I currently work full time but have have two discrete roles within the Centre; 0.6 FTE as NIHR Research Design Service South East Communications and Support Officer; and 0.4 FTE CHSS Communications and Administrative Assistant.

In 2007 I joined CHSS as Bilingual Administrative Assistant to Anglo-French Interreg-funded project COSPH, a comparative study of health behaviours in northern France and south east England. I have provided administration support since on various research projects and developed my role into providing Communications and publicity for the Centre, primarily through managing the CHSS quarterly newsletter.

In 2012 I became Communications and Support Officer for the NIHR Research Design Service SE. I provide local support, and also work collaboratively with ten RDS regions through the national RDS Communications Working Group. I produce the annual RDS newsletter and the RDS SE monthly e-bulletin with funding and events news and information for the region’s health, social care and public health researchers.I work closely with the RDS SE team providing support to both operational and strategic activities. A favourite part of my role lies in outreach work, attending events to represent RDS SE. I enjoy promoting the valuable free service the RDSprovides to researchers.

In my CHSS role, I am responsible for writing and project managing our departmental newsletter. I am responsible for day to day management of the CHSS website and news blog. I also work with the CHSS Opening Doors to Research Group on Plain English Summaries and provide administrative support to CHSS. From 2009 - 2012, I was Coordinator of the SSPSSR School and Research Centres’ Staff Ethics Committee.

I began my career in banking for seven years in my native Cumbria. I moved to London in 1984, becoming first a Publications Assistant and then an Executive PA for a white collar Trade Union. I have worked for a diverse range of organisations including The Australian High Commission, Heinemann Medical Publishers, Relate Relationship Counselling and Canterbury Housing Advice Centre. My appointment to CHSS in 2007 followed a period of part-time working in various roles while studying fulltime for a BA degree.

I returned to fulltime education in 1990 and achieved a distinction level Ruskin College (Oxford) Diploma in Sociology, Economics and English Literature. In 1994 I graduated with a 2:1 BA in Industrial Relations and Personnel Management from the University of Kent and in 2005 I gained a Diploma in European Business from Canterbury Christchurch University, achieving a first in Business French.

I was a PPI member of the NIHR Public Health Research Programme Advisory Board 2011-2015, and am now a lay reviewer for the NIHR HTA and NIHR EME programmes. I am also a public research ‘rater’ for the NIHR Dissemination Centre.

I have campaigned through the British Heart Foundation to raise awareness of CHD in women and I helped set up a BHF heart patients’ support group in Canterbury in the 1990s. I am very interested in the role of the arts in promoting health and wellbeing. I am a member of the University of Kent Players and have enjoyed roles in Pride and Prejudice, The Philadelphia Story and The Ghost Train. I attend the University’s rock choir, and also sing in a local functions band.

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