Karen L. Vaughan

I am a project manager with 30 years’ experience in project and programme management, research and consultation, partnership development and supporting organisational change in the public sector. This includes 15 years of working with school leadership teams to deliver projects and 3 years academic research expertise in school-based randomised controlled trial research, systematic literature review with meta-analysis, and multi-level modelling analysis in SPSS using an international dataset involving 8 countries.

I completed a PhD with the University of Leeds in January 2026. My thesis was: Nutrition education, cooking skills and obesity prevalence in children aged 4 – 12 years. Three publications from my thesis are:
Vaughan KL, Cade JE, Hetherington MM, Webster J, Evans CEL. The impact of school-based cooking classes on vegetable intake, cooking skills and food literacy of children aged 4-12 years: A systematic review of the evidence 2001-2021. Appetite. 2024;195:107238.
Vaughan KL, Vidal M, Cade JE, Hetherington MM, Evans CEL. Evaluation of the school-based 'PhunkyFoods' intervention: a cluster randomised controlled trial in the UK. Public Health Nutr. 2025;28(1):e86.
Vaughan KL, Buoncristiano M, Williams J, Duleva V, Hejgaard T, Susovits K, et al. Food preparation skills and obesity risk in European children aged 6–9 years: a cross-sectional study using WHO COSI 2022–2024’. Eur J Nutr. 2026;65(2):71.

I currently work with the University of Leeds on the One Day Diet Y&H 2026 project, using social media recruitment and myfood24 dietary assessment to find out what people eat in Yorkshire and the Humber.