Co-Directors
Jennifer Hall, co-director and co-lead for reproductive health data theme
Jennifer Hall is a Professor of Reproductive Health at the UCL Institute for Women’s Health and Co-Director of the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Reproductive Health. She is an Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at UCLH and the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and was an NIHR Advanced fellow from 2018-2023. She is a mixed-methods researcher with skills and expertise in quantitative, qualitative and psychometric methodologies and holds a PhD in Maternal Health and Epidemiology.
She has national and international experience of working with clinical, public health and academic colleagues, particularly around the measurement of pregnancy intention, preconception care and the detection and management of unplanned pregnancies, bringing a lifecourse approach to reproductive health services and research.
Her work on the measurement of pregnancy intention is internationally renowned, and she currently works with collaborators on every continent. Her work aims to improve health and social outcomes for women of reproductive age around the world.
Judith Stephenson, co-director and co-lead for menstrual health and menopause theme
Judith Stephenson is the Margaret Pyke Professor of Sexual & Reproductive Health at the UCL Institute for Women’s Health and Emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator in Public Health. Judith’s research in sexual and reproductive health has changed policy and practice nationally and internationally, particularly in relation to chlamydia screening and preconception health. Her current research focus is on improving use of contraception, how women plan and prepare for pregnancy and how early intervention can improve mother and child health across the life course.
She led an influential Lancet series on preconception health, followed by establishment of the UK Preconception Partnership which she co-chairs. She received the UCL prize for Leadership in Public Engagement, NIHR Senior Investigator Awards in 2014, and 2019, and Women of Achievement in Healthcare from Women in the City, 2015.
judith.stephenson@ucl.ac.uk
Co-Leads
Dr Helen Munro, co-lead for menstrual health and menopause theme
Helen Munro is a Consultant in Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare in South West Wales, she is Honorary Professor at Aberystwyth University and Senior Lecturer in the Division of Population Medicine, Cardiff University. Helen is Vice President of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH), a multi-disciplinary professional membership organisation that champions safe and effective sexual and reproductive healthcare across the life course. As Vice President Helen oversees the Clinical Effectiveness Unit which produces clinical guidance and standards which are recognised and used nationally and internationally.
Helen specialises in post-reproductive healthcare and is a trainer for the advanced qualifications in Menopause Care with both the FSRH and BMS. She was awarded the prestigious Health and Care Research Wales, Research Time Award (2023-2026), which will provide financial support over the next three years to developing her research career.
Dr Rebecca French, co-lead for contraception, abortion and (in)fertility theme
Dr Rebecca French, Associate Professor in Sexual & Reproductive Health Research (SRHR), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). A Public Health researcher with over 30 years of experience in policy-related research, mixed methods, survey design, intervention design and evaluation of complex interventions. She was awarded an Honorary Fellowship with the Faculty of SRH in 2021 for her contribution to research. Interests include how preferences affect choice in healthcare, specifically around fertility-related decision-making, and how new technologies and models of care can be used to promote better SRH.
Recent work includes the NIHR-funded SACHA study to examine how health services be best configured in Britain in response to new directions in abortion care, and the OHID-funded Women’s Reproductive Health Survey designed to monitor trends across the reproductive life-course. She is a co-investigator for both the Policy Innovation Policy Research Unit (LSHTM) and the Reproductive Health Policy Research Unit (UCL).
> Read more about SACHA
Dr Julia Bailey, co-lead for contraception, abortion and (in)fertility theme; ways of working - equality, diversity and inclusion
Julia Bailey is an Associate Professor in Primary Care at the University College London e-Health Unit and Specialty Doctor in Community Sexual Health in Southeast London. She also leads the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Healthcare Equality Action Group. Julia has expertise in quantitative and qualitative methodologies including epidemiology, online randomised controlled trials and qualitative methods including discourse analysis. Julia led the development of the Contraception Choices website which is an evidence-based, tailored website for contraception decision-making.
Professor Katy Vincent, co-lead for gynaecology and other pelvic problems
Katy is a Professor of Gynaecological Pain at University of Oxford and a Consultant Gynaecologist at the John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford. Her research group take a multimodal approach to exploring mechanisms generating and maintaining pain in women, with a particular focus on endometriosis-associated pain.
