Team profiles

Alex Ruck Keene KC (Hon) is an experienced barrister, writer and educator. His practice at 39 Essex Chambers is focused on mental capacity, mental health and healthcare law. He also writes extensively, editing and contributing to leading textbooks, and is the creator of the website Mental Capacity Law and Policy. Alex complements his practice with a deep interest in research and education. Amongst other positions, he is a Visiting Professor at the Dickson Poon School of Law, King’s College London and a Visiting Professor at the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory, University of West London. Alex now spends much of his time on policy matters, including, currently, as a consultant on the Law Commission’s Disabled Children Social Care project. In March 2022, Alex was made an honorary KC, reflecting his contributions to mental capacity and mental health law outside the court room. 

Alison is an Associate Professor at the University of Northampton and has over 15 years of experience as a researcher in the field of health, wellbeing, and creative practice. Alison is a mixed methods researcher and has a particular focus on working with people living with dementia to support independent living in the community. In 2015 Alison became a Churchill Fellow, conducting a research study in Denmark using photography and storytelling with people living with dementia. Alison has developed upon this work and has co-designed a new storytelling game to support creative conversations, through UKRI Catalyst funding, Alison is also a certified TimeSlips storyteller. Other recent projects include an AHRC funded project to deliver and research the impact of creative arts for people with younger onset dementia, this sits alongside a number of arts and health projects, including signing for the brain and storytelling in palliative care. Alison is also the lead UK researcher for an international collaboration to explore the use of lifelong learning with people living with dementia.

For 5.5 years I was the Lead Nurse for Dementia at Bradford Foundation Teaching Hospital. This was a strategic role looking at the output of positive dementia epistemology and how this was implemented within the Trust and the larger geographical area. This involved positively and creatively challenging current thinking to develop new and improved policy and working practices. Role model and influence high level nursing and multi-disciplinary practice to a maximum potential that focused on person centred care. The role provided an opportunity to lead and empower through education delivery across a multidisciplinary environment and engage in active research processes to support change in line with evidenced based practice. I moved to full time education in 2018. I am the current undergraduate programme lead at the University for Highlands, part of my role is to entrench dementia standards in education within the nursing program, focusing on the realities faced when caring for people living with dementia including carers. Encompassed with frailty and care of the older adult, part of my challenge is to interconnect the topic across the whole of the nursing programme which are not seen as the obvious areas people would encounter people living with a dementia.

Dr Cheng SHI is currently a Research Assistant Professor at School of Graduate Studies and Institute of Policy Studies, Lingnan University. She is also the Associate Programme Director of Master of Social Sciences in Health Services Management. Prior to her current position, Dr SHI worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, at The University of Hong Kong. She received her PhD in social policy from Renmin, University of China.

In general, Dr Shi investigates how social policy can respond to dynamic care needs against socio-demographic changes and its impact on the formal-informal caregiving and service utilisation, from both the demand and supply sides to assist evidence-based policy making. Her research focuses on three interrelated areas, including 1) long-term care policy, 2) retirement arrangement and care preference, and 3) advancing support for people living with dementia.

Dr. Claudia Miranda-Castillo is a Psychologist, MSc in Clinical Psychology and PhD in Aging and Mental Health from University College London (UK). She is currently an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Nursing at Universidad Andrés Bello (Chile), Director of the Millennium Institute for Care Research (MICARE) and Associate Researcher of the Millennium Institute for Research in Depression and Personality (MIDAP). Her research interests focus on psychosocial interventions for people with dementia and their families, needs assessment in older adults, and mental health in family caregivers. Dr. Miranda-Castillo has published several papers and has been awarded grants as principal researcher on different projects about dementia and family caregiving. She has also participated as expert advisor in several collaborative activities with Chilean Ministries and National Services.

Emma Wolverson is a Clinical Psychologist and Reader in Ageing and Dementia within the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Hull. She is Research Lead for Dementia UK. Emma is a member of the British Psychological Society and a registered practitioner with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC).

She is a member of the multi-disciplinary international research group INTERDEM where she leads a taskforce on palliative and end of life care in dementia, a peer reviewer for the World Health Organizations Global Dementia Observatory Knowledge Exchange Platform and a Clinical Policy Advisor for Alzheimer’s Research UK.

Emma has over 17 years’ experience of working in the NHS with people living with dementia and uses her clinical experience to guide evidence based practice and to deliver research that explores issues that matter for people with dementia, their families and healthcare professionals.

As a clinical academic, Emma’s body of work is focused on delivering clinical innovation and seeks to bring meaningful changes to current practices. Emma’s research programme responds to the urgent need to improve post-diagnostic support for people with dementia and their families. Emma is particularly interested in times when people and families need greater support, such as during a mental health crisis or as a person reaches the end of their life.

Felicity Bright is Associate Professor in Rehabilitation in the School of Clinical Sciences at Auckland University of Technology and is a research leader in the Centre for Person Centred Research. She has extensive clinical experience as a speech-language therapist. 

