Our People

Kate joined the Campaign to End Loneliness in January 2024 and has supported the team to deliver on their work programme and to plan and ensure a lasting legacy for the Campaign’s resources.

Suzy joined the Centre in December 2023 on a fixed-term basis to support the organisation’s planned closure.

Previously, she worked on wellbeing at NZ Treasury, where she led the policy and engagement work for the Living Standards Framework, the basis for the ‘Wellbeing Budgets’.

Suzy has a PhD in Taxation (policy and gender) and started her career by qualifying as a Chartered Accountant (CA) and was subsequently awarded Fellowship (FCA).

Suzy’s research focus is gender equity and paid and unpaid work.

Shahina has over 10 years of experience working in communication roles for the charity sector, including organisations that specialise in mental health, caring and bowel cancer.

Shahina joined the Centre in April 2023, leading on the Centre’s flagship weekly blog and newsletter and the planning, strategy and management of  social media channels.

Nancy Hey is a global leader in the field of wellbeing.

Prior to setting up the Centre, she worked in the UK Civil Service in nine departments as a policy professional and coach, delivering cross UK Government policies including on constitutional reform. 

She has worked with the UK’s top civil servants to introduce wellbeing into public policy and to establish the professional policy community in the UK. She has degrees in law and in coaching and development, specialising in emotions, and is a passionate advocate for learning systems.

Joanne works with governments and health organisations bringing expertise in wellbeing policy and practice.

Joanne joined the Centre in 2019 as Implementation lead for Local Government & Health.  In 2021 she was appointed Head of Implementation & Learning.

During her time with the Centre she has delivered a wide portfolio of projects including maximising the wellbeing impact of place-based policy, improving staff wellbeing in schools and colleges and understanding how Board-level wellbeing roles, including NHS Health & Wellbeing Guardians were being delivered in practice.

She provided expert advice to international governments and major global cities on the development of wellbeing frameworks including London, Manchester, Vancouver and Stockholm, and worked with the UK Office of Health Improvement & Disparities on wellbeing profiles for UK towns and cities. Her research on working with terminal illness was awarded Marie Curie’s Clair Fisher Research Impact Award 2024.

Ingrid works with charities, social enterprises and those who support them to develop effective programmes and build the evidence on what really works. 

Since joining the Centre in 2015, she has commissioned and managed numerous evidence projects, including on the role of volunteering on wellbeing, the creative pathways to wellbeing, and the impact of Covid-19 on wellbeing inequalities. 

She has developed a number of guides and resources for charities, including the Online Guide to Measuring Wellbeing Impact, a Brief Guide to Measuring Loneliness, and a Guide to Effective Case Studies.

She supports voluntary organisations, civil society funders and policy makers to develop wellbeing theories of change and robust and proportionate evaluation approaches.

Margherita Musella is an evaluator and researcher with over 10 years’ experience in mixed-method research, impact evaluation, and rapid systematic reviews of public health, employability and social interventions.

Margherita joined the Centre in July 2019 to lead on the review and synthesis of evidence from wellbeing evaluation research, including management of rapid evidence assessments.

She possesses in-depth knowledge of evaluation approaches and evidence translation practices. She holds an MSc in Social Policy, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Systematic Review methodology.

Stewart is a passionate community wellbeing advocate with extensive experience in evidence-based policy implementation and project management.

Stewart joined the Centre in October 2021, where he collaborated with organisations and researchers to address evidence gaps, develop resources, and facilitate the use of global knowledge on wellbeing, focusing on civil society and community wellbeing projects. 

He is currently pursuing a PhD studying the implementation of wellbeing frameworks, and is mission lead for The National Lottery Community Fund’s England Portfolio review, leading on ‘supporting communities to come together’.

Robyn is an experienced communications professional who drives change and innovation in social-purpose organisations.

Since joining the Centre in June 2022 she has spearheaded the organisational strategy refresh, delivered the Centre’s first Impact Report FYE 2022-23, and evolved the organisation’s brand identity. 

She has previously worked on strategic comms, social media and copywriting across higher education and performing arts.

Mhairi is an engagement and content specialist, working at the intersection of content design, community engagement and strategic programme management.

Mhairi joined the Campaign to End Loneliness in July 2021, leading on content strategy, loneliness training, strategic partnerships, and community engagement. 

During her time at the Campaign, she produced three international conferences, developed e-learning modules and loneliness awareness training, and successfully ran an online community on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Richard joined the Centre as an Associate in 2023 to support work focused on children and young people and on wellbeing measurement.

