A professional geographer with strong leadership expertise and non-executive experience in advisory, trustee and board roles. she became Academy CEO in 2019. Previously she was Director, Royal Geographical Society where she led a strategic programme of modernisation and expansion, advocacy for geography, public and policy engagement. An academic career at London University followed her DPhil at Oxford University. She holds four leading geography awards, six honorary degrees and a CBE for services to geography.

Email: ceo@acss.org.uk

Ed has 15 years’ experience of influencing policy development at a local and national level. Prior to joining the Academy in 2023, he led Cardiff University’s public affairs and civic mission activities, working with politicians at both the Senedd and Westminster as well as with wider civil society organisations. He has also worked for a variety of health and social care charities in Wales and Northern Ireland. He holds a PhD from Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences.

Email: policy@acss.org.uk 

Sarah joined the Academy in early 2021 as Head of Administration. She has a background spanning learned societies, higher and secondary education. Sarah is a geographer with a BSc and PhD from Queen Mary, University of London. She was the Professional Officer and Head of Programmes at the Royal Geographical Society running events in London and the regional committees. She retrained as a geography teacher, becoming Head of Department and an award-winning education resource writer.

Email: administrator@acss.org.uk

Annie joined the Academy at the start of 2023. She has worked within the charity and publishing sectors in a variety of roles, most recently overseeing all aspects of membership for an international society. As part of the administration team at AcSS, she is responsible for maintaining the CRM and managing membership-related activities including subscription renewal and the Fellowship nomination process.

Email: administrator@acss.org.uk

Before joining AcSS Steve managed the Q-Step Programme at the Nuffield Foundation, developing quantitative methods in the social sciences. Steve is a qualified careers adviser and counsellor and has managed widening participation teams in several universities. He has worked in the charity sector developing partnerships between schools, universities, communities and business to support social mobility. Steve also has experience of working with universities to improve teaching and learning and academic quality and standards.

Email: campaign@acss.org.uk

Amy manages all aspects of the Academy’s communications. Prior to joining the Academy in 2023, she worked as Global Communications Advisor at ERM where she developed and led internal and external communications projects for a range of initiatives. Before that she was Communications Officer for the Royal Geographical Society where she worked to raise awareness of the Society’s activities with their various stakeholders, including members, academic and professional geographers, geography teachers and the wider public.

Email: media@acss.org.uk

Lizzy joined the Academy in February 2023 as EDI Programme Manager. She has over ten years’ experience of working in both academia and the charity sector, particularly in the fields of project and programme management and social justice. Lizzy is passionate about the social sciences and has a PhD in Maritime Security, specifically the root causes of child piracy, from the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University.

Theresa works on the Academy’s events portfolio, public affairs / campaigns programme, and communications. Before joining the Academy in 2023, Theresa worked as a postgraduate researcher for the German development agency, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and as a conference producer for sustainable development leadership summits focused on agriculture, food, and water systems. Her background lies in journalism and Public Relations (PR).

Will is a political economist, author and columnist. He is an associate with the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance, a non-executive director of the Satellite Applications Catapult, co-chair of the Purposeful Company, an associate of the Oxford Martin School, and writes a regular column for The Observer. He was principal of Hertford College, University of Oxford from 2011 to 2020. He has authored many bestselling books including the acclaimed The State We’re In (1995).

Stephen is Director for Analysis and Data at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. A government economist by background, he was previously Chief Economist and then Director of the Strategy Unit in the Cabinet Office. He has also worked in the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, the Cabinet Secretariats and Her Majesty’s Treasury.

Tim Allen is inaugural Director of the Firoz Lalji Centre for Africa and Professor in Development Anthropology in the Department of International Development at LSE. His research focuses on international criminal justice, non-formal accountability mechanisms, forced migration, reintegration following displacements, war and conflict, aid programmes, witchcraft and social healing, tropical diseases, HIV/AIDS and health programmes.  He is currently the Principal Investigator for the ESRC-funded Centre for Public Authority and International Development. He has authored several books including Poverty and Development.

