The 'Citizens' are both you, and us.
The Citizens Academy is all about collaboration - with you, the Citizens in our community, together with us, as Citizens of UEA.
The Academy belongs to all of us. It is guided and driven by a steering group who are:
Margaret Ogden
Margaret is one of our PPI members. She was attracted to the Citizens Academy because of its focus on PPI and described it to a friend as ''it's like working with a Professor in PPI''. What an opportunity. It also offers her activities which are outside of traditional PPI, for example, reviewing the website.
Deb Smith
Deb is involved in the steering group of the citizens academy as someone who had used health and social care services a lot as a patient with long term health conditions. She is passionate about chronic pain conditions, mental health, cancer, dementia and Palliative Care in particular. Deb enjoys spending time with friends and reading.
Caitlin Notley
more...Caitlin Notley is Director of the Citizens Academy. As a social scientist, she has worked with patients, carers and members of the public throughout her research career. Caitlin's research focuses on addictive behaviours, currently tobacco addiction and harm reduction approaches. In all of Caitlin's work, people who smoke have been central to informing study design, conduct and dissemination. Working to lead the Citizens Academy was a natural progression for Caitlin, who is deeply committed to the values that drive the Citizens Academy.
Jurgen Grotz, PhD
more...Jurgen Grotz is the Director of the Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR) at the University of East Anglia, in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and a Research Fellow with the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East of England Inclusive Involvement in Research for Practice-Led Health and Social Care Theme. He has co-authored Patient and Public Involvement in Health and Social Care Research: An Introduction to Theory and Practice (2020).
Anna Sweeting
Anna is a Research Fellow for Norwich Institute of Healthy Ageing (healthyageingnorwich.com) and leads their Co-Production Partnership. Having worked in policy, research and in the third sector, she is passionate about bridging the different sectors to ensure research is embedded in the local community. Anna has experience of engaging underrepresented groups including those involved in the criminal justice sector, vulnerable young people and individuals with mental health and learning difficulties.
Emma Harris
Emma started the service users lead role with her fellow academics Sophie North and Nickey Rooke in November 2020 for HSC, we work closely with the Director of Practice Education, promoting Service User Engagement and with our academic colleagues and working groups across the School. As a team of service users leads, we decided to share the key areas of the school business and strategies. We meet the service users four times a year called a “coffee and catch up”. This enables regular contact keeping everyone up to date and enhancing the inclusivity and promoting a sense of community. My key roles and passion are to work together with service user in the coproduction and meaningful inclusion of service users in recruitment and admissions. Their participation not only contribute to the interview process but also on the applicant and open days which are important part of promoting the courses in HSC. Service user involvement enhances experiences as recipients of health and provide powerful views to impart on the students learning, especially on the values and needs. Service user engagements can be a driving force in service enhancement.
Mei-See Man
I am a research lead and PPI lead for the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit. Having worked in clinical trials research, particularly mental health and long term conditions, for over 12 years, I have an interest in making research trials accessible and relevant to as widely diverse a population as possible. I am involved in the Citizen’s Academy Good working practice group particularly focussing on PPI in clinical research.
Professor Amanda Howe
more...Amanda came to UEA in 2001 to help set up the new undergraduate programme to train doctors at Norwich Medical School . With others she helped to build up the local scheme to support patient involvement in research (known as ‘PPIRes’), and later was part of a team that published a major evaluation of good practice in PPI in the UK research environment. She is a GP by background, and very much appreciates the need to empower people to contribute to good patient centred research and learning.
Helen Risebro
Helen is a research advisor for the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Research Design Service (RDS), providing support to health and social care researchers across the East of England on all aspects of developing and writing a funding application. This free service offers advice on research methods, building collaborative research teams, identifying funding sources and involving patients and members of the public. As part of this role, Helen is a public involvement specialist for Norfolk and Suffolk.
Lisa McDaid
more...Lisa is a health researcher and expert in qualitative methods. She is passionate about enabling people to have a voice in research which might affect their lives. She has a longstanding interest in promoting public involvement and engagement, having been an evaluator for the Beacons for Public Engagement Initiative, and the public involvement lead for both the Research Design Service (RDS) East of England (Norfolk and Suffolk) and the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit. Lisa currently coordinates the UEA Addiction Research Public Involvement Panel, along with teaching public involvement in research for the Clinical Academic Careers East Hub.
Sarah Fish
Sarah is a Clinical Lecturer and Tutor for the Clinical Psychology Doctorate (ClinPsyD) programme, and she is the Lead for Service User and Carer involvement with ClinPsyD.
Sophie North
Sophie North is the lead for Service User involvement in teaching in the School of Health Sciences (HSC) and, she works with Emma Harris and Nickey Rooke to support Service User opportunities across the school. Sophie particularly loves co-delivering sessions exploring marginalisation and exclusion with healthcare students and Service Users. Alongside her role in HSC, Sophie is the Academic lead for the University of Sanctuary (https://www.ueasanctuary.org/) initiative at UEA.