
37:13 - Finding a North Star in climate leadership
54:00 - Where planetary health skills can lead next
57:21 - Missing client-facing community dietetics

About Guest

Liza Barbour is an Advanced Accredited Practising Dietitian and senior lecturer at Monash University, where she teaches planetary health, sustainable food systems and public health nutrition. Her background runs across remote and community dietetics in Australia, a year with the Ministry of Health in Tonga, and national food insecurity work at SecondBite. She also co-founded Dillicious, a small-batch pickle business on the Mornington Peninsula.

Connect with Liza - https://www.linkedin.com/in/liza-barbour/

Check out her Pickle business - https://www.dillicious.com.au/

Career Cliniq Resources

If this episode has you thinking about where your energy and your direction meet, StreamAhead is the place to start.
https://careercliniq.com/streamahead

Join the Conversation

Liza guards her time against a clear North Star. What’s yours? Tell Ruth on LinkedIn - https://linkedin.com/in/drruthvo or Instagram -https://instagram.com/drruthvo