Who’s Who
Adelina Comas-Herrera
Care Policy and Evaluation Cente, London School of Economics and Political Science, England
Adelina Comas-Herrera is an Assistant Professorial Research Fellow within CPEC at LSE and was co-lead of the STRiDE project. She is the Principal Investigator of the STRiDE England project and the Social Care COVID Recovery and Resilience research project. She led the LTCcovid.org initiative. Previously she was academic project manager of the Modelling Dementia (MODEM) research project which aimed to estimate the impact, in terms of costs and quality of life, of making interventions that are known to work for people with dementia and their carers more widely available by 2040. She has been a consultant for the WHO, working on the development of a tool for countries to self-evaluate their long-term care systems. She has previously worked on making projections of future long-term care expenditure for the UK and other countries, and also on evaluating the potential role of private insurance and private/public partnerships in long-term care financing.
Anji Mehta
Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, England
Anji Mehta is Centre Manager of the CPEC at LSE and Finance and Impact Manager within the NIHR School for Social Care Research. Over the last nine years, Anji has also been working on studies exploring knowledge exchange and impact for adult social care research, implementation of research, engagement of practice and policy in research processes, and the types and use of knowledge in decision-making.
Ben Schlaepfer
Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, England
Web development, e-learning and user experience specialist. Ben builds and supports clinical research websites for LSE and NIHR with a focus on social care, dementia, mental health and early career research.
Bronte Heath
Alzheimer’s Society, UK, England
Bronte Heath is a Senior Research Evidence Officer at Alzheimer’s Society, leading on the charity’s involvement on STRIDE-England across all workstreams. In her role, Bronte has sat on many research advisory boards; she currently supports the Centre of Excellence’s IDEAL and NIDUS with dissemination and implementation. Alongside Bronte’s full-time role with Alzheimer’s Society, she is also a master’s degree candidate at UCL, studying Dementia: Causes, Treatments and Research. Bronte grew up in family-run care home that specialises in person-centered dementia care, where her family still work. Her research interests lie in quality of care, quality of staffing and workforce, long-term care, technology and research translation.
Chiara De Poli
Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, England
Chiara is a researcher at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at the London School of Economic and Political Science (LSE). Her interests are in applied health and social care research, in the design and evaluation of complex interventions, and in research ethics in the context of collaborative research involving vulnerable groups. With her team she has recently completed a five-year collaborative study with people with dementia and their families in the North-East of England (UK). Participants first identified the gaps in their local dementia care and support system and then co-designed two interventions to help address those gaps. The study facilitated the co-design and supported the implementation and evaluation of the interventions. Chiara is also a PhD candidate in Social Policy at the LSE. Her PhD work explores how collaborative approaches to research unfold in practice and their impact on policy making.
Clarissa Giebel
NIHR ARC NWC, Department of Primary Care and Mental Health, England
Dr Clarissa Giebel is Senior Research Fellow at the University of Liverpool and the NIHR ARC NWC, leading on national and international research into inequalities in dementia care. Her research looks at the barriers and facilitators of accessing and utilising post-diagnostic care in dementia, and she has led national COVID-19 social care studies on community-residing and care home-based people with dementia, their carers, and staff, which were subsequently rolled out across 5 countries.
Erica Breuer
University of Cape Town, England
Erica Breuer is a global health researcher with skills and expertise in mental health, health services research, monitoring and evaluation, programme management and theory driven evaluation. Since 2011, she has worked on the Programme for Improving Mental Health Care (PRIME) based at the Alan J Flisher Centre for Public Mental Health in the Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health. She holds an MPH from the University of Cape Town and has recently submitted her PhD looking at the role of Theory of Change as an approach to designing and evaluating complex interventions in health care.
Jayeeta Rajagopalan
Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, England
Jayeeta Rajagopalan holds a BSc in Global Health and Social Medicine from King’s College London and an MSc in Global Health Policy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her key research interests include ageing and social care, mental health and measuring health system performance. She joined the STRiDE India team as an Early Career Researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences [NIMHANS] in 2020. In April 2022 she joined the Care policy and Evaluation Centre at the London School of Economics as part of the STRiDE England team.
