Research Community

Chris is a social worker lecturer and Army Veteran, whose research interests span her social work and Veteran identity. She is a member of the Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families Research and has completed a PhD study, which explores the life stories of women Veterans who served between the 1940s to 2000s. Her military-focused research interests are military women, Veterans, LGBT+ and social work research linked to developing simulation pedagogies for pre and post-qualifying social workers.

Dr Craig White is a researcher from the University of Loughborough, working in partnership with Dr Jamie Barker on the Veterans' Resilience Programme. This programme aims to optimise Veterans' resilience and mental health and well-being and strengthen peer support networks for those Veterans that suffer from mental health and well-being issues. Their work uses a holistic approach to enhancing resilience, mental health, and well-being in Veterans by promoting a more active and healthier lifestyle and enhanced feelings of a positive social identity for those who participate. Dr Barker and Dr White are also currently producing an academic paper and policy documentation for the Office of Veterans’ Affairs. This will emphasise the potential impact of non-clinical interventions on Veterans suffering from mental health and well-being issues. Additionally, they are applying for additional funds to expand the Veterans' Resilience Programme nationwide.'

Dr David Jackson is a disabled Royal Marine Veteran and an honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter. He is currently working on The Military Afterlives Project and the Stories in Transition Project. His research interests include engagement and involvement of the ex-Service personnel community and their families within the research process, particularly through participatory and co-research methods. He is interested in moving away from mono modal outputs and moving towards creative research methods which can lead to a different understanding of Veterans and their families.

Dr Ellen McHugh is Senior Lecturer in Education in the Department of Education, Brunel University London. Ellen’s research interests focus on education and student experience; higher education and widening participation; transnationalism and belonging.

Dr Emma Senior is an Assistant Professor in Nursing and Specialist Community Public Health Nursing, alongside being a Veteran spouse. As a member of the Northern Hub for Veterans & Military Families' Research, Dr Emma Senior completed her PhD exploring the experiences of military spouses who have lived alongside their UK serving partner with a mental health issue. Her military focused research interests seek to explore the qualitative experiences of military spouses/relationships, mental health, and well-being to inform mechanisms for support and CPD opportunities within health and social care. 

Dr Faye Acton is Research Fellow and the lead for military connected children and young people in the Veterans and Families Institute for Military and Social Research (VFI) at Anglia Ruskin University. As a qualitative researcher her work is focused on developing practice-based evidence with the voices and lived experiences of children and young people at the core of her work. She is particularly interested in developing the concept of identity and understanding military connected children and young people’s lives more comprehensively, including school and educational experiences. Faye has both academic and professional experience of working with both children and young people and professionals to inform and enhance policy and practice.

Faye joined Anglia Ruskin University in 2016 as a researcher following a professional practice-based career in health and education. Faye worked as a Health Improvement Practitioner in the NHS with primary and secondary schools to develop, deliver and evaluate health and wellbeing interventions and programmes of support for children and young people. She subsequently qualified as a primary school teacher, where she worked as a classroom teacher, PSHE lead, and gained the national award for Special Educational Needs Coordination to work as an Inclusion Manager.

Dr Gemma Carr is a Researcher at the Westminster Centre for Research in Veterans at the University of Chester. She previously led on the 'Exploring the Employment Experiences of Serving Partners' project. Gemma has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative methodologies. She is also the wife of a serving soldier and also has a son who is serving. 

Dr Georgina Normile is a Senior Lecturer in Primary Education and the Programme Leader for the degree in Education Primary and Early Years at Bath Spa University. Her research focuses on the wellbeing of pre-school children experiencing military-related parental separation. Her 2019 PhD was entitled 'A case study exploring the impact of parental deployment on the wellbeing of British Army children in the pre-school year.' Since this time, her research has extended to include the experiences of pre-school children from all three branches of the UK Armed Forces. Georgina is passionate about representing a range of perspectives within her research, including those of educational practitioners and young children themselves.

Dr Gill McGill is Co-director of the Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families Research at Northumbria University, supporting its development since 2015. Gill has a growing portfolio of expertise and publications in the field of Veterans and military families research including leading research projects exploring access to health and social care for alcohol-related issues, bereavement, maintaining independence following limb loss and social isolation and loneliness among the LGBT+ Veteran population.  Gill also has significant experience in participant recruitment from ‘hard or reach’/seldom heard populations as well as in the design of peer-informed research projects.  Gill is also employed as an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Social Care in the Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at Northumbria University. Gill has a background in Public Health, working as a commissioner and service provider, and she has extensive experience in project management and strategy development in the NHS, Local Authority and Third Sector settings.

Dr Hannah West is the Communications and Engagement Officer for the Female Veterans Transformation Programme (COBSEO Female Veterans Cluster). She works freelance as a researcher affiliated to Newcastle University and is currently working for the Dallaire Centre of Excellence for Peace and Security in Canada, Bodmin Keep military museum and as a Women’s History Network Early Career Fellow. She is also the Founder and Co-Chair of the Defence Research Network and Social Media Editor for the Journal of War and Cultures Studies. Through her research she is committed to uncovering women’s stories of conflict, contemporary and historical,  in order to question gendered understandings of how we know war and what this means for contemporary military cultures and behaviours.

Hilary is an Associate Professor in the Veterans and Families Institute for Military Social Research (VFI) at Anglia Ruskin University. There she leads research exploring how Veterans and their significant others live in their comunities with changing health needs and co-morbidities. Hilary's research interests cover health and well-being needs in relation to limb loss, loss of use of limb, long term health needs, chronic pain and how people live adaptively accordingly. 

Dr Jamie Barker is a researcher from Loughborough University, working in partnership with Dr Craig White on the Veterans' Resilience Programme. This programme aims to optimise Veterans' resilience and mental health and well-being and strengthen peer support networks for those Veterans that suffer from mental health and well-being issues. Their work uses a holistic approach to enhancing resilience, mental health, and well-being in Veterans by promoting a more active and healthier lifestyle and enhanced feelings of a positive social identity for those who participate. Dr Barker and Dr White are also currently producing an academic paper and policy documentation for the Office of Veterans’ Affairs. This will emphasise the potential positive impact of non-clinical interventions on Veterans suffering from mental health and well-being issues. Additionally, they are applying for additional funds to expand the Veterans' Resilience Programme nationwide.