Katy has a strong interest in adolescent gynaecology and early intervention for common conditions such as dysmenorrhoea. She is the chair of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) SIG on Abdominal and Pelvic Pain and a member of the medical advisory panel for Endometriosis UK.
Abi McNiven, co-lead for gynaecology and other pelvic problems
Abi McNiven is a Senior Qualitative Researcher in the Medical Sociology and Health Experiences Research Group at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. Her research interests focus on the use of patient and professional experience for service improvement, including in relation to urogynaecological conditions (such as pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence), endometriosis, pre-eclampsia and high blood pressure in pregnancy, antenatal and newborn screening, menopause, and women’s health in primary care. Many of her previous studies have contributed to outputs on the HEXI (Health Experience Insights) website.
Niccola Hutchinson-Pascal, co-lead co-production theme
Niccola leads the Co-production & Public Engagement team at UCL. This includes the work of Co-Production Collective, a co-produced community working to support the authentic co-production of research, service and policy development.
Niccola has worked for a wide variety of organisations across health, well-being and physical activity, from charities, to government related bodies, to large agencies. All of these roles have had a focus on culture change and involved her working closely with the public, patients and local community members.
She is passionate about co-production, about all parties communicating on a level playing field, sharing power and decision making and about ensuring organisations are aware of the value gained from this way of working.
Dr Abimbola Ayorinde, co-lead for PPIE/co-production theme and health inequalities theme
Abimbola Ayorinde is an Associate Professor at Warwick Medical School. She has expertise in evidence synthesis, primary quantitative studies, and stakeholder engagement. She holds a PhD in Epidemiology and has led or co-led several research projects, including those commissioned by organizations such as the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, UK Health Security Agency and the NHS Race and Health Observatory.
She is actively involved in several other National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) infrastructure, including the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands, and the NIHR School for Public Health Research.
Abi is passionate about research aimed at mitigating health inequalities, particularly in women’s health, maternal and child health.
> Read more about Dr Ayorinde
Dr Jenny Shand, co-lead for health inequalities theme and co-lead for reproductive health data theme
Jenny is an Associate Professor in Health Services and Population Research at UCL. She is a mixed-methods researcher and holds a PhD in Health Economics. Extensive health system experience and expertise in forging collaborations across patient and community organizations, health and council partners, and the research and innovation system to identify opportunities for collaboration and joint work to transform outcomes in priority areas, alongside reducing inequalities. Data work has included building linked datasets across health and councils for research and planning, most recently supporting the set-up of the pan-London Secure Data Environment for Research and Development.
Jenny is Non-Executive Director at Care City, an innovation centre for healthy ageing and regeneration in East London; Director of the Care City Cohort, a unique ten-year individual-level linked dataset for residents of Barking and Dagenham in East London; and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Dr Beck Taylor, models of care co-lead
Beck Taylor is a Clinical Associate Professor in Public Health at Warwick Medical School and Honorary Consultant in Public Heatlh at NHS England. She leads and contributes to a wide portfolio of multidisciplinary, cross-institutional research, and is a mixed methods researcher with expertise in qualitative and quantitative methods. She brings a public health perspective to investigating complex clinical, service and policy questions, particularly in maternity and women’s health.
She works across NIHR programmes including the Reproductive Health Policy Research Unit, West Midlands Applied Research Collaboration, Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Team and Health Determinants Research Collaboration. She led the NIHR BRACE rapid evaluation of Women’s Health Hubs undertaken to inform national scale up of these models announced in the Women’s Health Strategy.
Professor Louise Jackson, models of care co-lead
Louise Jackson is a Professor within the Department of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham. She particularly specialises in the evaluation of new technologies to transform healthcare services and public health interventions. Louise’s research focuses on economic evaluations in relation to reproductive health, sexual health, and public health. Louise has broad range of methodological experience and expertise. She is currently co-leading a NIHR Health Services & Delivery Research programme to investigate the impact of remote consultations in sexual and reproductive health on health inequalities (The CONNECT study - University of Birmingham) and has also recently been awarded a NIHR Programme Development Grant to co-develop approaches for health outcome measurement for interventions tackling sexual violence. Louise also is a co-investigator on a number of active/recently completed funded projects (mainly funded by NIHR and MRC), across a range of health areas.
