About

I am an Edinburgh-based and London-regular Applied Social and Behavioural Scientist, Public Health Researcher and Independent Consultant, working from the UK on international development and research projects across Africa, Asia and Europe/Central Asia. Past and current clients include FCDO (and predecessor DfID), International SOS, European Union (EU), British Council, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the US government’s aid agency, Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). I started my working life as a reporter for BBC Radio 3 and World Service, and a researcher at BBC Radio 4. My work now spans a broad range of subjects. These include public health, psychosocial factors, the social aspects of infectious diseases, cities, energy production and infrastructure, climate change resilience and adaptation, gender equality and social inclusion, ethnicity, race, multiculturalism and migration, and social development. I am author of a book and various academic articles on these subjects.

I am Affiliate Research Fellow at the Institute of Health and Wellbeing, University of Glasgow. I have a DPhil (PhD) in Social and Cultural Anthropology with Sociology and Social Psychology from the University of Oxford, a Masters of Public Health (University of New South Wales, Australia), a Masters in Visual Anthropology (University of Oxford), Masters in Anthropology of Europe (University of Sussex) and a BA Music and Media Studies (University of Sussex). I am a candidate, MSc Psychology (Glasgow). I am also a part-time musician and song-writer, singing and playing the flute/piano in two Edinburgh-based bands, Jelephant and Saxofolk. I sing and play Celtic folk as my heritage is Scottish, English, Irish, Welsh, French and Norwegian, Nordic folk, jazz and bursts of Debussy.

My work is outlined on the menus up above. If you’d like to get in touch with a view to commissioning consultancy services or are interested in booking Jelephant or Saxofolk for a gig, please use the contact form here.

Lived Experience

I make no secret of the fact that all my work is informed by my lived experience of disability and neurodiversity because it’s bloody time that somebody did! Otherwise, how on earth will things change and the world appreciate the talents of those with an alternative outlook? I am mobility impaired and a Proud Dyslexic/Dyspraxic, gifted with a brain that prizes systems/global big picture/international overview thinking. In my work, this has been a huge advantage, as I’m able to identify and connect the disparate parts of a problem and generate solutions that utilise novel combinations of otherwise not united factors to go a step beyond single disciplinary or sectoral approaches. I was also a child carer to a parent with severe head injuries (frontal lobe) so my interest in neurological/psychological health and the biopsychosocial factors that drive human behaviour, cognition, affect and response is thus informed by lived experience since the age of one. I am a huge champion of talented individuals from challenging and tough backgrounds, and value the diversity of perspective, experience, resilience, adaptability and tenacity that we bring to our professional work.

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