Our People

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. 

She holds a wide range of advisory roles across the UK and globally to bring evidence into decision making and to fill evidence gaps including on Public Health England’s Every Mind Matters Expert Advisory Group, Well Schools, Pro Bono Economics, Loneliness & Social Isolation Research Network and Early Intervention Foundation Knowledge Mobilisation. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate, a Fellow of the Zinc Academy and a Leadership Fellow at the Windsor Castle Society of Leadership Fellows.

Previous advisory roles include as specialist advisor on wellbeing to the UK House of Lords Life After Covid Inquiry into wellbeing impacts of the acceleration of digital of the pandemic, Brookings Working Group on Despair and Economic Recovery, the UAE Global Councils on Sustainable Development Goals, Department for Education Teacher & Leader Wellbeing, DCMS Loneliness Technical Advisory Group, Civil Service UK Strategic Framework, Stockholm City Region, Carnegie UK Trust’s Embedding Wellbeing in Northern Ireland, RSA & British Council Heritage for Inclusive Growth, Centre for Homelessness Impact Advisory Group, RSA & Carnegie Job Quality Metrics, UUK’s Mental Health in Higher Education and the British Academy Where We Live Now project, Inclusive Economy Partnership Farmer Stevenson Review implementation and City Mental Health Alliance Research Working Group.

Formal publications and contributions include

• Wellbeing at the Heart of Policy with Deborah Hardoon & Silvia Brunetti
• Wellbeing Guidance for Appraisal: Supplementary Green Book Guidance with HM Treasury and the Social Impacts Taskforce
• When to release the lockdown: A wellbeing framework for analysing costs and benefits with London School of Economics, Centre for Economic Performance
• Delivering national public mental health – experience from England with Public Health England
• Countries’ Experiences with Well-being and Happiness Metrics  with the OECD for the Global Happiness Policy Council
• Population levels of wellbeing and the association with social capital in South Australia  with South Australia Health & Medical Research Institute
• Addressing America’s Crisis of Despair and Economic Recovery with Brookings Working Group on Despair and Economic Recovery.

@Work_Life_You

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Joanne works to understand what local government, health organisations, communities, and individuals can do to increase wellbeing and effectively translate this into practice. She is an experienced policy professional and has led service improvement activity across local government; the voluntary and community sector; housing associations; and secondary care.

Joanne is a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership & Management, has a Masters in Public Health, and an MBA from Durham University.

She has a side hustle in coaching running fitness and is passionate about parkrun.

@joannesmithson

An experienced and consummate storyteller, Robyn has expertise in generating high-quality, accurate, accessible and engaging communications across digital and print channels. Prior to joining the Centre, she worked in strategic comms, social media and copywriting across the higher education and performing arts sectors.

Stewart works with place-based organisations and professional researchers to fill evidence gaps, identify new research requirements, and communicate and use the existing global knowledge base about community wellbeing. His role is delivered in partnership with the Institute of Community Studies.

He is undertaking a PhD part-time at Northumbria University identifying what works in implementing wellbeing frameworks. Stewart has degrees in Law, Public Service Management, and Philosophy (focusing on wellbeing) and is a trustee of Cumbria Council for Voluntary Service.

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

Ingrid is co-founder and chair of trustees of The Mill, an asset-based community development project in East London. She has advised other charity boards, local authorities and social enterprises on asset-based approaches to community development.

Mhairi has expertise in developing accessible communications and content that meets user needs and creates positive social impact.

She leads on content development and community engagement, including creating and facilitating loneliness awareness training. Her work engages a wide range of organisations working on the issue of loneliness to create action focused dialogue and positive change.

Prior to joining the Campaign, she worked on content creation, strategic development and community engagement across the arts and charitable sectors.

Helen is an experienced mixed methods researcher who has worked within and beyond academia. Her recent academic work has focused on the importance of informal school contexts for children’s peer relationships, social development and wellbeing.

Alongside this, she worked as Research and Learning Lead for Ageing Better in Camden, researching and writing about very practical solutions to tackling social isolation and loneliness among older people.

From this combination of work, she brings a strong interest in and understanding of the importance of feeling connected, the detrimental effects of loneliness across the lifespan, and of methods for studying these issues.