Richard managed the Centre’s rapid review of the Life Satisfaction measure which brought together intervention and observational studies demonstrating change in life satisfaction. He also supported the centre to provide bespoke support for local authorities working on the youth elements of their suicide and self harm strategies.

Helen is an experienced social researcher with expertise in social relationships and loneliness. 

Helen joined the Campaign to End Loneliness in April 2022, leading on work to build the loneliness evidence base, engaging with academic researchers, practice professionals and policy makers to do so. Key areas of work were tackling loneliness interventions and their evaluation, and the built environment and loneliness.  

She also worked with the Campaign team to shape their wider programme of activity.

Our patron is Gus O’Donnell is a former British senior civil servant and economist, who between 2005 and 2011 (under three Prime Ministers) served as the Cabinet Secretary, the highest official in the British Civil Service. Gus chaired the development group of founding partners setting up the Centre and the Commission on Wellbeing & Policy. He joined Frontier Economics as Senior Advisor in 2012 and became Chairman in 2013.

As well as the Board Chair of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, Peter is the CIPD’s chief executive. He writes and speaks widely on the development of HR, the future of work, and the key issues of leadership, culture and organisation, people and skills.

Peter is a Fellow of the CIPD, a Fellow of AHRI (the Australian HR Institute) and the Academy of Social Sciences. He’s also a Companion of the Institute of Leadership and Management, the Chartered Management Institute, and the British Academy of Management. He is a visiting Professor at the University of Lancaster and sits on the Advisory Board for the University of Bath Management School. He holds honorary doctorates from Bath University, Kingston University and Birmingham City University.

Chair, Shelter England

Helen took over the role of chair of Shelter in May 2018, bringing her wide experience of governance and leadership. Most recently, Helen’s been involved with chairing Charityworks, and is a deputy lieutenant for Oxfordshire.

Andrew Rzepa is a Partner at Gallup and leads Gallup’s Public Sector Team in the EMEA region, developing and implementing research-based global projects. Andrew is in charge of Gallup’s international policy and development practice and is responsible for Gallup’s partnerships with United Nations agencies.

This includes the measurement of two Sustainable Development Goal (“SDG”) indicators: one in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and another with the International Labour Organization. Andrew works across a variety of topics including hunger, risk, gender equality, wellbeing and mental health. Before joining Gallup, Mr Rzepa served as a management consultant to FTSE and DAX listed companies across a variety of sectors, working from offices in Brussels, Manchester and Hong Kong.

Sini Rinne-Kerridge is a Senior Consultant in evaluation and strategic planning, NCVO Charities Evaluation Services.

Sini has worked with a wide range of public and civil society organisations as an evaluator and strategy analyst, planning for and assessing impact and effectiveness of initiatives aimed at improving social and economic wellbeing. She has particular interest and expertise in

evaluating effectiveness and impact of policy advocacy and campaigning work
initiatives aimed at supporting those with ‘multiple and complex’ needs.
Sini has managed a broad spectrum of external evaluations and strategy development work, as well as trained and built capacity of organisations to develop and strengthen their impact practice.

Katie Alpin is the Interim Chief Executive of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute. Before stepping up as Interim CEO in February 2020, Katie led Money and Mental Health’s research and policy work, driving improvements across essential services, mental health policy and beyond.

She has also worked as an economist in Westminster and the City, and holds degrees from the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics. In her spare time, Katie runs a Brownie unit for girls aged 7-10 in the heart of Westminster.

I am a Professor of Health Economics at the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University. Before that I was in the Business School at Newcastle University and the Centre for Health Economics at Monash University.

My Ph.D. in Economics, from the University of York, investigated inequalities in wellbeing and health. Using quantitative methods to measure and understand inequalities in wellbeing and health has been at the core of my research ever since.

Kelsey J. O’Connor is a Researcher in the Economics of Well-Being with STATEC Research (part of the national statistics office of Luxembourg). He also serves on the Board of Directors for the International Society for Quality-of-Life Studies.

Kelsey completed a Ph.D. in economics in 2017 at the University of Southern California, where he worked primarily with professors Richard Easterlin and Jeffrey Nugent. His goal is to contribute research leading ultimately to a redefinition of success in national discourse, thereby supporting systems, both public and private, to promote subjective wellbeing.

