The Leadership Team.

Our leadership team brings together a wide range of expertise and experience. ​

Dr Nicola Byrom
Network Leader (PI)

Nicola is a lecturer in psychology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences (others known as the IoPPN) at Kings College London (KCL). She is also the founding trustee of Student Minds, the student mental health charity. Nicola led the charity through its first 6 years in operation, before stepping back to a trustee role. Nicola has worked with the charity on a number of research projects, including working look at the transition between school and university, the role and experience of friends in supporting students with mental health difficulties, the role and experience of academics in relation to student mental health, the experience of students graduating from university and, most recently, the experience of LGBTQ+ students.

​Nicola’s work with the charity started following her own experience of mental health difficulties and she is a passionate advocate for the role and importance of lived experience in research, service delivery and policy development.

Core Management Team

​The core management team provide management oversight and advice for the network. Most of the core team are involved in the project as one of many different activities and work with the network for an average of one to two hours every week.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely
King's College London

​Sir Simon is professor of psychological medicine at the IoPPN, former president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and is currently president of the Royal Society of Medicine.  As president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Simon prioritised improving education and training for students.

Professor Dame Til Wykes
King's College London

Dame Til is a professor of Clinical Psychology and Rehabilitation at the IoPPN. Til founded Service User Research Enterprise (SURE), which employs expert researchers who have experience of using mental health services, and received the British Psychological Society’s 2014 Award for Promoting Equality of Opportunity for championing the active role of mental health service users in research. Dame Til and Hussain Manawer won the Guinness World Record for the largest mental health lesson given at the Hackney Empire in 2017. In 2018 she was also part of the largest Youth Summit on Mental Health. 

Chris Sampson
​​The Office of Health Economics

Chris is an economist at The Office of Health Economics. His research interests centre on the value of health and health care and his work has included research into a variety of health problems including depression, personality disorders, and ADHD​.

Professor Peter Ayton
City University

Peter is a psychologist working at City, University of London. He is interested in behavioural decision theory and in particular how people make judgements and decisions under conditions of risk, uncertainty and ambiguity. 

Professor Kathryn Ecclestone
​

Kathryn is a professor of education. Drawing on sociology and policy studies, history, psychology and philosophy, her research explores the ways in which preoccupation with citizens’ emotional wellbeing, resilience and mental health changes, in both overt and implicit ways, how educators, the public, students and policy makers think about human subjectivity and, in turn, what they regard as appropriate educational goals, knowledge and practices.

Toby Litt
​Birkbeck University

Toby is a writer and reader in Creative Writing in the Department of English and Humanities at Birkbeck, University of London. In 2016, he was one of the co-organizers of the Creative Writing and Mental Health Seminar Series at Birkbeck.

Dr Andy Przybylski
Oxford University

Andy is an experimental psychologist and Director of Research at the Oxford Internet Institute. His work is mainly concerned with applying psychological models of motivation and health to study how people interact with virtual environments including video games and social media. He is particularly interested is integrating open, robust, and reproducible science with evidence-based policymaking in the digital age.

Professor Swaran Singh
​Warwick University

Swaran is a psychiatrist working at Warwick University. He has a particular interest in youth mental health. Swaran developed ETHOS, an early intervention service focusing on improving outcomes for young people with psychosis. He is currently working with projects aimed at improving the transition from CAMHS to adult mental health services and developing and evaluating new models of youth services across Europe.

Dr Alyson Dodd
​Northumbria University

Alyson is a Senior Research Fellow, based in the Department of Psychology at Northumbria University. She is interested in the psychological mechanisms underlying mood swings in non-clinical and clinical populations (e.g. bipolar disorder), and the development and evaluation of interventions. She has a particular interest in student mental health and wellbeing, focusing on understanding factors underlying current and future mental health difficulties in students, its impact on outcomes important to students, and how we can better support students with their mental health and wellbeing.

Rachel Piper
Student Minds

Rachel is the Policy Manager at Student Minds. Her work focuses on tackling inequalities in student mental health through research, policy and partnership with organisations across the Higher Education Sector. Rachel has previously developed a student-led research team (The Policy Panel) with Student Minds and has a particular interest in championing student-led research.

Student Minds is the UK’s student mental health charity, working to empower students and members of the university community to look after their own mental health, support others and create change. 

Research Collaborators

​A smaller number of researchers work (and have worked) more intensively with the network over shorter periods of time to support specific activities and research projects. 

Dr Susannah McGowan
King's College London

Susannah is associate director for academic development of the King’s Academy, the centre for educational development at KCL. Susannah leads on the development of programmes to support academic and professional staff in applying evidence-based, inclusive practices to support student learning. 

Dr Neil Armstrong
​​​Oxford University

Neil is a medical anthropologist based at Oxford University, who uses anthropological techniques to understand patient experiences. He is particularly interested in mental health and the culture of mental health care.  

Sally McManus
​​NatCen

Sally works in the health team at NatCen, the National Centre for Social Research. She is interested in the measurement of mental health and wellbeing and currently runs the 2014 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey. 

