Centre for Evidence for the Armed Forces Community Conference 2026

Annette Boaz is Professor of Health and Social Care and Director of the NIHR Health and Social Care Workforce Research Unit at King’s College London. She leads a programme of research on the health and social care workforce and supports capacity strengthening in social care research.  She has more than 25 years of experience in supporting the use of evidence across a range of policy domains. She has undertaken an international leadership role in promoting the use of evidence, including publishing a book on evidence use ‘What Works Now’ and co-leading Transforming Evidence with Kathryn Oliver. She has worked in UK  Department of Health and Social Care and the Government Office for Science and supports projects on evidence use led by WHO and OECD. She is an NIHR Senior Investigator.

Anna joined the Trust as Chief Executive in January 2022. She served as a logistics officer in the Royal Navy, as both a regular and as a reservist for 12 years. She also served in the Territorial Army as an officer cadet whilst at the University of Stirling. Highlights of her time in the Royal Navy included acting as aide-de-camp to the Lord High Commissioner at Holyrood Palace, leading the Compulsory Drug Testing Team and skiing as a member of the RN Women’s Team. On leaving the Navy Anna retrained as a Business and Economics teacher and ‘followed the flag’; teaching A level and undergraduate courses in three Further Education Colleges. She took the opportunity to complete a master’s degree in education whilst living in Service Family Accommodation located close to Brunel University. Anna felt privileged to be an advocate for Royal Navy and Royal Marine families as CEO of the Naval Families Federation for six years prior to taking up this role. She is now enjoying the opportunity to support the Armed Forces community through the exciting and wide-ranging projects funded by the Trust on behalf of government.

Dr Liam Satchell is the Director of the Impact Centre at the Service Children's Progression (SCiP) Alliance and a Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Portsmouth. He has research expertise in applied research design, quantitative analysis, and the psychology of individual differences / mental health. Overall, his work focuses on practical, everyday, approaches to research methods and interpretation. In both his roles he is research active in understanding effective ways to support children and young people in armed forces families. Alongside his military-connected families work, he has published books on supporting children's mental wellbeing, and is active in research in educational, forensic, policing, and other applied psychology topics. 

Craig joined the Royal Navy in 1989 and, over a distinguished 20-year career, served in Northern Ireland during The Troubles and led helicopter fast-rope teams in the Northern Arabian Gulf. As Deputy Navigator of HMS Invincible, he took part in Operation Bolton, completed the Principal Warfare Officers’ Course and served as Operations Officer of HMS Fearless, followed by several senior intelligence roles. When the UK’s ‘gay ban’ was lifted, Craig came out publicly and began building support for LGBT+ personnel and their families, a courageous effort at a time of open hostility. In 2006, he was appointed MBE for services to equality and human rights in the Armed Forces. After leaving the Royal Navy in 2008, Craig became Head of Diversity for Barclays and later founded the award-winning NHS mental healthcare provider Brighton and Sussex Care. In 2020, he published his first anthology Fighting With Pride and united LGBT+ veterans and their supporters to lead a national campaign that secured a formal apology and a £75 million financial recognition scheme. Craig is a Visiting Fellow and Honorary Doctor at Northumbria and Portsmouth Universities and an Advisory Board Member of the Centre for Military Justice.

Sarah Rabin (she/her) is a PhD researcher within the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) at King’s College London. Her PhD is in Psychological Medicine and focuses on the health and well-being of UK LGBTQ+ serving and ex-serving military personnel who joined and served after the lifting of the LGBTQ+ military ban in 2000. Her research is conducted in partnership with the Royal British Legion, with whom she completed a three-month placement within the Campaigns, Policy, and Research team in early 2025. Before beginning her PhD, Sarah worked as a Research Assistant at KCMHR on NHS and military mental health-focused studies. She holds a Master’s in War and Psychiatry from King’s, and wrote her dissertation on the psychological impact of the UK’s final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan on those who served in the region. Sarah originally hails from the US and previously worked at the US Department of Veterans Affairs in multiple capacities, including researching suicidality and vascular contributions to dementia. In the US, she also treated patients with treatment-resistant depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in a private clinic setting. 

Ellen is a Research Manager in the Campaigns, Policy and Research team at the Royal British Legion, where she works to understand the demographics and needs of the Armed Forces community. She uses these insights to ensure that the organisation’s policy, campaigning, strategy and service design are grounded in high-quality data and robust evidence. Ellen led the Royal British Legion’s partnership with the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR), and provided oversight of the organisation’s three-month research studentship programme. Before joining the Royal British Legion, Ellen worked for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Drones and Modern Conflict, where she used evidence-led research to strengthen transparency and accountability around drone use and contributed to emerging policy in a rapidly evolving era of warfare. She holds a Master’s degree in International Security Studies, where her dissertation examined the gendered impacts of drone warfare. Her primary research interests include the gendered dimensions of modern conflict, emerging forms of warfare, and the experiences and evolving needs of the Armed Forces community.

Catherine Galley is a senior research data scientist at RAND Europe. Her research primarily focuses on applying statistical modelling to data on the Armed Forces community to support policy makers and service providers improve their understanding of the Armed Forces community.  Catherine seeks to provide evidence-based insights through analysis of survey and administrative data from a wide range of sources. Catherine’s recent research has included a wide range of topics, including forecasting the size and demographics of the Armed Forces community out to 2045, estimating the cost and prevalence of poor transitions from the Armed Forces, understanding the interactions of Armed Forces children with the social care system and understanding how veterans engage with the UK labour market.

