Our People

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

Applied economist Dr Christian Krekel is Assistant Professor in Behavioural Science in the Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science, London School of Economics (LSE), and a Research Associate at the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP), LSE, and at the Wellbeing Research Centre, University of Oxford. His research looks at how our environment affects our lives – specifically, our behaviour, health, and (ultimately) our wellbeing. He is a recipient of the European Economic Association (EEA)’s Young Economist Award.

Mónica supports the Centre’s casual evidence research for wellbeing policymaking. She currently coordinates the running of multiple randomised control trials that aim to reduce burnout and improve wellbeing among people working in the homelessness sector.

Prior to joining the Reviews and Evaluation team, she worked as a Data Analyst in the OECD WISE Centre working primarily on benchmarking country performance in wellbeing based on the OECD Well-being Framework. She also managed the OECD How’s Life? Well-being Database and developed communication resources to promote the use of wellbeing data for evidence-based policies. She also acquired experience in human development at the United Nations Development Programme in Mexico City, where she was responsible for the analysis of the Human Development Index (HDI) in Mexico, and advocated its use by policymakers and academics.

She holds an MSc in Public Policy and Development from the Paris School of Economics and an MA in Comparative Economics and Policy from University College London as a Chevening Scholar.

Dr Shimaa Elkomy is currently leading a project What Works Centre for Wellbeing that examines the effect of different socioeconomic and demographic factors on the wellbeing and behaviour of individuals across the UK using the Office for National Statistics data of Opinion and Lifestyle Survey. She has been a research fellow at the Centre for Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity at the University of Surrey since 2019.

Shimaa has been a co-investigator in an ESRC funded project “Powering Productivity” that aims at exploring the relationship between energy and economic productivity. She previously worked on an ESRC funded project that aims at investigating the health, economic and policy factors of COVID-19 mortality at the School of Social Work and Social Policy at Strathclyde University.

Shimaa started her research career at the School of Economics in the University of Surrey in 2014 in one-million-pound project funded by Leverhulme Trust. She has led a main research package that examines the efficiency and the productivity of the healthcare sector in the UK for five years.

She has published a series of papers that focus on public policy in leading Economics and Public Administration Journals. Her papers also examine the factors that affect public sector outcomes in the UK – for example leadership and political marginality.

Richard is a consultant working in children and young people’s social policy. He has a strong interest in children’s subjective well-being. Formerly Team Leader for Policy, Research and Public Affairs at The Children’s Society he was responsible for their ongoing research into children’s subjective well-being and their annual Good Childhood Report. He has undertaken and advised a number of projects focused on measuring and responding to children’s wellbeing in practice including in schools, community organisations, local and combined authorities.

Richard has a broad knowledge of children and young people’s lives over a range of areas including social care, health, youth work, schools, immigration, welfare and early years. He co-delivers the Esmée Fairbairn Leaving Care Learning Programme supporting over 30 grantees working with care leavers to make connections, build capacity and collectively influence provision for those leaving care across the UK.

Richard is Chair of Governors at an outstanding secondary school for young people with profound and multiple disabilities and an independent visitor for children in the care. He holds degrees from the London School of Economics and Cambridge University and is an accredited Action Learning Facilitator.

Currently on secondment with the Centre for Time Use Research, UCL/University of Oxford, working with Prof. Gershuny and Prof Sullivan, on wellbeing indicators using time-use data. 

Elena is a final year ESRC-funded PhD student in Health Sciences, at Warwick Medical School, with a background in Quantitative Sociology. Elena’s research interests include social determinants of health, and time-use and measurement (survey, time-diary and accelerometery research).

Professor Praveetha Patalay is an Associate Professor based across the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at the IOE and at the MRC Unit for Lifelong Health and Ageing in the Faculty of Population Health Sciences, UCL.

Her research focuses on the development, risk/protective factors and the consequences of mental ill-health and the ways in which we can reduce the stigma around mental illness and promote well-being. She uses large national studies, including the British birth cohorts, to investigate mental health through the life course and works on evaluations of school-based intervention programmes to support and promote young people’s mental health.

Her recent research has highlighted the increasing levels of mental health difficulties faced by the current generation of young people in the UK.

She has received much recognition for her research, including the British Psychological Society’s Award for Outstanding Doctoral Research Contributions to Psychology and was on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list for Science and Healthcare.