Maria van der Merwe

Maria van der Merwe is a registered dietitian and nutritionist with extensive experience in public health, health systems strengthening, and postgraduate education. She previously served as the Provincial Manager for the Integrated Nutrition Programme within the Mpumalanga Department of Health, South Africa, where she provided strategic and operational leadership for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of nutrition-specific and nutrition-sensitive interventions across all levels of care. Her responsibilities later expanded to include oversight of Maternal, Child, Women, and Youth Health Programmes, leading multidisciplinary teams to improve the quality and equity of service delivery.

Since 2019, Maria has worked as an international public health and nutrition consultant, leading assignments in health policy, programme design, and system strengthening for national ministries, non-governmental organisations, academic institutions, and global development partners. Maria is also actively engaged in postgraduate education and academic leadership. She is a core lecturer on master’s programmes in Public Health and Healthcare Leadership at Warwick University (UK) and tutors the research component across six online master’s programmes, contributing to research supervision, and the overall enhancement of academic quality.

In addition to her professional roles, Maria is currently serving her third term as President of the Association for Dietetics in South Africa (ADSA), where she provides national leadership in public health nutrition advocacy, professional development, and policy engagement. She is also a regular contributor to radio and television dialogues on nutrition and public health.