Felicity’s research programme critically examines how rehabilitation responds to the needs and priorities of patients and families. By attending to the experiences of those accessing and providing rehabilitation services and examining taken-for-granted practices and structures, Felicity's work seeks to open up different approaches to practice. She currently leads projects related to psychosocial well-being after stroke, communication accessibility in stroke services, and provision of person-centred, culturally responsive telerehabilitation.  

Felicity chairs the Psychosocial Working Group of the National Stroke Network and leads the Life After Stroke research network in New Zealand. She also chairs the Programme Accreditation Committee of the New Zealand Speech-language Therapists’ Association.

Gloria is a researcher and educator in mental health care. She led projects to improve access to psychosocial care interventions in dementia and late-life depression, including government-commissioned service evaluation and policy research, which have resulted in services being scaled up or routinely provided. Her research focuses on innovation through understanding the psychological mechanisms and service configuration, with the help of a cultural and international perspective. She believes interdisciplinary collaboration as well as patient and public involvement and engagement are key, and collaborates widely with experts and experts by experience. As part of the STRiDE network, Director of Training for Cognitive Stimulation Therapy–Hong Kong (of the International Cognitive Stimulation Therapy Centre), and Executive Committee of the Hong Kong Alzheimer's Disease Association, Gloria have trained over 900 health and social care professionals. She currently directs the Master of Social Sciences (Mental Health) programme at The University of Hong Kong.

Jacky is an applied social scientist with 12 years of research experience in aged care and carer support. With a multidisciplinary background in psychology, psychological medicine, and social work, he is an expert in designing, implementing, and evaluating intervention and support services across healthcare and social care settings with an interest in family-centred approach. His recent dementia research includes reviewing the dementia policy and services in Hong Kong, delivering remote non-pharmacological intervention for people living with dementia and their carers in the community, and exploring family preparedness for dementia caregiving. He teaches postgraduate courses in mental health problems of older adults and evidence-based dementia interventions. He is currently a research assistant professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at The University of Hong Kong. He is also a founding member of the Dementia Training Academy at The University College London.

Jacqueline Parkes is a Professor of Applied Mental Health in the Faculty of Health, Education & Society at the University of Northampton (UON). 

Jackie is an experienced mental health nurse and has worked in a broad range of mental health and learning disability settings prior to moving into Higher Education. She is the Founder and co-lead of the Northamptonshire Dementia Research & Innovation Centre (NDRIC) at UON.  Her subject specialisms are dementia, mental health, public and patient involvement and engagement (PPI&E) and nursing research, with a particular focus on developing and implementing person-centred care pathways.  She works extensively with local organisations to evaluate their provision of health and social care services, including community-based interventions for people living with dementia. She is the Chair of the Northamptonshire Dementia Action Forum (Formerly the Northamptonshire Dementia Action Alliance) and Chair of the Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland Dementia Friendly Community Forum.

Jennifer is a Visiting Fellow at the Geller Institute of Ageing and Memory (GIAM) at the University of West London. Jennifer specialises in health policy and organisational studies. She has over twenty years of work experience in health-related research, teaching and consulting. She has worked across Africa, Europe and the Middle East, with a good grasp of global health and healthcare and related service trends across regions. She has conducted extensive comparative analysis of health systems in the US, Africa, UK and Europe, from which she disseminates teaching in healthcare management, workforce issues and implementation science.

Her previous roles include consulting as Team Lead for the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in Rwanda on a USAID funded Digital Health Applied Leadership Programme and as the pioneer Programme Director (Global Healthcare Management) at University College London (UCL) Global Business School of Health. She is the current Chair of the QAA Health Subject Benchmark Committee and also serves on other healthcare boards. She continues to work to foster international collaborations in Health and Healthcare.

Professor Joan Ostaszkiewicz is the Principal Director of Aged Care Research at the National Ageing Research Institute (NARI), Honorary Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Adjunct Professor of Health and Innovation Transformation Centre at Federation University and Visiting Professor at the Gellar Institute for Ageing and Memory at the University of West London.  

Joan leads a program of research that aims to improve older peoples’ quality of care and quality of life and support family and formal caregivers. The program encompasses research on dementia care, continence care, catheter care, loneliness and social isolation, and carer support. Her primary research expertise is the management of incontinence in older people which incorporates her clinical background as a Registered Nurse with extensive research training and experience in continence care. 

Dr Karen Burnell is a Chartered Research Psychologist and Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society. Karen is an Associate Professor of Applied Psychology (Solent University), focusing on narrative psychology in the context of psychogerontology, specifically veteran studies, and mental health and wellbeing. She is interested in the role of peer support in psychosocial interventions for mental health and wellbeing. Karen’s current research focuses on heritage and mental health, and she has co-edited the first interdisciplinary books on the topic: Archaeology, Heritage, and Wellbeing: Authentic, Powerful, and Therapeutic Engagement with the Past.