Eleanor Bantry White is a senior lecturer in social work at University College Cork, Ireland. Since her doctoral work at Oxford University, she researches social intervention primarily in the context of global population ageing.

Her current work applies mixed methods to examine the impacts of social and physical environments on ageing trajectories and experiences. She is also interested in the role of technology in supporting wellbeing in later life.

Jenny is former Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, a fellow of the Faculty of Public Health and has worked at Homelessness Link, Arts Council England, National Campaign for the Arts and Camden Council.

Assistant Director, Northern Ireland, National Children’s Bureau

As Assistant Director, Deirdre contributes to the management and strategic direction of NCB’s practice development work in Northern Ireland. She also manages NCB’s work on participation and engagement.

Prior to this role, Deidre was Programme Manager for BELONG NI – an inter-agency family support programme that promotes a sense of Belonging amongst Black Minority Ethnic (BME) children and young people in Northern Ireland. She’s also worked for the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International.

Most recently at NCB, Deidre has lead on the transfer of knowledge and practice from the BELONG NI family support programme to its statutory partners in health and education. She also established the Incredible Years Co-ordination Project for Northern Ireland (IYNI) and facilitates the IYNI learning community for practitioners, managers and commissioners.

Deirdre represents Northern Ireland on the European Incredible Years Implementation Network.

Before moving into the children’s sector, Deidre worked in TV and theatre, both as an actor and writer of children’s programmes and plays.

Professor of Social intervention, University of Birmingham

Paul arrived at Birmingham University in 2017 to take up his current post after twenty years at Oxford University where he was Professor of Psycho-social Intervention. His work is methodologically based in three main areas: Systematic Reviews, Trials (many of them RCTs) and Methods Advances in Complex Interventions. Topically, his work is wide ranging and includes Sleep where he originally did his doctorate, Education Interventions for Children, Empowerment Interventions for Women in LMICs, as well as broader policy advice for policymakers.

Senior Lecturer in Evidence Synthesis, University of Exeter

Prof Ruth Garside is a social science researcher specialising in systematic review and evidence synthesis.

She has over 20 years’ experience using quantitative and qualitative research methods to investigate a range of health and social care questions. Her work has informed policy customers including WHO, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and the Home Office.

Prof Garside is particularly interested in using a broad range of evidence to investigate complex public health issues and has a particular interest in methods of synthesis for qualitative research.  She coordinates evidence synthesis across the streams of ECEHH research and develops these methods within environment and human health.

• Co-Chair of the Methods Group for Campbell Collaboration.
• Exeter lead for the UK Centre of the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence.
• Convenor for the Cochrane Qualitative and Implementation Methods group.
• Core member of GRADE-CERQual , developing approaches to help researchers and policy makers assess the confidence to place in the findings of Qualitative Evidence Synthesis.  Key paper here.

Systematic reviews exploring interconnections between the environment and health include:

• The impact of gardens for people with dementia in care homes.
• The health and wellbeing impact of school gardens.
• The health and wellbeing impact of participating in conservation activities.
• The risk of acquiring infections from recreational exposure to seawater.

Working with a range of international colleagues, Ruth is part of an evidence-based conservation working group . This project examined the links between conservation activities and human health. It has produced a searchable evidence map of the current evidence base documenting linkages between nature conservation and human health outcomes, more detail is available here.

She is also committed to public and patient involvement in research and founder of HEPE, a network of people from across Cornwall who contribute to research  projects at the Centre.

Professor of Child, Family and Community Health, University of Brighton and Director of BoingBoing

Professor Angie Hart is Professor of Child, Family and Community Health at the University of Brighton and Director of the Centre of Resilience for Social Justice.

She is also Academic Director of the award winning Community University Partnership Programme. As part of that role, she was the Brighton lead for the HEFCE-funded South East Coastal Communities Programme. She undertakes participatory research into inequalities in health and social care in relation to children and families, especially in relation to resilience. Angie teaches on professional courses for health and social care practitioners and coordinates a large group of PhD students working on resilience and inequalities. She currently has a number of resilience-focused research projects under way, many of which are funded under the AHRC/ESRC’s Connected Communities Programme.

Read Professor Hart’s full bio on the University of Brighton website.

Director of Equalities, Innovation and Digital Enterprise in Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) in the NHS.

Dr Jane Moore joined the NHS in May 2022. Previously, Jane worked for Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent CCGs as the Director of Strategy, Planning and Performance in October 2018. Jane has worked in the NHS and local government for over 25 years, mainly in the public health arena and is a Public Health Consultant by background.