Dr. Erin Collins holds a PhD in Epidemiology and is a proud military spouse. Her postdoctoral research at the MacDonald Franklin OSI Research Centre in London, Ontario, Canada is supported by the 2025 Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence for Canadian Veterans (CPCoE) and the Canadian Pain Society Postdoctoral Fellow Award.

Deb is the Director of Integration and Knowledge Mobilization at the Chronic Pain Centre of Excellence for Canadian Veterans, based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.  She has been working in the knowledge mobilization field for five years and has more than 20 years experience leading change and strategic initiatives in corporate and healthcare environments. Through knowledge mobilization activities, Deb embraces engaging with others to focus on sharing research results and best practices in support of Veterans and their families.  This work is dedicated to making research findings accessible to various audiences in an effort to positively impact the health and well-being of Veterans and serving members living with chronic pain. Outside of professional endeavors, Deb is an advocate for nature conservancy and enjoys a variety of outdoor activities with friends and family.

Dr Patsy Irizar is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University. Her research focuses on understanding the relationship between alcohol and mental health problems and improving support for people with these co- occurring conditions. She is particularly interested in occupational groups with high rates of co-occurring alcohol and mental health problems, including trauma-exposed and male-dominated occupations. Dr rizar’s recent work with collaborators at Lancaster University has examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions for veterans with co-occurring alcohol and mental health problems, explored veterans’ experiences of seeking support and service providers experiences of providing care to veterans with co-occurring conditions.

Alexandria Smith is a Post-doctoral Researcher at King's Centre for Military Health Research. She earned a combined PhD in Chronic Disease Epidemiology and Nursing and an MSN in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from Yale University and an MSPH in Health Policy Research from Emory University. Her research focuses broadly on understanding mental health conditions, their prevalence, treatment approaches, and prevention strategies across diverse populations including veterans.  She is particularly interested in identifying ways to reduce self-harm and to improve behavioural health services. She has experience in data analysis using large public use data, electronic health records, vital statistics, and census data. She is also a psychiatric nurse practitioner with experience working in a variety of clinical settings including outpatient mental health services and behavioural crisis units.

Abigail is a Research Fellow in the CMWR with a background in public policy. Her current research focuses on the women's experiences of military life, including military sexual trauma and experience of the Service Justice System. Her past research projects have focused on women veteran's health and support needs, and understanding the impact of Service life on military children.

Lottie is a lecturer in Criminology at Anglia Ruskin University and works closely with the CMWR. Her area of research interest is sexual violence, in particular the criminal justice response in both the civilian and service justice systems. She is leading an exploratory study with colleagues from CMWR that seeks to better understand the experiences and challenges of ex-servicewomen who have been victims of sexual violence during their military service, in order to improve the military response to sexual offending.

Dr Claire Lee is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Psychological Research at Oxford Brookes University. Much of her educational research focuses on the Armed Forces community, from her ESRC-funded PhD investigating the learning lives of Service children to the mixed-methods ‘Supporting All to Thrive’ (SATT) project, which examined the education of Armed Forces children with additional needs. This research is informed by her own background as a Service child and a former teacher. More broadly, Claire is interested in individuals’ sense-making, identities, voice and agency. She specialises in qualitative, dialogic inquiry, often using participatory arts-based methods to explore what matters to children, parents, and practitioners, and how they make sense of their lives. Her work includes studies of intercultural global citizenship education, home-learning during COVID-19, and children’s independent mobility. She has published on topics such as Service children’s transitions and the ethics of researching with children.

Professor Gerri Matthews-Smith PhD is Research Professor at Edinburgh Napier University. She is Founder and Director of the Centre for Military Research, Education and Public Engagement (CMREPE), Lead of the Scottish Armed Forces Evidence and Research (SAFER) Hub. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on management, organisational development, and wellbeing, with particular emphasis on armed forces communities, specifically child and family, military transition, education, and veteran wellbeing. Professor Matthews-Smith works extensively with policymakers, practitioners, and third-sector organisations, contributing evidence to inform policy and practice at local, national, and international levels. She holds advisory and governance roles within military education and postgraduate research communities and has supervised over 65 doctoral completions. Her research has attracted more than £4 million in external funding from public, health, and charitable bodies. She contributes to academic publishing through editorial board membership and actively engages the public through media commentary, knowledge exchange, and collaborative research partnerships.

Lawrence Newland has been a Director at Alma Economics since 2019, bringing significant expertise from over 15 years in the Civil Service at HM Treasury, HMRC, and the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Lawrence directs Alma Economics’ Armed Forces community portfolio, including research on the needs of the bereaved Armed Forces community and a multi-year evaluation of the Reducing Veteran Homelessness Programme for Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust (AFCFT). He also directs the evaluation of the Service Pupil Support Programme for AFCFT, a programme delivered on behalf of the Ministry of Defence to support children aged 4-18 from serving Armed Forces families, which involves mixed-method impact assessment and cost-benefit analysis. Lawrence additionally led the Cabinet Office evaluation scoping study for the Army Single Living Accommodation programme. Beyond work on the Armed Forces, he regularly directs evaluations involving vulnerable groups and complex delivery systems, utilising a trauma-informed mindset.