A Research Fellow and final year PhD Candidate in Public Health and Policy at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Prior to starting this degree, I completed a MSc in Health Psychology and a BSc in Psychology. While my academic background started in behavioural science, over my career I have expanded my discipline to incorporate principles from anthropology, public health, and health systems. This has enriched my analytical toolkit and enabled me to work on multi-disciplinary issues with greater veracity.
Since the start of my career, I opted to specialise in qualitative research methodology. Given (at times) it’s poor reputation as an ‘anything goes’ approach I became motivated to ensure my research was conducted in line with best practice. I have since gone on to contribute to methodological reflexivity through authoring various book chapters, journal articles, teaching materials, and acting as a peer reviewer. I have extensive experience co-ordinating qualitative research in the field of healthcare improvement with patient and provider populations. Increasingly my work considers health (in)equality, co-production, and cross-sectoral knowledge transfer.
Affiliations
Teaching
Acting Deputy Module Organiser for Health Policy Process and Power: a MSc module which seeks to explore the political system in which policies are made and the contextual factors which influence policy change (including key actors, mechanisms of power, and principles of good governance). It includes discussion and debate of real-world examples of health policy making in low, middle and high-income countries, and provides tools and theory to analyse and act in the health policy arena. Students gain skills in policy analysis necessary for engagement in policy change.
I have also assisted with the production of teaching materials on qualitative research methods in applied health settings. This includes a book chapter on ‘Rapid Qualitative Research’, a learning content outline for a module on ‘Qualitative Evidence Synthesis’, and PowerPoint slides to guide the delivery of training on ‘Scoping Studies in Rapid Qualitative Research’.
Research
My research typically considers health services, health (in)equality, and methodological innovation of qualitative approaches.
During the COVID-19 pandemic I contributed to research on the impact on women’s experiences of giving birth considering maternity service restrictions, global changes to chemotherapy services, training/re-deployment/de-escalation of healthcare workers to/from ICUs, and lessons for rapid qualitative research.
Beyond COVID-19, as a freelance Reserach Consultant, I have worked on projects such as a formative process evaluation of a team, translating implementation research into policy, championing (rapid) qualitative methods, and the use of community influencers to increase vaccination coverage in low- and middle-income countries. I have worked on research projects for the NHS, WHO, and Collective Service.
These projects have enlisted a range of qualitative methods (both rapid and non-rapid in nature): literature reviews, systematic reviews, policy analyses, process evaluations, semi-structured interviews, surveys, and case studies.