Meet the PHIRST team

Professor Katherine Brown is Chair in Behaviour Change in Health and Chief Investigator for the NIHR-funded PHIRST Connect. She spent more than eight years embedded within a local authority public health department alongside leadership of research teams focussed on the application of behavioural science to changing preventive health behaviours and addressing major public health challenges. Her key areas of expertise include: Intervention development and evaluation, engagement of multiple stakeholders in the co-production of research, behaviour change, public health, digital health.

Julia Jones is Professor of Public Involvement and Health at the University of Hertfordshire and Co-Chief Investigator for the NIHR-funded PHIRST Connect. Julia is an experienced health researcher with a strong record of conducting international and interdisciplinary research in the fields of patient and public involvement (PPI), mental health and kidney care.  In her role at the University of Hertfordshire, Julia leads the Patient Experience and Public Involvement Research Unit in the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care (CRIPACC) in the School of Health and Social Work.  Working collaboratively with service users and carers in research is central to her research practice, which includes chairing the Public Involvement in Research group (PIRg) based in CRIPACC. Her key areas of expertise include: Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in health and social care research; mental health of children and young people; and; conducting research on sensitive topics.

Professor Katie Newby is Professor of Behaviour Change and Public Health at the University of Hertfordshire. She is a Co-Investigator, leading on the Welsh National Exercise Referral Scheme (NERS) Evaluation, at PHIRST Connect. Her research focus is on the development and evaluation of complex health behaviour change interventions. She has worked on a diverse range of public health projects focussing on, for example, sexual health, vaccination uptake, smoking, and physical activity. Her key areas of expertise include: Interventions to change health-related behaviour; Digital technology and methods; co-design; sexually transmitted infections and sexual behaviour.

Dr Neil Howlett has over 15 years of research experience in the areas of behaviour change and public health, with a particular interest in physical activity, and is a Co-Investigator at PHIRST Connect. Neil's expertise includes: designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions to help individuals, communities, and populations change a range of health behaviours; systematic reviews and meta-analyses; behaviour change theories; policy and research briefings; pragmatic evaluations of public health programmes. Neil has achieved circa £7.5m of grant funding including leading on Department of Health, Lottery, and Local Enterprise Partnership-funded grants with the charity HENRY and co-leading the design and evaluation of the Active Herts programme. Neil has provided leadership on two PHIRST evaluations focusing on community champions and researchers during COVID-19 in Southampton, and Green Health Prescriptions in Scotland. Neil is also currently working with the UCL hub of the NIHR-funded Policy Research Unit in Behavioural and Social Sciences and is a former Treasurer and Trustee of the Behavioural Science and Public Health Network.

Nigel Lloyd is a Senior Research Fellow for PHIRST Connect. For the past 20 years he has specialised in conducting community-focused research and evaluation with initiatives that aim to bring about positive outcomes for marginalised communities. He has worked as a researcher in academia and industry, and as a consultant has conducted more than 60 different research projects. He has worked as a National Coordinator for the National Evaluation of Sure Start and has been an Analytical Associate with the UK Department for Education. His key areas of expertise include: Impact and outcomes measurement; evaluation capacity building; evaluating community-based initiatives; and impact measurement for services for children and families, health promotion and improvement programmes, and community-focused, multi-agency initiatives.

Laura is a Research Fellow for PHIRST Connect. Laura has a BSc in Psychology from the University of Nottingham as well as an MPhil in Public Health from the University of Bradford. Her thesis looked at physical activity promotion apps that provided feedback on user affect. Laura has worked across public health, quality improvement and health policy research in academic and third-sector organisations for the last fifteen years. She has worked on theory-based projects promoting physical activity, medication adherence and healthy eating in regional or primary care settings as well as quality improvement projects in hospital settings. Her health policy work has included exploring challenges and facilitators for sector-led improvement in adult social care and NHS admin, health inequalities related to the location of services, process reviews of independent care education and treatment reviews in mental health settings and Community Champion schemes based in local authorities. She has worked with those in, and supporting, the health system at both local and national levels. Her research interests include public and population health interventions, community-led/based interventions and mental health and wellbeing.

Imogen Freethy is a Senior Research Assistant at PHIRST Connect. She has an Undergraduate degree in Psychology and has worked as honorary Assistant Psychologist in at the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. She has authored work in the Clinical Psychology forum on the effectiveness of an adapted Dialectical Behavioural Therapy program for mothers with emotional dysregulation. Imogen leads on Knowledge Mobilisation and Impact (KMI) as part of PHIRST Connect, and is the Communications lead within PHAB Lab. Her key areas of interest include: KMI, creative dissemination, physical and mental wellbeing, preventative health strategies, and early intervention services.

Nigel Smeeton is a Social Statistician at the Centre for Research in Public Health and Community Care, University of Hertfordshire. Most of his research has involved the application of statistical methods to psychiatry, asthma, and stroke. He has published an introductory book on dental statistics and is co-author of a text on nonparametric statistical methods. Nigel has an interest in the influence of ethnicity in medical and social issues and is currently engaged in an education intervention for bowel cancer screening in Asian communities. His key areas of expertise include: adolescence; cohort studies; ethnicity; observer agreement; patient and public involvement; statistics; stroke, pollution and climate.

Amander Wellings is the Public and Patient Involvement Co-applicant at PHIRST Connect. She is a neuro-diverse, lifelong family carer/service user, with wide experience of health and social care. She holds an MA in Medical Sociology from the University of East Anglia and is a founding member of the Patient and Public Involvement in Research (PIRg) Norfolk PPI group and alumni of the NIHR INVOLVE advisory group writing national PRI guidance and advising on PPI strategies. She has commented on numerous study designs, creating and co facilitating training, management, and steering groups she has accumulated vast experience in patient and public involvement. Her key areas of expertise include: Patient and Public involvement in research.

Dr Gavin Breslin is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Queens’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. He is a Chartered Sport and Exercise Psychologist, and Registered Practitioner of the Health Care ​Professions Council (HCPC). Gavin has published extensively in the area of mental health and well-being. He has published two books. He led on systematic reviews, cross sectional, prospective, and ​case studies on mental health, and has designed RCT interventions using psychological behaviour change theory to enhance health and well-being for children and adults in schools, sports clubs, prisons, secure hospitals and workplace settings. His key areas of expertise include: health ​behaviour change, intervention design to improve health and wellbeing.

Dr Adam Wagner is a health economist based at the University of East Anglia (UEA), working as a Senior Research Fellow in the Norwich Medical School (within the Health Economics Group). He works across a range of different projects, leading and supporting the delivery of health economics within them, along with contributing statistical input as appropriate (previously he has also worked as an applied medical statistician). His work focuses non-exclusively on economic evaluations, including within trials (such as INHALE and FluCare), but also in other settings (such as investigating the implementation of remote monitoring). He is also heavily involved in the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration East of England as (interim) lead of its Health Economics and Prioritisation in Health and Social Care theme.

Krishnan Puri Sudhir is a Senior Research Associate in Health Economics at the Health Economics Group (HEG), University of East Anglia (UEA). He holds an MSc in Health Economics and an MSc in International Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), as well as an undergraduate degree in Economics. Krishnan has co-authored research across a range of clinical areas, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cervical cancer. His primary research interest lies in mental health economics, with a focus on advancing equitable, effective, and accessible mental healthcare for all.