Cross-cutting experts
Professor Fiona de Londras, human rights
Fiona de Londras is the Barber Professor of Jurisprudence at Birmingham Law School and Director of Research of the College of Arts and Law, University of Birmingham. She is an academic lawyer concentrating on human rights law. She has national and international experience of working on abortion law and policy, working with civil society and politicians, and supporting rights-based approaches to reproductive healthcare.
She is an experienced cross- and interdisciplinary researcher, bringing methods, questions, and insights from law to large-scale research projects and supporting work on how law and policy frameworks can be (re)designed to maximise health and non-health outcomes.
> Read more about Professor Londras
Dr Kelly Dickson, evidence synthesis
Dr Kelly Dickson is an Associate Professor in Global Health and Wellbeing and an Integrative Psychotherapist in clinical practice. She is based at the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Coordination Centre (EPPI-Centre), Social Research Institute, UCL. She has been leading systematic reviews, using qualitative, quantitative and participatory research methods since 2004.
She continues to work closely with stakeholders to support evidence-informed policy and practice decision making in local and global settings. Her methodological research also focuses on the institutional mechanisms and social processes entailed in working at the research-policy interface.
Research Team
Dr Rose Stevens, postdoctoral research fellow
Rose Stevens is a Research Fellow based at UCL. She has an interdisciplinary research background across biology, anthropology, demography, and public health. Her doctoral research on contraceptive side-effects used mixed methods, including both quantitative and qualitative data collection alongside secondary data analysis, to understand variation in side-effect experiences in Ethiopia. Her other areas of research interest include adolescent sexual and reproductive health care, beliefs about contraception, metrics and measurement in reproductive and sexual health, and reproductive justice.
Elena Proffitt, Research Assistant
Elena Proffitt is a Research Assistant based at UCL. She has a mixed method research background in global health, particularly sexual and reproductive health, and a professional third sector background in influencing gynaeoncology policy and developing and implementing advocacy strategies. Her master’s research focused on examining discourse surrounding menstrual hygiene management in the global south. She has additional research experience in loneliness and connected communities, policy and evidence in sexual health for older adults in England and palliative care. Her other areas of interest are contraception, awareness and access to health information, fertility and pregnancy loss, and co-producing services.
Lois Harvey-Pescott, Research Assistant
Lois has a keen interest in women’s health, having recently completed the Women’s Health MSc at UCL. She is particularly interested in sexual and reproductive health; her master’s dissertation was a secondary data analysis that investigated the association between women’s reproductive autonomy and their choice and use of contraception.
Management Team
Dr Verity Pooke, Unit Manager
Verity Pooke has a diverse range of professional experiences across academia, research, and policy, through various roles at multiple institutions.
Verity has a PhD in Social Policy specialising in Contraception Policy in England with a focus on Emergency Contraception. As a mixed methods researcher skilled in qualitative research, she Lectured in Social Policy at the University of Kent, teaching undergraduate courses on Reproductive Health Policy and Social Research Methods. Her experience includes working at the Department of Health and Social Care within the Sexual Health, HIV, and Reproductive Health Evidence and Delivery Team, where she contributed to key health policy and strategy development. Additionally, as a Senior Public Health Research Officer at the NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaboration at Medway Council, she developed a research training program for council officers to support Council led research activities aimed at improving the health determinants of Medway communities.
Verity is interested in building collaborative networks that improve reproductive health outcomes by promoting the development and implementation of evidence-based policies informed by robust research and data.
Marcia Darvell, Unit Manager (Maternity cover)
Marcia has had a long and varied career working in the health and academic sectors. Her background in social sciences and interest in medical sociology has informed her work for organisations including the British Medical Association, Department of Health and Social Care, British Heart Foundation and Crohn’s and Colitis UK.
