Meet the WARM team

Peter Coventry

Co-Principle Investigator

Manchester Metropolitan University

Pete is Professor of Health, Environment and Society at Manchester Metropolitan University and an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersection of mental health, public health, and environmental change. His work combines social science and applied health research, with expertise in mixed-methods evaluation, evidence synthesis, and complex interventions. He leads research exploring how environmental and social conditions shape mental health and inequalities, with a particular focus on climate change, place, and nature-based approaches. His work emphasises practical knowledge translation to inform preventive strategies that promote mental health and wellbeing across health and community settings.

Tim Doran

Co-Principle Investigator

University of York

Tim Doran is Professor of Health Policy at the University of York. Throughout his career in biochemistry, medicine, psychiatry, epidemiology and health policy he has focused on the determinants of health and illness, from the cellular to the environmental level. He leads international research into the impacts of health and social policies on health inequalities, and the effects and unintended consequences of quality improvement initiatives in healthcare. He also advises international health ministries and public health organisations, translating new understanding of health inequalities into action for patient benefit.

Amy Barnes

Senior Research Fellow

University of York

Amy is a Senior Public Health Policy and Research Specialist and Deputy Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change, with over 15 years of experience in evidence-based policy. Amy leads the Healthy Livelihoods "embedded research" team at the University of York, specialising in participatory methods that address the wider determinants of health. Within WARM, Amy applies her expertise in community health systems and "just transition" to explore gaps and opportunities in research into how mental health system resilience can be strengthened against climate change. Amy’s work is grounded in a preventative, capability-based understanding of health: as the power to lead a life we value. Amy is a member of the Young Foundation’s first UK-wide community of net-zero changemakers, focusing on collective and community action for a fairer, climate-resilient future.

Laura Bojke

Professor of Health Economics

University of York

Laura Bojke is a Professor of Health Economics, at the Centre for Health Economics, University of York. She is the lead for economic evaluation in her department, and her research interests focus economic evaluation to support decision making, at local, national and international levels. Her interdisciplinary research activities focus on engaging and working with policy makers to generate research of direct relevance to the NHS and public health providers, on issues that are likely to have a significant impact on the health of citizens. This includes my position as Chair of a WHO Advisory Group on Economics for Environment, Climate Change and Health and as a previous technology appraisal committee member for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Jen Brown

Senior Lecturer

University of York

Jen is a Senior Lecturer specialising in the intersection of severe mental illness, physical health co-morbidities (including cancer), and health inequalities. Jen has a strong methodological interest in co-design and mixed-methods research, ensuring that patient voice drives clinical and service-level innovation.

Paul Coleman

Consultant in Public Health

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)

Paul Coleman is a Consultant in Public Health at the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), where he serves within the Extreme Events and Health Protection team. His expertise lies in building systemic resilience to climate-related hazards, including extreme temperatures, flooding, and drought. Paul is responsible for developing national guidance that safeguards the health and social care sector, ensuring the UK is prepared for the public health challenges of a changing climate. Paul applies an action-research framework to ensure policy recommendations are grounded in academic evidence. He is particularly interested in the translation of academic evidence into actionable public health interventions, aiming to protect the most at-risk communities through evidence-led resilience planning and the continuous evaluation of national health protection strategies.

Suraje Dessai

Professor of Climate Change Adaptation

University of Leeds

Professor Suraje Dessai is a world-leading researcher of climate change adaptation at the University of Leeds where he focuses on the management of climate change uncertainties,

perception of climate risks and the science-policy interface in climate change science, impacts, adaptation and services. He is Professor of Climate Change Adaptation at the

School of Earth, Environment & Sustainability and Principal Fellow at the Priestley Centre for Climate Futures. He has published more than 125 scientific publications (h-index 50) and was listed 120 in the Reuters list of the world’s 1,000 top climate scientists. He is a member of the European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change (since 2022), the Joint

Programming Initiative (JPI) – Climate Transdisciplinary Advisory Body, the UK Met Office Hadley Centre Science Review and Advisory Group and the UK Climate Information Expert

