Team Profiles

Fiona McCormack – Research Fellow

Fiona joined CHAD as a researcher in 2016. She has worked across CHAD’s themes on a range of research and evaluations, including end-of-life care, smoking cessation in pregnancy, adverse childhood experiences, and young people and self-harm. Most of Fiona’s research sits within the Health Inclusion theme and focuses on understanding and improving experiences connected to homelessness and people with lived experience of multiple disadvantage; this includes research into city centre rough sleeping, homelessness and hospital discharge, support services for women, Housing First, and social welfare.

Fiona has over 12 years’ experience of working on qualitative studies related to health and social inequalities. Before joining CHAD, she completed a two-year qualitative study into alcohol use in later life at the University of the West of Scotland. Between 2010-2014 she worked as a research assistant at Glasgow Centre for Population Health where her interest in health and health inequalities developed further. There, she contributed to a range of qualitative studies including gender, alcohol and young adulthood, young people’s views on infant feeding, and an exploration of socio-cultural explanations of Glasgow’s ‘excess’ mortality in comparison with Liverpool and Manchester. She has also contributed to data collection for studies into dementia friendly environments in care homes, the Needle Exchange Surveillance Initiative in Scotland, and a review of exiting services for sex workers.

Fiona completed her undergraduate and MA degrees with the School of Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Leeds. She also has an MPhil from the University of the West of Scotland, which was a qualitative exploration of women’s views and (gendered) accounts of alcohol use.

Dr Victoria Riley – Research Fellow
I completed my undergraduate degree at Staffordshire University in 2012 and then went on to complete the MSc in Health Psychology also at Staffordshire University in 2013. After time out working in other sectors, I began a PhD in 2015 which looks at understanding uptake and improving risk communication in the NHS Health Check programme.

Within the PhD I developed risk communication training to help practitioners improve their confidence and understanding when explaining the CVD risk score used in NHS Health Checks. The training proved very successful and has been commissioned in several local authorities since.

In 2017 I was employed as a research associate working on the RICO (RIsk COmmunication) project which aims to explore clinician and patient perception of CVD risk when using the differing risk calculators. Now I work as a CHAD researcher looking at four areas of health including healthy communities and places, healthy living, health inclusion and healthy starts.

My expertise is within NHS Health Checks and conducting research employing both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. However, my research areas of interest also include health promotion, prevention and behaviour change.

Ian Pitts – Communications Officer (Part-time)
Ian joined CHAD in November 2016, he has a strong design and technology background with a focus on health, having lived and worked in the Caribbean for many years he continues to work as Digital Development Manager for The Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), he is also worked with Food4Change Caribbean, The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), The InterAmerican Heart Foundation (IAHF), The Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados (HSFB) and other health non-profit organisations.

Dr Naomi Ellis – Senior Lecturer in Physical Activity and Health, Staffordshire University
Following an undergraduate degree in Sport and Exercise Science and Psychology (University of Gloucestershire), Naomi completed an MSc in Sport and Exercise Psychology (University of Chichester) and a PhD entitled: “It’s all different now…life has turned around for the better”: A qualitative investigation into the impact of physical activity as a therapy for mental health problems (Staffordshire University). She joined Staffordshire University as a lecturer in 2008 where she teaches on both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. She has been involved with a number of research projects relating to physical activity and mental health, green space and health; health in mid-life; sport and mental health in prisons.
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Professor Siân Griffiths OBE – Chair of the Global Health Committee and Associate Non-Executive member of the Board of Public Health England and Trustee of the Royal Society of Public Health
Siân practiced as a service-based public health physician at local, regional and national level in the UK and was President of the UK Faculty of Public Health of the Royal College of Physicians as well as the first Co-Chair of the UK Public Health Association.

In 2003 Siân chaired the Hong Kong SAR government’s SARS Inquiry joining the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) as Director of the Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care in 2005. Her tenure at CUHK saw the development of multidisciplinary approaches to public health education and extensive networks across China, Asia and beyond. Now Emeritus Professor as well as Senior Adviser on International Academic Development for CUHK she is Visiting Professor at IGHI, Imperial College , Honorary Senior Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University as well as being involved in community based projects in the UK .

Professor Zafar Iqbal – Consultant in Public Health, Stoke on Trent City Council, Founding Member of CHAD
Zafar has worked as a Director of Public health in the West Midlands for almost a decade and has academic links with Staffordshire and Keele Universities. Recently he has been appointed on the External Advisory Board for the MHRC University of Alabama. He has a number of national roles including membership of the PHE Expert Scientific and Clinical Advisory Panel on NHS Health Checks.