Karen is a member of the Expert Review Panel for the Forces in Mind Trust’s Mental Health Research Programme, Secretary to the British Society of Gerontology’s Averil Osborn Award for Participatory Research, an Editorial Board member for Quality in Ageing and Older People, member of the Royal Air Forces Association Research Advisory Group, and Visiting Professor at UWL.

Dr Lorraine Frisina-Doetter is a tenured lecturer of Public Health at the University of Bremen. She holds a doctoral degree in Political Sciences from the University of Bremen. Her research focuses on comparative health care systems, long term care, public health, social inequalities and health, racism as a social determinant of health, and the role of colonial legacies in health care system developments. Dr. Frisina-Doetter also regularly serves as policy advisor and senior consultant for the World Health Organisation’s Regional Office for Europe.

Marion has worked in healthcare, public health and academia for forty years. She has held UK national NHS director posts, worked internationally developing national health strategy at Government level, written the curriculum and taught on many postgraduate courses to support others to improve population health, health system quality, and address social injustice. Her research interests focus around developing nursing as a 21st Century profession, improving global health through delivery of the sustainable development goals, innovating in health system design to improve quality and equity in health, empowering women and addressing gender inequality, and educating on the use of arts in health policy development and health practice. Clinically she remains passionate about improving care for people living with dementia.

Marion campaigns internationally for the recognition of nurses’ work across the sustainable development goals. She is currently writing a book showcasing this and the work of nurses across the world. She has published widely on innovations in health education, and presented internationally on professional education, health system design and innovation using the arts. She was awarded the British Empire Medal in the 2024 New Year’s Honours List from the Foreign Commonwealth Development Office for services to women and children in Africa.

Najoua is a sociologist, researcher and educator at the Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Her work aims at looking into health inequalities in dementia diagnostics and care. She looks into the way in which (health) literacy, socioeconomic status, educational level and especially culture need to be considered in providing adequate dementia care and diagnostics. Najoua also looks into how a culture sensitive approach might help tackle these health inequalities. In her work, there is also attention for the role of the caregiver.  

For Najoua it is important to conduct research among a study population that reflects the diversity in society. As a chair of the network group Cultural Dementia Care Rotterdam, she aims to keep up with developments in the dementia field regarding care, policy and initiatives in Rotterdam. She also coordinates the multicultural memory clinic of the Alzheimer Center of the Erasmus Medical Center. 

Oladayo is a Mental Health Nurse by background. He is a Clinical Academic - Research & Effectiveness Lead at Mersey Care NHS FT and a Senior Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing at Liverpool John Moores University.  

He is an applied health researcher with a keen interest in global mental health, with a specific focus on understanding the influence of culture on the caregiving process and reducing health inequalities. He has expertise in qualitative research, with approaches underpinned by realist, contextualist and radical constructionist epistemological frameworks. He is a member of INTEDEM academy - a task force examining inequalities in Dementia Care across Europe, Global Mental Health Cultural Psychiatry (Multi-morbidity) group and Global African & Caribbean Mental Health Research Network in the United Kingdom. He leads and delivers on various pre and post- registration nursing modules such as Evidence Based Nursing Practice and Research Methods. He is also involved in various activities geared towards increasing research capacities and capabilities amongst the non-medic work force.

Rachel is currently the Consultant Admiral Nurse for Lewy Body dementia; funded by the Lewy Body Society. She has worked as a nurse for over 35 years across a range of settings and first specialised in dementia care as an Admiral Nurse in 1999. She was previously the Practice Development Lead for Admiral Nursing and before that the Dementia Lead at the Royal College of Nursing.

Rachel is a visiting professor for the Geller Institute for Ageing and Memory, University of West London; co-chair of the British Geriatric Society (BGS) Dementia Special Interest Group and contributes to national steering groups.

She has been involved in delivering education and training, practice development and has published a number of articles on education and best practice in dementia. She also co-authored a book; Pulsford & Thompson (2019) ‘Dementia; Support for Family & Friends’ (second edition).

Dr Tiina Vaittinen is a social scientist, ethnographer, political economist and care ethicist, and a pioneer in the study of holistically sustainable continence care. Presently, she works in the Politics Unit in the Faculty of Management and Business at Tampere University, Finland, where she leads a Kone Foundation funded project on emergent un/sustainabilities of care. She holds a PhD in Peace and Conflict Research, an MA in Transnational Relations in International Politics, and a BscEcon in International Politics. In her work, she specialises in the study of indirect forms of violence and injustice in different fields silenced, marginalized and unrecognized care needs – that are often found in the “dirty” materialities of care. Building on feminist ethics of care, she has developed an account of the corporeal ethics of care needs, with a particular focus on dementia. She has also studied everyday conflicts and their corporeal resolution in residential care, and the biopolitical economies of Filipino nurse migration to an ageing welfare state. In her present work, she collaborates across a wide range of scientific disciplines, from social sciences to medical and health sciences and engineering, as well as with different stakeholders from NGOs to patient advocacy groups to the corporate world in continence technology. She also holds an Honorary Fellowship with the National Ageing Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.