Lisa is Professor of Management Development and Associate PVC Education in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Liverpool. Her research interests are in the field of management learning and education and current projects include examining how learning at doctoral level can result in real-world impact. She is also former Vice Chair of BAM where her work focused on Management Knowledge and Education and where she led a project to examine the nature of Teaching and Scholarship careers in UK business and management schools.

Professor Linda Bauld OBE FMedSci FRSE FRCPE FAcSS FFPH is the Bruce and John Usher Chair in Public Health in the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh and Chief Social Policy Adviser to the Scottish Government. She leads two research consortia: SPECTRUM – funded by the MRC that focuses on the commercial determinants of health; and Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) – funded by the ESRC as a leadership hub for behavioural research.  She is a former Scientific Adviser to the UK Department of Health and Cancer Research UK on prevention and public health.

Richard is Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the University of Liverpool. A geographer by training, he works on the geography of international development, especially the relationship between migration, poverty and inequality in the context of environmental and social change. Richard has been a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences since 2012. Prior to joining Liverpool, Richard was PVC and Head of the College of Social Sciences at the University of Birmingham from 2018-23, and Pro-Director (Research and Enterprise) at SOAS University of London from 2013-18.

Tim Blackman became Vice-Chancellor of The Open University in October 2019 having previously been Vice-Chancellor of Middlesex University and Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Scholarship and Quality at the OU. Tim has held several positions on private/public and charity boards and has undertaken reviews for research councils. Working for several years as an advisor to UK government on neighbourhood renewal and currently advising on skills policy. He has taught and researched across many areas including planning, research methods and higher education.

Simin is Professor of Planning and Co-Director of Centre for Researching Cities at Newcastle University. She is former President of Association of European Schools of Planning, a Fellow of the Academy since 2003, a Fellow of RTPI and Royal Society of Arts, and a Trustee of TCPA. Simin is a former member of ESRRC Strategic Advisory Network, REF 2014 sub-panel, and DEFRA Social Science Expert Group, and served as advisor for several government departments and research councils in the UK and internationally. Her research centres on planning, environmental governance, climate resilience, and ethics of care and justice.

Tricia Dodd is an independent statistical and research consultant with a background in social and official statistics. The majority of her career was spent at the Office for National Statistics, latterly as the Chief Methodology Officer. She is a fellow and Council member of the Royal Statistical Society and is the Honorary Officer responsible for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the RSS. She was awarded an MBE in 2017 for services to research and statistics.

Bobby is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute. Prior to joining King’s in 2018, Bobby was Managing Director of Public Affairs for Ipsos MORI, and Global Director of the Ipsos Social Research Institute, across around 30 countries. He has worked across most public policy areas in his 25 year career in policy research and evaluation, and has been seconded to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE.

Professor Eileen Green is a sociologist and Emerita Professor at Teesside University, where she was founding Director of the Centre for Social and Policy Research, which specialised in community action projects. Previously, Reader and Head of Sociology at Sheffield Hallam University, her research interests include gender studies, women’s health and leisure and digital sociology. She is former Chair of the Leisure Studies Association and the British Sociological Association.

Tony is an applied linguist with a focus on the use of large volumes of language data to explore the use and manipulation of language in society. Tony is Distinguished Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Lancaster University. Previously he was Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster and Director of the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science. He was the founding Director of Research at the AHRC and Director of Research at the ESRC.

Chris Millward is Professor of Practice in Education Policy at the University of Birmingham.  In addition to his ACSS role, Chris is a member of the Commission for Tertiary Education and Research in Wales, a Marshall Scholarships Commissioner and a Trustee of the Society for Research into Higher Education.  Prior to joining Birmingham, he was England’s Director for Fair Access and Participation and Director of Policy at the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

Utsa Mukherjee teaches at the Department of Education, Brunel University London where he is the Director of Equality and Diversity. Utsa’s research interests lie in leisure studies and the sociology of childhood, youth and families with a key focus on equity and social justice. He is the inaugural Academic Lead of Brunel Youth Action Group, and co-leads the Education, Identities and Society research group at Brunel. He is currently leading a project on climate change and parenting in Iceland.

