The Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP) is a collaborative effort, with members spanning the United Kingdom and beyond, and featuring a mix of SCPHRP employees, academics, policy makers, practitioners, and volunteers/professionals from the third sector.
The core team is based in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and is administratively housed within the School of Health in Social Science.
SCPHRP Co-Directors
Larry Doi (Co-Director)
Larry is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Public Health in the School of Health in Social Sciences and one of the SCPHRP Co-Directors. He received his PhD in Public Health from the University of Stirling. He holds a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Edinburgh and an honours degree in Biology from the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. He also holds a postgraduate certificate in Academic Practice from the University of Edinburgh and he is a Fellow at the Higher Education Academy. His methodological expertise is in systematic reviews, developing and evaluating complex public health interventions, evaluability assessment and realist evaluation. In line with SCPHRP’s mandate, he is interested in undertaking research in collaboration with decision makers and service users. His research interest is in maternal and child health. Larry has been involved in several research projects and he is currently Principal Investigator on a Scottish Government funded grant to evaluate the universal health visiting pathway in Scotland. He is also currently the Postgraduate Research Director (Nursing Studies) and a course organiser a number of courses, including Global Public Health (both on-campus and Online) and the MN Dissertations.
Email: Larry.Doi@ed.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larry-doi-95971a98/
View Larry’s full research profile at https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/larry-doi
Andrew James Williams (Co-Director)
Andrew is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Health in Social Sciences and the last of the SCPHRP Co-Directors. Andrew’s research interests lie in the social and cultural determinants of health (the fifth wave of public health), especially among children and young people, particularly through the application and exploration of theories such as complexity theory and salutogenesis. His research is often collaborative and transdisciplinary, including engaged research (such as his work with the TR14ers) and co-production approaches. Andrew employs both quantitative and participatory methods to the evaluation and study of a range of public health interventions such as 20mph speed limits, central heating systems and school-based intervention.
Email: andrew.j.williams@ed.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/andrew-james-williams-39598243
View Larry’s full research profile: https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/persons/andrew-williams
Chancellor’s Fellows
Glenna Nightingale (Chancellor’s Fellow)
Glenna is interested in applying statistical principles to real-world problems in public health, ecology, and demography. I enjoy data visualization, building R Shiny apps, and teaching statistics through data storyboarding. Glenna specializes in the use of Point process models, Bayesian inference, Spatial epidemiology, Natural experiment evaluation, and time series modeling.
Some of her work can be found here: http://www.glennanightingale.com/
Email: Glenna.Nightingale@ed.ac.uk
Divya Sivaramakrishnan (Chancellor’s Fellow)
Divya is a Chancellor’s Fellow with the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy, Department of Nursing Studies. She is a mixed methods researcher with experience in intervention development and evaluation. Her research interests include development and evaluation of public health interventions, healthy ageing, and physical activity and sedentary behaviour across varied populations.
Divya was a postdoctoral researcher on the Stand Up for Health project, which aimed to reduce sedentary behaviour in contact centres. The NIHR funded project evaluated the feasibility of the programme, using a cluster randomised stepped wedge study design. Divya has completed her PhD at the Physical Activity for Health Centre, University of Edinburgh on developing a yoga intervention for older adults. She is also a yoga teacher.
She is currently working on health ageing in India, and is collaborating with researchers in ISEC, Bangalore to understand ageism and age norms in Urban India. She is also working with the Physical activity for Health Research Centre on developing interventions to reduce sedentary behaviour while working from home, as well as physical activity and menopause.
Email: Divya.Sivaramakrishnan@ed.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/divya-sivaramakrishnan-56a4729/
GroundsWell team
Stephen Malden (Researcher, GroundsWell)
Stephen is a research fellow based within SCPHRP at the University of Edinburgh. Stephen joined SCPHRP in 2015, before completing his PhD in childhood obesity/public health at the University of Strathclyde. Stephen has a varied research background having experience in health services research, health informatics, systematic reviews/meta-analyses and the development/evaluation of public health interventions. His research interests include childhood obesity, health benefits and determinants of physical activity, health inequalities, and the impact of urban greenspace on health.
Stephen returned to SCPHRP from the Usher Institute in 2022, where he will be responsible for co-designing and evaluating community-based public health interventions in urban green and blue spaces as part of the GroundsWell Consortium. For more information about GroundsWell see: https://ukprp.org/what-we-fund/groundswell/
Email: Stephen.malden@ed.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-malden-40633078
Craig McDougall (Researcher, GroundsWell)
Craig is a part-time research assistant working on the GroundsWell project https://ukprp.org/what-we-fund/groundswell/. He is also a final year PhD student at the University of Stirling. Craig’s PhD research explores the effects of spending time in and around natural environments on physical and mental health, with a specific focus on freshwater environments (or blue spaces). He is particularly interested in health geography and environmental justice and frequently uses GIS-based methods to investigate urban health and health inequality. Before joining SCPHRP, Craig obtained a B.Sc. (Hons) in Environmental Management from Glasgow Caledonian University, where he conducted research on inequalities in green space accessibility in West Glasgow.
Email: cmcdoug3@exseed.ed.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-mcdougall-5b0800231/
Luis Soares (Science Communicator & Research Impact)
Luis Soares joined SCPHRP in March 2025, taking on the roles of Science Communicator and Research Impact Officer. He is an interdisciplinary scholar and educator with over 20 years of experience across the public, private, and media technology sectors.