Jane has held senior positions in Wales, London and the Midlands. She has extensive experience in system transformation and led a maternity reconfiguration during her time as a Director of Public Health and Quality in London.

Head of Policy, Carnegie UK Trust

Jennifer leads the Wellbeing and Towns team at Carnegie UK Trust. An experienced manager and public policy researcher and analyst, her work in the public and voluntary sector has led to positive change in legislation, policy and practice. A prolific writer she has authored more than 40 reports and 3 books and is a recognised expert on wellbeing, public sector reform and community empowerment.

She holds the degrees of MA (Hons) in Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh and MPhil in Social Science Research from the University of Glasgow. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of the REF 2021 Main Panel for the Social Sciences, a board member at Barony Housing Association and past Convenor of Evaluation Support Scotland.

Wellbeing Director, Business in the Community

In the context of responsible business, the aim of BITC’s Wellbeing Campaign is to create environments where individuals and organisations can be at their best by taking a preventative, whole person, joined up approach to physical, mental, financial and social health.

BITC’s annual survey in partnership with Mercer Marsh captures the state of the nation’s mental health at work and provides employer recommendations to improve line manager capability through the intersectional lenses of age, gender, race and LGBT+.

In partnership with PHE, BITC has co-produced a suite of freely available interconnected toolkits, consolidating the best evidence, resources and employer practice, including the challenging topics of suicide and domestic abuse.

Lecturer in Law at Queens University Belfast

Dr Doran has worked as a consultant writer with the UN Climate Change Convention, going back to the negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol, and has written on the topics of climate change; mindfulness; environmental governance and activism on the island of Ireland; rights of nature, including a recent book on the ‘mindful commons and the attention economy’. He has worked in NGOs and in parliamentary settings on both sides of the border, and at the United Nations.

Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and College Park Professor, University of Maryland School of Public Policy

Carol Graham is Leo Pasvolsky Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, College Park Professor at the University of Maryland, and a Senior Scientist at Gallup. She has been a Vice President at Brookings and a Special Advisor to the Vice President of the Inter-American Development Bank.

Graham is the author of numerous books– most recently Happiness for All: Unequal Hopes and Lives in Pursuit of the American Dream (Princeton); The Pursuit of Happiness: An Economy of Well-Being (Brookings); and Happiness Around the World: The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires (Oxford) – and has published articles in a range of journals including Science, the World Bank Research Observer, Health Affairs, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Health Economics, and the Journal of Socio-Economics.

Her work has been reviewed in Science, The New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books, among others, and she received a Pioneer Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2017, and a Lifetime Distinguished Scholar award the International Society of Quality of Life Studies in 2018.

She has an A.B. from Princeton, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins and a PhD from Oxford University.

Andrew Oswald is a Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science at the University of Warwick.

His research is principally in applied economics and quantitative social science. It currently includes the empirical study of job satisfaction, human happiness, unemployment, labour productivity, and the influence of diet on psychological well-being.

He serves on the board of editors of Science. Previously at Oxford and the London School of Economics, with spells as Lecturer, Princeton University (1983-4); De Walt Ankeny Professor of Economics, Dartmouth College (1989-91); Jacob Wertheim Fellow, Harvard University (2005); Visiting Fellow, Cornell University (2008); Research Director, IZA Bonn (2011-12); Visiting Fellow, University of Zurich (2016); Visiting Fellow, Yale University (2016). He is an ISI Highly-Cited Researcher.

Visit his website for his latest publications.

Sally McManus is interested in the measurement of mental health and wellbeing. She is a Senior Lecturer in health in the Violence and Society Centre at City, University of London and affiliated with the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen), where she’s involved in the national child and adult mental health survey programmes. Her current projects involve secondary analysis of survey data for monitoring inequalities and population trends.

Deputy CEO at NCD alliance.

Fiona is an independent expert advisor on wellbeing, sustainability and public health. Formerly she was Bupa’s Chief Wellbeing and Public Health Officer, responsible for leading global commercial strategy on workplace health and wellbeing, prevention, behaviour change, partnerships, and sustainability.

Before joining Bupa, Fiona was Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Director General in the UK Government responsible for Health Improvement and Health Inequalities followed by being Director of Chronic Disease and Health Promotion at the World Health Organisation.