He is a Board Member of the Faculty of Public Health and chairs a UK group on Public Health and Pakistan. His interests include primary care and CVD on which he has published two books and a number of research papers. He has an interest in spatial planning and the impact on health and has contributed to a chapter in a book on planning and health.

Professor Aliko Ahmed – Director of PHE for the East of England, Founding Member of CHAD
Professor Aliko Ahmed is Director of Public Health England for East of England, and previously the Director of Public Health for Staffordshire NHS and County Council. During his time in Staffordshire he helped to establish CHAD.

He qualified in medicine, and trained in epidemiology and public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, and at the University of Cambridge. He oversees the development and implementation of Public Health England programmes and activities in the East of England including the provision of technical advice and support to local governments and the NHS.

His earlier global health experiences include extensive field work in infectious diseases and outbreak as a medical epidemiologist with MSF, advising and supporting national disease control programmes in Africa, and a key role in a large global programme that supported governments in low income countries to develop national mental health policies. He maintains a special interest in collaborative efforts towards sustainable health system solutions in Africa.

Dr Richard Harling – Director of Health and Care, Staffordshire County Council
Richard is Director of Health and Care for Staffordshire County Council, holding the statutory responsibilities for adult social services and public health. He previously held a similar role as Director of Adult Services and Health for Worcestershire between 2013 and 2016. Before this he was Joint Director of Public Health for Worcestershire County Council and Primary Care Trust. He has a professional background in public health and clinical medicine.

Richard has led transformation and improvement of health and care at local and national level. He has worked in local government and the NHS, and has led work for the Associations of Directors of Adult Social Services and Public Health regionally and nationally. He has also advised the Department of Health, Home Office and European Commission. Richard has a particular interest in innovation and the use of technology to improve the quality and productivity of health and care services.

Mona Fouad M.D., M.P.H. – Director, Minority Health & Health Disparities Research Center, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Dr. Fouad is recognized nationally as a leader in health disparities research and is a member of the NIH National Advisory Council on Minority Health and Health Disparities. She is PI on numerous federally funded projects that bring in over $51 million and Co-PI on additional grants worth approximately $20 million. Most of this funding has a common theme of improving health and preventing disease in minorities.

Dr. Fouad is PI for the CDC-funded center entitled, Racial and Ethnic Approaches across the US (REACH US) Mid-South Center of Excellence in the Elimination of Disparities (CEED), a model that serves as an infrastructure to implement, evaluate, and disseminate locally, regionally and nationally evidence-based interventions to reduce breast and cervical cancer disparities between African American and white women. Read more

Dr Jacky Forsyth
Jacky is an Associate Professor of Exercise Physiology in the School of Life Sciences & Education at Staffordshire University. Her main research priority for CHAD is about promoting women’s health and wellbeing. Her research, more specifically, is about how the female hormones (oestrogen and progesterone) work to improve a woman’s health, especially bone health. She is co-founder of the Women in Sport and Exercise Academic Network (WiSEAN), and has carried out and published research on improving the health and exercise status of pre- and post-menopausal women.

Professor Jon Fairburn

Jon Fairburn is a Professor of Sustainable Development. His main area of research is environmental and health inequalities and the links to social deprivation. Jon created the air quality information which sits inside the English Indices of Multiple Deprivation.

He has carried out research in this area for wide range of clients including the Environment Agency, Scottish Natural Heritage, Scottish Office, the EU and the World Health Organisation.

Dr Jessica Runacres

After an undergraduate degree in Psychology at Lancaster University, Jessica completed a PGCert in Research Practice, followed by a PhD entitled “social prescribing in practice: a critical examination of service data and stakeholder perspectives” at Birmingham City University. After working at both Birmimgham City University and Derby University, Jessica joined Staffordshire University in 2021. They teach research methods and analysis across multiple courses within the school, and many of the Medical Education modules. They are also a member of the School’s Research Ethics Committee and the Health and Walfare PhD Course Lead. Jessica is a mixed-methods researcher, and their research interests include social prescribing, health interventions, health inequalities, service user experiences, epistemic injustice, unpaid carers and student carers, and dementia. Further academic interests include inclusive approaches to research, such as patient and public involvement, user-led research, and working with students as researchers.

Dr Edward Tolhurst

Edward is a Senior Lecturer in Health Research, and researcher in the field of ageing and care. Edward is principally a qualitative researcher, but has undertaken mixed-methods studies. He is a member of research ethics committees within Staffordshire University and the NHS. His current teaching responsibilities include the leadership of postgraduate awards in Medical Education, and PhD supervision. Edward was Coordinator of the European Sociological Association’s Research Network on Ageing in Europe from 2019 to 2021.