Rochelle, Humera and Karen will develop an exciting programme of events to bring together researchers from across UCL whose work focuses on health creation and understanding creative approaches to reducing health disparities. The new leads will carry on the fantastic work of Prof Helen Chatterjee and Dr Lorna Collins, who launched the community in November 2021.

Dr Rochelle Burgess is Associate Professor in Global Health and Deputy Director of the UCL Centre for Global Non-Communicable Diseases, at the Institute for Global Health. Rochelle is interested in the promotion of community approaches to health globally, and views communities as a route to understanding and responding to the political economy of poor health. For the past decade, she has focused largely on mental wellbeing and the experience of common mental disorders, and is a leading voice in the emerging field of social interventions in Global Mental Health. She has led a range of projects that focus on the development of community mental health interventions (in South Africa, Colombia, UK and Zimbabwe) and has contributed her methodological and mental health expertise to projects on community led responses to other health challenges, such as child health in Nigeria. 

Dr Humera Iqbal is Associate Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology based at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, part of the UCL Social Research Institute.  Humera studies young people and families particularly from migrant and minority groups, social representations, citizenship, including statelessness and identity.   Another strand of her research interrogates the influence of culture, nature and the arts on wellbeing and belonging. Humera uses mixed methods, arts and film-based methods in her research, which is based internationally (particularly South Asia), as well as here in the UK. 

Dr Karen Mak is a Research Fellow in Quantitative Social Science at the Institute of Epidemiology & Health. Karen’s research explores how arts and cultural engagement is associated with improvements in mental health and wellbeing and identifies the profile of engagers across the UK using theories from sociology, behavioural science, and geography. Her work involves partnerships with cross-functional stakeholders including Arts Council England, Historic England, What Works Centre for Wellbeing, and the Social Prescribing Network. Karen was a co-Investigator on an ESRC-grant on communities and wellbeing (WELLCOMM), and is currently part of the research team at the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Arts & Health.

Find out more

UCL Health of the Public’s Creative Health Community brings together researchers from across UCL whose work focuses on health creation and understanding creative approaches to reducing health disparities. The National Centre for Creative Health defines Creative Health as ‘creating the conditions and opportunities for arts, creativity and culture to be embedded in the health of the public’. Within our Community, we expand this to include all asset-based approaches to health including nature and the outdoors, the built environment, design and architecture, laws and beyond. We welcome anyone from biomedicine, the sciences (life, physical, population, social, historical), engineering, education, arts and humanities to join forces to explore how asset-based approaches to health can be harnessed to improve the health of the public. Head to our website to find out more.

If you are a researcher working in creative health please get in touch to find out how you can work with us.