She is a visiting Professor at UCL, and a Senior Associate at Cambridge University’s Sustainability Leadership Programme, where she teaches regularly, and Chairs the UK Health Forum.

Chief Executive Ealing Council

Paul is the lead chief executive in West London for growth and at Ealing Council and he is leading the Future Ealing transformation programme. His experience of partnership working includes leading for SOLACE on community wellbeing, adult services for London Councils and Thrive LDN, London’s initiative to promote mental health wellbeing.

David is Director of Community at Coin Street Community Builders, leading the award-winning social enterprise’s work in the community, nestled by the South Bank in London. This includes housing cooperatives, nursery, children’s centre, gym and sports facilities, youth work, social action and an enterprise, arts and wellbeing offer for adults and seniors.

David draws on 25 years of experience working with communities to create change. He started his career as a community worker – knocking on doors, turning pub lounges into parent and toddler sessions, and teaming up with residents to problem solve together.  He has never lost the instinct to listen for the bark of a dog before putting the leaflet through the letterbox!

Since then, he has run grant programmes helping community groups build new parks and greenspaces from scratch and supporting “at risk” young people to makeover their neighbourhoods and build leadership skills; led a consultancy team advising charities on strategy, fundraising and partnerships;  steered policy work and advocacy on green infrastructure; and designed and delivered large-scale philanthropy initiatives nationally and internationally across a range of cause areas for clients including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Cabinet Office.  

David is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts and a fully certified member of the Institute of Fundraising.

Monika started her medical career as a General Practitioner. She subsequently became a specialist in Occupational Medicine, which she has practiced both in the public and corporate sectors.  

She is currently European Head of Health and Wellbeing at Mars. She has experience in setting workplace wellbeing and mental health strategies and leading teams to operationalize these. She has a decade of experience in delivering resilience programs globally at team and individual levels. More recently she has been involved in creating the global manager mental health training program.  

She coaches all levels within organisations up to executive level.  She is a strong advocate of harnessing the power of mentoring and coaching to enable people to lead more fulfilling lives. 

Her interests outside work include practising yoga and mindfulness and supporting the mental health of school aged children.

CEO of New Philanthropy Capital

Dan became Chief Executive of NPC in 2011 following a variety of posts in public policy and economics. NPC is a charity that operates as a think tank and consultancy aiming to improve the impact of the social sector. He was Head of the Number 10 Policy Unit and Senior Adviser to the Prime Minister on the Economy from 2007 to 2010.

Dan has been Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Treasury and has worked as a special adviser to the Secretary of State in the Education Department as well as at DTI and DCLG. He was a Director in the Economics segment of FTI Consulting. He ran the New Local Government Network think tank between 2002 and 2005, which was voted Think Tank of the Year in 2004 and was Senior Economist at the IPPR in the 1990s.

He is a trustee of St Mungo’s, 19 Princelet Street and of the What Works Centre for Wellbeing, and a former member of the Research Committee of the ESRC and of the Greater Manchester Economic Advisory Panel. He is also a member of the Advisory Boards for Big Society Capital, Impetus–PEF, and the Centre for Public Scrutiny, and was a member of the Charity Tax Commission.

Partner, Commercial Property, Wedlake Bell

Sarah is a commercial real estate lawyer with a wide range of experience from many different types of commercial property transaction. She acts for both landlords and tenants, investors and developers and handles all aspects of commercial property work, including disposals and acquisitions, leases, property finance, property development and property management. Sarah also deals with the property aspects of corporate transactions.

Sarah considers herself a generalist, but has particular expertise advising corporate occupiers on HQ and regional office moves, property development and investment, portfolio management and clients in the Charities, Retail, Student Accommodation and Hotel sectors.

Monder is the Director of Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME). He has extensive experience of working in, researching and acting as a consultant to small and ethnic minority businesses. He is a leading authority on small business and ethnic minority entrepreneurship research and has published widely on the subject. He serves on a variety of advisory bodies and is a member  of the recently established APPG for BAME Business Owners. Monder is responsible for initiating the annual Ethnic Minority Business Conference in 1998, which has developed into the most important event in the calendar for disseminating policy and research on ethnic minority firms. Monder also holds the positions of Visiting Fellow at the Industrial Relations Research Unit at Warwick University, and Visiting Professor at the University of Turku in Finland. He was named as one of the country’s most influential Asians by the Institute of Asian Professionals and was awarded an OBE in the 2004 New Year Honours List for his services to black and ethnic minority businesses.