NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Flourishing and Wellbeing Theme - Senior Researcher

AGILE: Is Nature a Policy Solution to Mental Health in Schools? - Co-PI

I am a senior researcher and first-generation academic uniquely blending expertise in stonemasonry with a doctorate in Cultural Heritage Science, Physical, and Environmental Geography. My interdisciplinary research integrates physical, environmental, social, digital, and mental health and wellbeing sciences to deliver innovative insights and solutions, while also addressing systemic inequalities and promoting decolonised research practices.

My work enhances historic and contemporary environmental systems for 21st-century societies through three key themes:

Working with Nature – Nature-based Solutions: Co-leading initiatives such as Agile - Is "nature" a policy solution to mental health in schools?, the Urban Bio-Labs project and the international SXNCH network, I facilitate synergies between nature and culture to enhance resilience, sustainability, and public engagement with eco-cultural systems contributions.

Collaborating with Communities – Human-based Solutions: Through the 'Smart Urban Culture' initiative, I spearhead Lab-In-Your-Pocket, transforming smartphones into tools for scientific, emotional, and environmental literacy, and support disadvantaged youths in partnership with the Polar Academy, promoting citizen science and equitable education.

Learning from the Past – Culture-based Solutions: My OPAQ project utilises Oxford's stone-built heritage as a geochemical archive to track historical and contemporary air quality, including microplastics, linking cultural heritage directly to public health and sustainable urban development.

My international collaborations span diverse communities and stakeholders from Pompeii and Petra to colleagues engaged in partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in Australia's Kakadu National Park.

Current projects in Psychiatry (for Geography please visit here)

I co-lead the interdisciplinary project "Is ‘Nature’ a Policy Solution to Mental Health in Schools?" This initiative responds to the urgent need for evidence-based nature programmes in UK schools to support student mental health and wellbeing. Our collaborative research team from Oxford's Departments of Psychiatry, Geography, Primary Care, Education, the Oxford Botanic Gardens and Arboretum, and GLAM works closely with community groups, youth advisory panels, policymakers, and the Department for Education (DfE).

Through Deliberative Policy Analysis, we assess the social and political implications of nature-based curricular and whole-school strategies. The project's goal is to provide rigorous evidence that informs national education policy, guides innovative local educational practices, and advances the UK government's ‘green prescribing’ objectives. Strategically aligned with the Sustainability and Climate Change Strategy, our research supports mental health improvements, fosters sustainability leadership in education, and contributes to broader climate action goals in schools.

Additionally, I am a Senior Researcher for the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre Flourishing and Wellbeing Theme, where my work integrates mental health, wellbeing, and geography. My research explores how various environments - gardens, woods, workplaces, and museums - act as 'living laboratories' to test nature-based programmes and study mental health and wellbeing outcomes from non-clinical experiences. I lead the development of the Ecological Collective Flourishing Operational Research Toolkit (ECOFLORET), a flexible and interdisciplinary toolkit combining analogue and digital methods to holistically assess human and ecological wellbeing. My current focus includes the E-Co-Flourishing Walk, leveraging ECOFLORET to examine the links between human and planetary wellbeing.