Staff Profile

I am PenARC's Lead for Implementation and a Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Associate Dean (International & Development) at the University of Exeter Medical School.

I moved to Exeter in 2005 and trained in Public Health in the NHS South West Public Health Training Scheme. From 2010 I worked in a split service-academic role based partly in in Devon PCT/Devon County Council and took up a Senior Lectureship at UEMS in 2016. From 2014 to 2017 I was an NIHR Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellow.

Much of my research deals with issues of knowledge mobilisation and implementation science. Substantively, I am interested in health in later life and particularly in dementia and frailty. In my role as Associate Dean (International & Development) I am responsible for leading UEMS’s work on internationalization, including international research partnerships and global reputation, and for philanthropy and fundraising.

I work on knowledge mobilisation and implementation science centres on how knowledge is used, or not used, in different settings. This includes healthcare organisations, residential care settings (care homes and nursing homes for older adults), third-sector organisations, and in policing. I am interested in how behavioral and social-scientific approaches can be combined in ensuring that knowledge is used appropriately and effectively; in ensuring that efforts to change behavior in organisations take into account decision-making not only at the level of the individual but include teams, departments, organisations, and systems; and in including implementation science at all stages of the research process from question identification through the conduct of primary research and into evidence synthesis and into impact.

My work on implementation science and knowledge mobilisation includes qualitative work in care homes and with commissioners of dementia services and quantitative work on the effects of exposure to health interventions and potentially harmful health behaviours such as alcohol. I also conduct systematic reviews on related topics.