Dr Rebecca Gordon-Nesbitt
King's College London

Rebecca’s work aims to bridge the schism between cultural policy and creative practice. She is interested in the relationship between arts and health and wrote the All Party Parliamentary Group report on Arts, Health and Wellbeing. 

Susannah Hume
​​​Behavioural Insights Team

Susannah works with the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT), where she focuses on programmes relating to education-to-work transitions and post-16 skill development including higher education. She was the lead author for BIT’s Moments of Choice report on young people’s career decision making. She has worked with KCL exploring strategies to support students' transition into university and enhance students’ sense of belonging. 

Dr Dan Robotham
​​The McPinn Foundation

Dan is the Head of Research & Evaluation at the McPin Foundation, a mental health research charity that specialises in putting lived experience at the heart of mental health research methods and the research agenda. He has experience of conducting and managing research across NHS, academic and charity settings. Before joining McPin, Dan was a researcher and coordinator of Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) at the Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre; he also worked at the Mental Health Foundation for four years. Before this he was at UCL, where he coordinated a clinical trial to improve learning disabilities services whilst also completing a PhD on the experiences of those who were taking part in the trial.

Advisory Group

We are fortunate to be supported by a fantastic international advisory group.

Norman Lamb MP
​

Throughout his parliamentary career, Norman has been a passionate advocate for improving mental health service. As Health Minister, Norman challenged the NHS to ensure that mental health gets treated with the same priority as physical health, introducing the first ever access and waiting time standards in mental health care for the treatment of common mental health problems like depression and anxiety, and for patients experiencing their first episode of psychosis. Norman continues his campaign ​to achieve equality for those who suffer from mental ill health. 

Dr Jacqueline Cornish
NHS England

Dr Jacqueline Cornish was appointed to the post of National Clinical Director Children, Young People and Transition to Adulthood in NHS England in April 2013.

Jacqueline is passionate about continuously striving for improved healthcare outcomes in this young group, giving them and their families the best experience and delivering care safely to the highest possible standard.

Jacqueline believes strongly in parity of esteem, for children and young people overall but importantly in bringing mental health on a par with physical health.

Professor Daniel Eisenberg
University of Michigan, School of Public Health

Daniel is a Professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan. He completed a BA and Ph.D. in Economics at Stanford University and a postdoctoral traineeship in mental health services and policy research at UC-Berkeley.

His broad research goal is to improve understanding of how to invest effectively and efficiently in the mental health of young people. He directs the Healthy Minds Network, which focuses on mental health and service use in college populations.

Professor Stan Kutcher
Dalhousie University, Department of Psychiatry

Dr. Stan Kutcher is the Sun Life Financial Chair in Adolescent Mental Health and the Director World Health Organization Collaborating Centre in Mental Health Policy and Training at Dalhousie University and IWK Health Centre in Canada. He is a renowned expert in adolescent mental health and leader in mental health research, advocacy, training and policy. Stan has also been involved in mental health work in over 20 countries. 

Stan leads the organisation TeenMentalHealth.org

John de Pury
​Universities UK

​John de Pury is Assistant Director of Policy at Universities UK. He currently leads policy programmes on mental health, data security and health professional education. John directs Health Services Research UK and the NIHR CLAHRC Partnership Programme. 

John has been instrumental in developing the Universities UK Mental Health in Higher Education Working Group and establishing the #StepChange framework.

Jayne Aldridge
Chair of AMOSSHE, the Student Services Organisation

Jayne is Director of Student Experience at the University of Sussex and chair of the AMOSSHE Executive Committee.

​AMOSSHE is the student services organisation, promoting the development of and sharing good practice within Student Services in the UK Higher Education sector.  

Dr Andrew Reeves
​Charlie Waller Memorial Trust

Dr Andrew Reeves is Director of the Universities and Further Education programme at the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust. He is a registered social worker and BACP Senior Accredited Counsellor and Psychotherapist, as well as a Fellow of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). He has worked as a practitioner in a range of settings, including secondary care mental health, child protection, schools, higher education, the third sector and independent practice as a counsellor/psychotherapist and social worker for over 30 years.

Rosie Tressler
​Student Minds

Rosie is CEO of Student Minds, the student mental health charity. Rosie works closely with the trustees on strategy, managing key partnerships and working on funding and business development.

Student Minds is the UK’s student mental health charity. ​The charity works to empower students and members of the university community to develop the knowledge, confidence and skills to look after their own mental health, support others and create change.

Dr Lindsay Oades
​Centre for Positive Psychology, University of Melbourne

Associate Professor Lindsay G Oades is Director of the Centre for Positive Psychology, Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne. Lindsay’s formal training is in psychology and business. Lindsay’s PhD was in Clinical Psychology and he was previously a Member of the Australian Psychological Society and College of Clinical Psychologists and College of Health Psychologists. 

Management Staff

Laura Beswick
​Network Manager

Laura coordinates the activity of the network and manages the Student Research Team. She is a Mental Health First Aid instructor and passionate about promoting the university’s role in teaching emotional health, to staff and students. Her background is in community development. Prior to coming to the higher education sector, Laura led teams and stakeholders in regeneration projects, such as converting a library to a multi-purpose community hub for health, employment and advice services.