Dr Karolina Biernat
Karolina is a public health nutritionist with research experience with children’s centres, community and third sector organisations, GP practices, and primary schools across Birmingham and Black Country.
Her journey with Birmingham City University began in 2012 when she moved to the Midlands to study BSc Nutrition Science. While studying, she took a placement at a children's centre in one of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country, where she was responsible for promoting healthy eating and working with parents on low-cost meal ideas.
While working on her undergraduate dissertation, Karolina was employed by Aston Villa Football Club to work on the Villa Vitality project. As the project's nutritionist, Karolina delivered sessions on diet and health to primary school children and their parents. After graduating, she worked as a health trainer for Health Exchange, a Birmingham-based social enterprise, working with clients on a one-to-one basis to improve their eating habits and increase physical activity. It was here where her undergraduate supervisor suggested she undertake a PhD.
From 2016 to 2020 she was a Graduate Teaching and Research Assistant at Birmingham City University and gained valuable experience and skills while conducting her doctoral research on the nutritional outcomes of English holiday food programmes for children. During her doctoral studies, Karolina has successfully engaged in research with a broad range of participants including programme beneficiaries, volunteers and frontline staff members, regional coordinators of community programmes, parliamentary researchers, and policy advisors.
In May 2020 Karolina joined Birmingham City University's Centre for Social Care, Health, and Related Research as a Research Assistant.
Karolina has experience in the following research methods: policy analysis, designing questionnaires and surveys, conducting focus groups, designing and conducting interviews, participative visual methods, and observations. She has expertise in qualitative methods and is currently developing skills in quantitative data analysis.