Katie draws on previous experience of working as a support worker with people experiencing severe and enduring mental health problems, as well as academic research investigating attitudes towards a novel health intervention. Katie has a PhD from Royal Holloway, University of London, where she investigated patient-reported outcomes of treatments for chronic kidney disease and diabetes, with a focus on the impact of transplantation. She also has a MSc in Health Psychology from King’s College London and a BSc in Psychology from Royal Holloway, University of London.

Key areas of expertise include:

• designing and conducting evidence reviews, including systematic reviews;
• designing qualitative and quantitative research/evaluation and research tools/materials;
• conducting interviews, workshops and focus groups with a range of people including NHS patients, care givers, community groups, service users and professional stakeholders;
• analysing complex quantitative and qualitative data (including use of SPSS and NVivo/Atlas);
• writing impactful reports for clients, as well as publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Katie’s recent projects include:

• Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. National evaluation of the Changing Futures Programme: Katie is Project Manager at Cordis Bright for the qualitative workstream of the impact evaluation of the national Changing Futures programme, which we are delivering as part of a consortium involving CFE Research, ScHARR at Sheffield University, and Revolving Doors Agency. This evaluation has involved a quasi-experimental design to evaluate intervention-level outcomes for individuals, and a mixed methods approach to evaluate service and system-level outcomes in the fifteen local areas awarded Changing Futures funding.
• Youth Futures Foundation. Research into employability support for young people with a learning disability: This project aimed to map out provision of employability support for young people with a learning disability across England and explore: a) what the level of need is for this support, (b) whether need is being met effectively, (c) what works in supporting young people with a learning disability into employment, and (d) an analysis of the gaps that may exist and how these can be addressed. Katie managed quantitative and qualitative data collection including coordination of an online survey of support providers and consultation with various stakeholders including providers, employers, commissioners and young people with learning disabilities.
• Department for Education and NHS England. Evaluation of the Partnership for Inclusion of Neurodiversity in Schools (PINS) programme: This is a large-scale, mixed methods evaluation carried out in partnership with CFE research. Katie has supported work on the development of qualitative research tools, as well as organising and facilitating interviews and focus groups/workshops with ICBs, local authorities, parent carer forums, practitioners, and schools all of which achieved a wide reach.