Judith Phillips is Deputy Principal (Research) and Professor of Gerontology at the University of Stirling. She is Research Director for the UKRI Healthy Ageing Challenge. Her research interests are in the social, behavioural and environmental aspects of ageing and she has published widely on topics such as social care, caregiving and age friendly environments. She has been highly active in shaping the UK’s gerontological research landscape and her applied research has impacted on government policy, particularly in Wales.

Professor Sally Power is Co-Director of the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research and Data (WISERD) and is based in the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University. She is a Fellow of the Learned Society for Wales, an elected member of Council of the British Educational Research Association and a Trustee of the Bevan Foundation. Her own research focuses on the implications of education policy and practice for socio-economic inequalities and the relationship between education, the family and civil society.

Ian is currently Associate Principal and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Strathclyde. He is a developmental psychologist specialising in the study of bullying behaviour and its psychological impact. Outside the university, he is a member of UKRI: Economic and Social Research Council’s (ESRC) Strategic Advisory Network and has previously served as Chair of the Scottish Council of Deans of Education (2018-2020).

John is a former Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Plymouth and previously worked at the Universities of Essex, Leicester, and Strathclyde. He is Chair of the Sociology Section and a member of the Governing Council of the British Academy, and is a member of the Board of Governors of Plymouth Marjon University. He has been an active member of the British Sociological Association since 1970, holding the positions of Secretary, Treasurer, Chair, and President, and was awarded its Distinguished Services to British Sociology Award in 2014 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. He was awarded a CBE for Services to Social Science in 2013.

Imogen is Professor of Sociology at Lancaster University. Imogen’s research focuses on inequalities of poverty, class, race, gender, disability and citizenship. Her most recent book, Stigma: the Machinery of Inequality (2020) reconceptualised stigma for the 21st Century. Imogen frequently collaborates with community groups, activists, artists and museums, is a Trustee of the Poverty Truth Network, an executive board member of Lancaster Black History Group and a member of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation ‘Stigma and Poverty Design Team’.

Kavita is Professor of Health Psychology at the Cardiff University, working at the interface of social and medical sciences. Her work has examined how risk of disease, the progression of illness and the effectiveness of treatments are influenced by psychological influences like mood and social influences like social support. For example, she has shown that negative moods such as stress and depression predict who will get infections such as COVID-19; how quickly illnesses such as HIV progress; and the effectiveness of treatments as varied as IVF and vaccines. She has also examined what factors influence people’s willingness to engage in public health campaigns such as cancer screening, wearing of face masks; and how can we improve engagement with these. Her work has been funded by the MRC, ESRC, NIHR, EU, Fulbright Commission, amongst others. She is a ‘Distinguished International Affiliate’ of the American Psychological Society (Division 38) and a Fellow of the Academy of Behavioural Medicine.

Bobby is the Chair of the Campaign for Social Science. He is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Policy Institute at King’s College London. Prior to joining King’s in 2018, Bobby was Managing Director of Public Affairs for Ipsos MORI, and Global Director of the Ipsos Social Research Institute, across around 30 countries. He has worked across most public policy areas in his 25-year career in policy research and evaluation and has been seconded to the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion (CASE) at LSE.

Jo Adetunji is Editor of The Conversation UK, which publishes articles written by academic experts via a newsroom of journalists. Jo was previously a reporter at The Guardian. She is passionate about supporting journalism that is healthy and thriving and is a trustee of the Public Interest News Foundation which champions independent publishers. She was a member of the Cairncross Review into press sustainability in the UK and is on the board of the British Journalism Review. She is also a keen supporter of the NCTJ’s Journalism Diversity Fund.

Sara Carter is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Adam Smith Business School and Vice-Principal and Head of College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on the financial rewards of entrepreneurship, the effects of business ownership on households, and entrepreneurship and public policy. She has served on various boards including South of Scotland Enterprise; British Bankers’ Association Diversity & Inclusion Business Council; the Women’s Enterprise Task Force; and Women’s Enterprise Scotland, and was awarded OBE for services to women entrepreneurs in 2008.  A former member of the Leverhulme Research Awards Advisory Committee, she was also Senior Editor at Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice.