Louise Robinson
Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, England
Professor Dame Louise Robinson, is an academic GP and Professor of Primary Care and Ageing at Newcastle University. She was the first GP to be awarded a prestigious NIHR Professorship. Professor Robinson also holds the first UK Regius Professorship in Ageing.
Louise leads a research programme focused on improving quality of life and quality of care for older people, especially those with dementia. She leads 1 of only 3 Alzheimer Society national Centres of Excellence on Dementia Care. Louise was primary care lead for the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge and is a member of the National Dementia Care Guidelines development group.
Marie Poole
Population Health Sciences Institute, Newcastle University, England
Dr Marie Poole is a Senior Research Associate in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University. She is an experienced qualitative researcher, conducting research into dementia care research from diagnosis to end of life care in a range of settings including primary care, hospital based care, and the community. She has co-authored over 30 publications on the improvement of dementia care and played a prominent part in the development and delivery of innovative online resources to disseminate research findings broadly to benefit people living with dementia, their families and health and social care professionals.
Martin Knapp
Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, England
Martin Knapp is Professor of Social Policy and Professorial Research Fellow within CPEC at LSE. He is the Principal Investigator for the STRiDE project. He has also been Director of the NIHR School for Social Care Research since 2009. His current research emphases are primarily dementia, child and adult mental health, autism and long-term social care; much of his work has an economic focus, and in all of it he seeks to tease out the policy implications. He has published almost 600 peer-review journal papers and 15 books. His work has had numerous impacts on policy and practice in these areas.
Michael Clark
Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, England
Michael is Associate Professorial Research Fellow in CPEC at LSE and Research Programme Manager of the NIHR School for Social Care Research since 2009. His research interests span dementia, adult mental health, homelessness and social care. He started in dementia research looking at support for people from minority ethnic groups, and this and inequality more broadly remains a keen area of interest. He is co-applicant on the Dementia – PersonAlised Care Team (DPACT) programme funded by NIHR Programme Grants for Applied Research. Michael is also Managing Editor of the Journal of Long-term Care.
Nazak Salehi
Care Policy and Evaluation Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, England
Nazak Salehi is a Research Assistant at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at the LSE. Her research experience is related to inequalities in dementia care, perinatal mental health, and age-friendly cities initiatives. She is a Registered Pharmacist from Canada with specialization in Addictions and Mental Health Issues, Long Term Care Settings, and HIV Treatment and Prevention. Nazak has a MSc. in International Health Policy from LSE and is passionate about analysing the impacts of gender, race, and class on health outcomes.
Philly Hare
Innovations in Dementia CIC (iD), England
Philly Hare is a Co-Director at Innovations in Dementia CIC (iD). People with dementia are at the heart and start of all our work. We promote a positive view of dementia, demonstrating that although dementia is life changing it does not have to be life ending.
Philly’s particular interests are the empowerment and inclusion of people with dementia, and the application of research evidence to practice. As a qualified social worker, she has experience within the NHS, Local Authorities and the voluntary sector in many areas of adult social care. In the 1990s, she managed the Scarborough/ Ryedale Kings Fund Carers Project and later set up the Princess Royal Trust Carers Resource.
Philly has a first degree in English and Philosophy (Exeter University) and an MSc in Applied Social Studies (Oxford University). She is also Knowledge Exchange Fellow, University of Edinburgh (ECRED), and Honorary Visiting Researcher, University of Bradford.
Rachael Litherland
Innovations in Dementia, England
Rachael has been a co-director at Innovations in Dementia since it’s set-up in 2007. She has a background in psychology and advocacy. Innovations in Dementia works with people with dementia to inspire different conversations about dementia, promoting a positive but realistic view of dementia. Rachael supports the involvement of people with dementia in a range of research projects, including “Dementia Enquirers” a programme of research led by people with dementia. Rachael is proud to have helped to set up the DEEP network, hosted by Innovations in Dementia – a UK wide network of over 80 involvement groups of people with dementia. Before Innovations in Dementia, she developed and managed the national ‘Living with Dementia’ programme for Alzheimer’s Society. Rachael is also a research fellow at the University of Exeter, exploring the co-production of self-management resources with people with dementia.