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Meet The Team
Judith Stephenson is the Margaret Pyke Professor of Sexual & Reproductive Health at UCL. Judith’s research in sexual and reproductive health has changed policy and practice nationally and internationally, particularly in relation to chlamydia screening and more recently 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 in 2012,s NIHR Senior Investigator Award in 2014, and 2019, and Women of Achievement in Healthcare from Women in the City, 2015.
Jennifer Hall is a Clinical Associate Professor and NIHR Advanced Fellow at the UCL Institute for Women’s Health. She is an Honorary Consultant in Public Health Medicine at UCLH and OHID and worked as a Senior Epidemiologist in UKHSA during the COVID-19 pandemic. 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. She is an Expert Advisor to the Maternity Transformation Programme on Public Health and Prevention. 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.
Geraldine Barrett, a Principal Research Associate, joined the team in 2017. Geraldine is a social scientist who has worked in public health/health services research since the early 1990s. Her research interests relate to women’s sexual and reproductive health and research methodology. She has skills in quantitative and qualitative methods, particularly survey techniques, psychometric measure development and validation, and depth interviewing applied to sensitive topics. She developed the London Measure of Unplanned Pregnancy (LMUP), which is now used internationally. Her current work primarily focuses on pregnancy planning, preconception health, and psychometric measurement evaluation, including ongoing methodological research on the LMUP.
Bola Grace is an Honorary Professor of Practice. She has extensive experience in women’s health across industry and academia including over a decade of senior leadership in the biotech industry, providing strategic, commercial and technical direction to highly skilled cross-functional teams on complex programmes; and delivering numerous innovative award-winning products to the consumer marketplace. She values collaborative research into a variety of topics including Digital Health, SRH, Inclusive Innovation; leveraging the application of data science to research and practice. Within academia, she lectures, supervises research projects; works on research grants; publishes her work and presents at (inter)national conferences. She enjoys coaching and mentoring and is passionate about helping underrepresented groups in STEM. She holds a PhD in Population Health & Epidemiology from UCL and an Executive MBA from The University of Cambridge Judge Business School.
Dilisha Patel has completed her PhD investigating how technology can be used to support men when they experience fertility difficulties. This project focused on how technology can support men’s information-seeking during their fertility journey. She is now a fellow working with the Global Disability Innovation Hub and leading on Gender and Disability Inclusion and Social Justice, with a specific focus on SRH and inclusion, working with international agencies, such as The WHO and UNFPA. She has a MSc from LSHTM in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research. Dilisha has been working with the SRH group in preconception care since 2012 and led the Start at the Beginning trial, which explored a digital intervention to improve diet, nutrition and lifestyle behaviours in women preparing for conception. In addition, Dilisha is greatly interested in using mixed methods and design approaches to explore how couples can improve their health before pregnancy, focusing on underserved populations. Her previous publications can be seen here: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=ZOJ7zB4AAAAJ&hl=en
Annette Thwaites is an Honorary Research Fellow in Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) and a senior registrar in SRH at Kings College Hospital, London with research interests in contraceptive methods, use and needs. Annette was awarded her MD(Res) in 2022 on the contraceptive needs of women post successful in vitro fertilisation. This work gained extensive, global media coverage. Previously in 2018, she completed a clinical fellowship with Public Health England, exploring views of women and health care professionals on the provision of immediate postnatal contraception. She is also first author of the FSRH statement on contraception for women with eating disorders. Prior to studying graduate medicine, Annette worked as a business analyst for Andersen Business Consulting and Deloitte and has masters’ degrees in Engineering (Cambridge University) and Computing (Imperial College, London).
Carla Logon-Bishop is PA to Professor Judith Stephenson and the Team Administrator for the Dept of Sexual and Reproductive Health. She provides support to the team in all aspects of research project work.
Corrina Horan is an Academic Clinical Fellow in Community Sexual and Reproductive Health (CSRH) and a junior registrar in CSRH at Homerton University Hospital, London. Corrina is currently researching teacher’s attitudes towards teaching contraception and pregnancy options as part of Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) in English secondary schools, and whether the Contraceptive Choices website could be used to support such teaching. Corrina recently completed a Masters degree in Reproductive and Sexual Health Research (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine).
Danielle Schoenaker is a Research Fellow in the School of Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education at the University of Southampton. She is an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the UCL Institute for Women’s Health. Danielle’s programme of work is focussed on the health and wellbeing of women and men leading up to pregnancy, and aims to inform how this may be improved to benefit the health of future mothers, fathers and their children. She received a Postdoctoral Career Track Award from the University of Southampton in 2022 to build evidence and develop resources to inform preconception care in primary care. Danielle also works with the UK government Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to develop an infrastructure for national surveillance of preconception health.
Catherine Stewart is a Research Assistant within the Sexual and Reproductive Health Research Team. She has a BSc in Reproductive Biology from The University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Reproductive Science and Women’s Health from UCL. She has experience of both quantitative and qualitative research, with areas of interest included pregnancy preparation, pregnancy intentions and the utilisation of maternal healthcare.
Pollyanna Cohen is an Academic Clinical Fellow (ACF) in Community Sexual and Reproductive Health (CSRH) and a CSRH trainee at University College Hospital and Mortimer Market Centre, London. In her ACF, Polly is exploring how to improve access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for people with severe mental illness and the role of mental health staff in discussing SRH with their patients. Prior to her ACF, Polly completed an MSc in Science Communication at Imperial College London, where she researched the use of drama as a qualitative research methodology in SRH.