Research Community

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.

Dr Alison Osborne is a Senior Researcher in Psychology, with research interests in identity, well-being, EDI, digital health, Armed Forces, and mixed methodologies. Her current work is focussing on the role of digital technologies in women’s health communications. Alison’s research portfolio includes several projects with the Armed Forces Community centred on well-being, alcohol use, bereavement, family separation and limb loss. Most recently, Alison was the lead researcher for Fighting With Pride on the first UK research project exploring the experiences and impact of the UK Armed Forces ‘gay ban’ with LGBT+ Veterans.

Dr Amber McKenzie is situated in KCMHR, King’s College London. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate funded by the Wellcome Trust exploring the experiences of minorities in the UK Armed Forces and other male-dominated workplaces.

Amber’s PhD work explored adjustment disorder in the UK Armed Forces population. Using a mixed-methods approach, Amber provided a profile of what an adjustment disorder looks like for Armed Forces personnel and Veterans, identifying potential factors associated, and outlining clinical and occupational outcomes.

Amber also teaches on the Psychology BSc programme and contributes to the development of undergraduate modules. Her research interests are mostly in occupational mental health, mental health interventions, mental health implications for ethnic minorities and ethnic minorities experiences in the military.

Dr Andrew Phillips is an expert in structural biomechanics, specializing in combining musculoskeletal and finite element modelling. His research optimizes strategies for structural engineering and skeletal biomechanics, while also exploring bioinspired structures based on environmental factors. With a background in Civil Engineering and a PhD in Orthopaedic Engineering, Dr Phillips has held key positions at the Edinburgh Orthopaedic Engineering Centre and Imperial College London and coordinates the MEng Civil Engineering program. Additionally, he organizes the Parametric Engineering Course and is involved in the Centre for Blast Injury Studies.

Dr Anne Chappell has been in the Brunel University Department of Education since 2004, and since joining Anne has undertaken the role of programme leader on both undergraduate and PGCE courses leading to Qualified Teacher Status, Department Director of Teaching and Learning and Deputy Head of Department. Anne’s PhD critically explored teachers’ professional learning and her research interests are in auto/biography, education, policy, and the experiences of children, young people and professionals, including those from military families.

Dr Beverly Bergman trained in medicine at the University of Birmingham. She worked as an Army doctor, initially in general practice before transferring into public health in 1996. She was appointed Senior Lecturer in Preventive Medicine at the Royal Army Medical College in 1997, and was Honorary Senior Lecturer in Public Health and Epidemiology at the University of Birmingham 2002-2009. Appointed Army Parkes Professor of Preventive Medicine in 2007, she was a member of the Army Medical Services Research Ethics Committee, the Surgeon General’s Research Strategy Group and the Army Scientific Advisory Committee. She worked in the Army’s health policy unit at the Ministry of Defence before moving to Scotland where she was seconded to the Scottish Government as Military Medical Liaison Officer. Since retiring from the Army in 2012, she has been at the Institute of Health & Wellbeing of the University of Glasgow where, after completing a PhD study on the long-term health of military veterans in Scotland in 2016, she was an Honorary Senior Research Fellow before being appointed Honorary Clinical Associate Professor in 2021. She was appointed OBE for Services to Veterans in Scotland in the New Year Honours list 2021.

Dr Charlotte Herriott is a member of the Centre for Military Women’s Research as well as Senior Lecturer in Criminology and Policing and Course Leader for MA Criminology at Anglia Ruskin University. Charlotte’s research centres around sexual violence, both in the civilian and military context, particularly looking at criminal justice responses. Her most recent work focuses on victim-survivor experiences and impact of sexual violence in the UK Armed Forces, as well as their experience and perception of the service justice response.

Dr Chinedu Udeh-Momoh is a Translational Neuroscientist whose work focuses on developing contextual dementia prevention strategies for individuals such as female Veterans, who are at the highest risk for developing dementia, also across diverse populations. Her research adopts a translational approach to elucidate dementia prevention bio-mechanistic pathways and strategies, by integrating human clinical studies with experimental animal models. Furthermore, she leads global initiatives to address gender and racial disparities in medical research and academia. Overall, her work is at the forefront of translational neuroscience and dementia epidemiology, bringing together fundamental neuroscience discoveries to improve human health and wellbeing.

Chris is an Associate Professor in History at the University of South Wales. His recent research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), has explored the multifaceted role of imperialism across the cycle of nuclear development in Britain, from uranium extraction in the Congo and South Africa to nuclear weapons tests in Australia and the Pacific. Chris is Principal Investigator for the Office for Veterans’ Affairs project: ‘An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans’.

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.

Claire Lee is a research fellow in the Centre for Psychological Research at Oxford Brookes University, where she is currently leading the Supporting All to Thrive study investigating the education of Service children with SEND. A former Service child and primary-school teacher, Claire mainly uses arts-based and dialogic research methods. Her ESRC-funded PhD, from the University of Bristol, was a 14-month arts-based project conducted in a primary school in England with a group of Service children aged 8-11. This child-led study focused on the children’s priorities and how they made sense of the powerful institutions which shape their lives. Claire’s publications include articles on the ethics of researching with children as well as on Service children and their transitions.

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.'