Rob Ford is Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester and Senior Fellow at the UK in a Changing Europe. He is the author of several award-winning books on elections, public opinion and politics, including Revolt on the Right; Sex, Lies and the Ballot Box; Brexitland; and The British General Election of 2019. Rob has worked with the BBC elections analysis team since 2005, covering local, devolved, European and general elections, the Scottish independence referendum and the EU referendum, and helping to produce the exit polls for the last five elections. He comments regularly on British politics for a wide range of outlets, including the Observer, the New Statesman, various BBC outlets and Sky News.

Chris is Pro-Vice-Chancellor Research and Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex. Previously he worked at Northumbria University and then City, University of London, where he served as Head of the Department of Sociology (2014-2017) and Dean of the School of Arts and Social Sciences (2017-2020). Chris’ main research interests are in media, crime and criminal justice; victimisation; and criminological theory.

Andy is Professor of Environmental Sciences at University of East Anglia. Alongside expertise in public policy relating to the environment, Andy has thirty years of practical experience in environmental and climate change research. Andy has produced work for the OECD, the UK Cabinet Office, the UK environment ministry (DEFRA), UK Foresight, the European Commission, the Dutch Environment Ministry, WWF and the RSPB. He currently serves on DEFRA’s Science Advisory Council: Social Science Expert Group. Andy is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS), a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), and he was awarded Fellow membership of the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment (FIEMA) in recognition of his policy impact work.

Carol McNaughton Nicholls is an applied social scientist in the social and market research industry with over twenty years of experience. Carol is Managing Partner at Thinks Insight & Strategy. Carol was previously Senior Research Director at NatCen Crime and Justice Research Team and has also held positions at the University of York and University College London. Carol has published widely in peer reviewed journals, industry press, and appeared on national and regional media such as the BBC and ITV, discussing her research. Carol works with Government Departments, Regulatory bodies, and corporations to deliver social science research that informs change.

Katie Metzler is Vice President for Books & Social Science Innovation at Sage Publishing. Katie believes deeply in the power of the social sciences to help us understand and improve society and has led editorial and product management teams to develop new resources and digital products for social scientists. Much of her work has centred on creating resources that enable academic researchers to learn and apply robust research methodology. In addition to her role as a Board member for the Campaign for Social Science, she is a Trustee of The Conversation UK.

Ryan is currently the Interim Executive Dean and Pro-Vice Chancellor of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Swansea University. Ryan joined the University as an Associate Professor in March 2019 and was promoted to Professor of Law in March 2021. Before this, he was the Dean of Aston Law School in Birmingham and a Reader of Legal Education.

Gillian Prior is the Deputy Chief Executive at the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) and is Director of NatCen’s Social Surveys Department. Gillian work covers a wide range of policy areas including housing, education, health and transport. She also has oversight of the Scottish Centre for Social Research (ScotCen), and the award-winning NatCen Opinion Panel. Gillian has spent her career in applied social research and has over 25 years’ experience of managing social surveys and leading research teams. She regularly appears in the national press and broadcast media, talking about social trends. She is also a trustee of the Social Research Association.

Jo is a Professor of Economics and is Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Southampton. She is an applied micro labour economist with a particular interest in the UK labour market. Jo is a member of the Home Office’s Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) and a Trustee of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF).

Professor Becky Tunstall held the position of Joseph Rowntree Professor of Housing Policy and was the Director of the Centre for Housing Policy (CHP) at the University of York between 2011 and 2016. Becky has worked on and led research projects for clients including Communities and Local Government (CLG); the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF); the Nuffield Foundation; the Housing Corporation; the Homes and Communities Agency; the Tenant Services Authority; the National Housing Federation; the Scottish Government; individual social landlords and others. She has also been appointed to the Policy and Evidence Advisory Panel for the Social Mobility Commission.