Marcia has worked at UCL for over 10 years, managing diverse and complex multidisciplinary research studies on atypical parkinsons’ disease (Institute of Neurology) and management of TB (Respiratory Medicine). She has also worked in Research and Operations Management at the Faculty of Population Health Sciences and the Health Partnerships Team (Vice Provost Health) working on strategic health projects with NHS partners.
Marcia’s career has had a strong focus on patient and public involvement, working to establish the Expert Patient Programme at the BMA over 20 years ago, with subsequent co-production experience at Crohn’s and Colitis UK and UCL. She has worked on studies involving underserved populations and has a strong interest in public health inequalities.
Co-Production Team
Priya Davda, co-production team member
Priya has lived and learnt experience in the fields of co-production, reproduction, healthcare, research and equity. She has designed, led and co-produced projects across a variety of sectors and leads a think tank specialising in research, consultancy, and training.
Priya is a member of the Co-Production Collective and the British Sociological Association’s Medical Sociology Committee, and an honorary research fellow at the Centre for Reproduction Research at DeMontfort University. Her PhD was an ethnographic study on the ways in which inequalities are reproduced through reproductive technologies. She is passionate about health and social care improvement and reducing health inequalities.
Yomn Al-Kaisi, co-production team member
Yomn Al-Kaisi is a co-producer at the Co-Production Collective, where she works on participatory research and community-led knowledge production that centres lived experience in shaping policy and social change.
She has over a decade of experience in human rights research within the NGO and think tank sector, specialising in the Middle East and North Africa. Her work has involved producing in-depth research reports, policy briefings, and submissions to international human rights mechanisms including the Universal Periodic Review, the Committee Against Torture, and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief, with a particular focus on Syrian civil society. She has extensive experience analysing complex datasets, documenting human rights violations, and translating technical research into accessible materials for policymakers, donors, and civil society organisations.
Alongside her research work, Yomn is also a cultural practitioner who teaches embroidery, using textile practices to explore questions of history, identity, and cultural memory. She is a former co-founder of Tatreez Collective, an organisation dedicated to sharing the history and cultural significance of Palestinian women’s embroidery traditions.
Aleem Nisar, co-production team member
Aleem is a Co-ordinator at UCL’s Co production Collective. He is committed to helping people from all backgrounds access research and services. He brings experience in parent and youth engagement, mental health support and participatory research gained through roles with universities and other education providers, charities and public involvement networks.
Advisory Group
Isaac Samuels, Advisory Group Co-Chair
Isaac, a dedicated advocate for social justice and equality, brings over 28 years of experience in community campaigning and co-production advising within the realms of health, social care, and housing sectors. Their fervour lies in supporting individuals facing adversity due to societal, political, or environmental constraints such as poverty, health issues, or disabilities, empowering them to lead fulfilling lives despite systemic barriers.
Their commitment stems from personal experiences grappling with their own health and social care challenges, driving them to champion others in similar situations. Having navigated life-altering health conditions, Isaac’s insights inform their approach and deepen their understanding of the barriers individuals encounter.
Throughout their career, Isaac has assumed diverse roles, from spearheading integrated policies for individuals with additional support needs to conducting research in nursing, mental health, and HIV/AIDS stigma. Central to their work is co-production, a methodology rooted in a rights-based framework that empowers individuals to shape their destinies and share their narratives.
Alison Hadley, Advisory Group Co-Chair
Alison has had a 40-year career in the area of reproductive health, starting as a frontline family planning nurse and health visitor and progressing into strategic leadership within government and the VCS sector. She was Policy Director at Brook for fourteen years before moving into government to implement England’s ten-year teenage pregnancy strategy (TPS) which has led to a 72% reduction in the under-18 conception rate and improved support for young parents to address disproportionately poor outcomes for them and their children. She is now Director of the Teenage Pregnancy Knowledge Exchange at the University of Bedfordshire and also Chair of the Sex Education Forum.
Although Alison’s primary career focus has been on pregnancy and parenthood in young people, she is passionate too about reproductive health equity throughout the life course and is deeply concerned that austerity, the cost-of-living crisis and the covid-19 pandemic have worsened inequalities across all ages.
Find out more
The NIHR Policy Research Unit in Reproductive Health is part of the NIHR and hosted by UCL.