Advisory Group. He was seconded to the UK’s Government Office for Science to work on Government’s

Climate Adaptation Research and Innovation Framework (Oct-Dec 2024), Specialist Advisor to the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy of the UK Parliament for inquiry on critical national infrastructure and climate adaptation (2022-23), Champion of the Strategic

Priorities Fund UK Climate Resilience Programme (2019-23) and co-editor-in-chief of the journal Climate Risk Management (2018-2021). He was Lead Author in IPCC WG1 (The

Physical Science Basis) Sixth Assessment Report and was Lead Author in the IPCC WG2

(Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability) Fifth Assessment Report.

Kelli Kennedy

Research Associate

University of York

Dr Kelli Kennedy is a Research Associate in the Department of Health Sciences, splitting her time as part of the Bradford Health Determinants Research Collaboration between the University of York and Bradford Council, and the WARM project. As part of the HDRC, Kelli engages with council officers across various areas providing support of taking research evidence and applying it in practice. This includes creating rapid evidence reviews and policy briefs, and devising research projects with the council, such as via policy workshops and co-production.

For WARM, Kelli supports Phase 1 of the work, including the evidence review.

Marsha McAdams

Mental Health Advocate

Ambassador and Peer Consultant at Centre for Mental Health, Churchill Fellow 2023.

Using her living experience of both physical and mental illness Marsha has chaired various PPI groups in research over the years and is a co-applicant on WARM in her capacity as Ambassador and Peer Consultant for Centre for Mental Health.

Paul O'Hare

Senior Lecturer

Manchester Metropolitan University

Dr Paul O’Hare is a Senior Lecturer in Geography & Development at Manchester Metropolitan University, specialising in risk governance, stakeholder engagement and climate change resilience and adaptation. His research bridges theory and practice, with publications on participatory planning, climate adaptation, and critical perspectives on resilience. In 2015, he co‑developed the influential “Six Steps for Flood Resilience” Code of Practice with the Building Research Establishment, shaping national property flood resilience guidance. He has advised Defra on training surveyors for resilience technologies and the British Standards Institution (BSI) on integrating flood‑risk considerations into building standards. He has also served as a UKRI Climate Science Embedded Researcher with the Manchester Climate Change Agency and Manchester City Council and chairs the MCCA Adaptation and Resilience Advisory Group, and sits on the Expert Review Group of the United Nations Race to Resilience.

Yirui Qian

Research Fellow

University of York

Yirui Qian is a Research Fellow from Centre for Health Economics, University of York. Yirui is interested in a range of broad topics related to health economics modelling, including computationally intensive simulation, public health economic evaluation, and approaches to incorporating social values into the process of health technology assessment.

Rita Santos

Senior Research Fellow

University of York

Dr Rita Santos is a senior research fellow at the Centre for Health Economics (CHE), University of York. She is a health economist with extensive experience in developing and applying methods for causal inference, including matching, weighting, and difference-in-differences, utilising data from administrative health records and other real-world data sources. She is renowned for her innovative applications of geographical information system, spatial statistics and spatial econometrics in health policy and health economics.

Piran White

Professor of Environmental Management

University of York

Piran White is Professor of Environmental Management in the University of York's Department of Environment and Geography. His research explores the complex relationships between the health of people, animals and the environment. His interdisciplinary approach combines field ecology and modelling with quantitative and qualitative social science. He has developed frameworks to integrate ecosystem health with public health outcomes to support more sustainable health policy development. His work on mental health and the environment includes the mental and physical health benefits of nature-based interventions and green social prescribing. He has carried out research on the links between environmental degradation and socio-economic and ecosystem resilience in the face of environmental hazards. He also works on the implications of changes in climate, land use and socio-economic factors on wildlife and livestock health. He has extensive experience in bridging the gap between academic research and policy. He currently serves as the Chair of Defra’s Science Advisory Council Exotic and Emerging Animal Disease Subgroup and has previously been a member of the Scientific Advisory Council for Natural England.

Page updated

Report abuse