In addition to his role at GROUNDSWELL, Luis is also an experienced researcher at the Institute for Design Informatics, based at the Edinburgh College of Art and the School of Informatics.
Holding a PhD in Science and Technology Studies, Luis’s research lies at the intersection of science, technology, and society, with a particular focus on developing innovative methodologies to enhance knowledge transfer and stakeholder engagement. His work places strong emphasis on inclusivity, decolonising design processes, and empowering individuals to lead change through a concept he describes as Radical Inclusive Attitude.
Luis’s professional journey is also marked by his dedication to promoting mental health and well-being, mentoring colleagues facing systemic discrimination, and fostering empathetic leadership and supportive academic environments.
Email: Luis.Soares@ed.ac.uk
Members
Jillian Manner (Research Fellow)
Jillian joined SCPHRP in 2017. She is currently a Research Fellow on the PHIRST Elevate Team, based across the Physical Activity for Health Research Centre (PAHRC) and SCPHRP. She is interested in workplace wellbeing, intervention development for public health. and qualitative research methods. Jillian is an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) and an Exercise Physiologist.
The title of her PhD was: Improving employee wellbeing from the top down: The importance of organisational culture in the planning and delivery of workplace health programmes.
Email: Jillian.Manner@ed.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jillianmanner/
Mengying Zhang (Research Fellow)
Mengying joined SCPHRP in January 2021. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Science (Nursing Studies), a Bachelor’s degree in Finance from the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST), and both an MSc and PhD in Nursing Studies from the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD research involved using realist evaluation to explore how smoking cessation apps can help Chinese smokers stop smoking. Her methodological focuses are realist evaluation and systematic review. In June 2022, she was funded as a research assistant on a project exploring the barriers and solutions of healthcare professionals and students accessing scholarly literature. She was also an exchange student at Kanazawa University (Japan), Swansea University (UK), and California State University (Long Beach, USA), during her undergraduate studies. She was also a Student Representative at the School of Health in Social Science (HiSS), at the University of Edinburgh.
Email: M.Zhang-56@sms.ed.ac.uk
Caroline Brett (Lecturer)
Caroline is a health psychologist who joined Edinburgh University as a lecturer in clinical psychology in February 2023. She completed her MSc Health Psychology at Stirling and her professional doctorate in health psychology at City University, London, while working as a research assistant on studies affiliated to the Lothian Birth Cohorts – longitudinal studies of health and wellbeing in older adults. Caroline is also an honorary research fellow at Liverpool John Moores University, where she spent 7 years teaching health and positive psychology.
Caroline’s research interests have been a rather eclectic mix of topics relating to health and wellbeing, with collaborators from psychology, public health, epidemiology, education, primary care, and the creative arts. Her main interests are in the psychosocial determinants of wellbeing – including personality, resilience, sense of coherence, and social support – and the effectiveness and mechanisms of non-clinical interventions such as nature-based interventions and social prescribing in enhancing health and wellbeing. She is particularly interested in developing robust, co-developed evaluation frameworks for complex interventions, and has been involved in several such projects in the Liverpool City Region.
You can read more about Caroline’s research work here: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-caroline-e-brett
Email: caroline.brett@ed.ac.uk
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caroline-brett-5633a88a/
Catherine Clarissa (Clarissa) (Lecturer)
Clarissa is a Lecturer in Nursing (Life Sciences) in the School of Health in Social Science and a Registered Nurse (RN) in Indonesia and the UK. She earned her Professional Degree in Nursing (RN) and her Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) at Universitas Indonesia. She completed her MSc in Advancing Nursing Practice and her PhD in Nursing Studies at the University of Edinburgh. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). As a critical care nurse by background, Clarissa has a strong passion for improving critically ill patients’ recovery. Her research interests lie in the area of the recovery and rehabilitation of critically ill patients and young adults after stroke. Her doctoral research explored staff experiences relating to early mobilisation of mechanically ventilated patients in intensive care. She has been involved in research projects on post-stroke rehabilitation for young adults.
Email: Catherine.clarissa@ed.ac.uk
View Clarissa’s full research profile at https://edwebprofiles.ed.ac.uk/profile/clarissa
Jenny van Bekkum (Daphne Jackson Research Fellow)
Jenny joined SCPHRP in October 2023 as a Daphne Jackson Research Fellow. Working alongside the Groundswell consortium (https://ukprp.org/what-we-fund/groundswell/), her research focusses on investigating the causal mechanisms associated with urban biodiversity and the prevention and treatment of non communicable diseases. She is a mixed-methods researcher with experience in designing, implementing, and evaluating interventions, and has a particular interest in realist and qualitative methodologies.
Jenny’s background is in health psychology and public health research, having completed a PhD at the University of Edinburgh working closely with the national body Cycling Scotland to develop an intervention to support cycling to work. She has completed an MRC Career Development Fellowship, focussing on public engagement with medical research at the Social and Public Health Sciences Unit within Glasgow University. While taking a family career break, she also worked part-time as an Associate Tutor in the Institute for Education Community and Society at the University of Edinburgh.
Profile page: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/dr-jenny-van-bekkum
Email: jenny.vanbekkum@ed.ac.uk
Linked In: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/jenny-van-bekkum-phd-8a90b732
