Serene holds a Bachelor of Food & Nutrition Science from the University of Adelaide and a Master of Dietetics from the University of South Australia. Her clinical nutrition experience was honed during her training in various hospitals in Australia including the Royal Adelaide Hospital where she planned and monitored feeding regimes for pre- and post-operative patients in the Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Unit. She also adjusted individual nutrition plans based on changes to their condition. She then went on to the University of South Australia Dietetic Clinic under private practice where she prescribed customised dietary plans to patients for weight reduction, diabetes, gastrointestinal problems and other health conditions.

She then moved on to the Lyell McEwin Hospital where she was a member of a multi-disciplinary team consisting of both medical and allied healthcare professionals providing care to a diverse variety of patients with a focus on areas such as oncology, cardiology, gestational diabetes and general medicine. In addition, she has developed a nutritional education program to better equip support workers to care for the nutritional needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities.

She strongly believes that early prevention of disease is better than needing to find a cure, and hopes to educate the public about the importance of food and nutrition in the disease prevention.