The SPA’s activities are co-ordinated by an elected Executive Committee. All members of the SPA are eligible to stand and elections for the Executive Committee are held at the AGM during SPA’s Annual Conference. The SPA is committed to promoting the discipline of Social Policy and representing its members’ interests. The SPA Executive operates under an agreed statement of ethics.
If you would like to discuss a particular issue with the SPA Executive or are interested in joining the Executive then please contact the relevant Executive member below.
Ann Marie Gray
Chair
am.gray@ulster.ac.ukUlster University
Ann Marie Gray is Professor of Social Policy at Ulster University and co-director of ARK, a joint Ulster University/Queen’s University research centre.
Ann Marie’s research interests include adult social care, devolution and social policy and gender and social policy. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Doreen Lawrence, Baroness of Clarendon, OBE
President
Baroness Doreen Lawrence was awarded the OBE for services to community relations in 2003 and since then she has been made a life peer in the House of Lords in 2013. She has won praise for her tireless dedication to community, anti-racism and other causes close to her heart and she was recently named the most powerful woman in the country by the BBC. Her spirit and resilience and demand for a better way have genuinely changed an institution at the core of British life.
Doreen Lawrence continues to advocate and provide a voice for the voiceless with her continued commitment to inequalities in societies globally and supports many good causes and travels initiatives that provide opportunities to young people that were tragically denied to her son Stephen by his senseless murder in 1993
Her efforts in seeking justice for Stephen’s murder has seen her on-going commitment lead to an investigation into claims of police corruption and, for her, the changes in policing remain ‘only partly done’ in her wish to see Britain become a fairer, just and tolerant society for all.
Following 22 years as the Founding Trustee and President of the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, she stepped down to establish the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation where she is continuing to provide ‘a legacy of hope’ for young people, in particular boys of colour and disadvantaged communities with educational opportunities, community cohesion and career advancement.
Vikki McCall
Secretary
vikki.mccall1@stir.ac.ukUniversity of Stirling
Professor Vikki McCall is Professor of Social Policy in the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Stirling. Vikki’s work includes leading projects focusing on housing, ageing, stigma, co-production the role of front-line workers, service users, volunteers and the policy process.
Professor McCall teaches the Postgraduate MSc/Diploma of Housing Studies at the University of Stirling and is Honorary Secretary for the Social Policy Association Executive Committee and Editorial Board member of Social Policy & Society.
Antonios Roumpakis
Treasurer
antonios.roumpakis@york.ac.ukUniversity of York
Antonios is a Lecturer in Comparative Social Policy at the University of York. Antonios completed his PhD at the University of Bath and his dissertation focused on the comparative governance of pension funds.
His current research interests centre on the political economy of familistic welfare regimes, debt and asset-based welfare, comparative research methods, the politics and impact of austerity policies and the changing socio-economic governance in Europe.
Victoria Duffy
Senior Administrator
v.duffy@ulster.ac.uk
Victoria provides administration support to the Executive Committee of The Social Policy Association and is an Executive Assistant in the School of Applied Social and Policy Sciences on the Magee Campus, Ulster University.
Victoria is also a PhD Candidate in History in the School of Arts and Humanities, Ulster University. Her thesis explores the life and work of the Catholic Bishop of Cork, Dr Francis Moylan (1735-1815). Her research interests include: the evolution of Catholic identity and the development of social thought in the Eighteenth Century, alternative voices and their response to the State and Catholic folk belief.
PORTFOLIOS
Sade Ajose
Postgraduate Research (PGR)
fxa246@student.bham.ac.ukUniversity of Birmingham
Sade is a Masters student at the University of Birmingham, studying Social Research. Sade completed her Social Policy degree at Swansea University in 2022. Outside of her studies, she also represents Great Britain for American Football!
Sade's research interests include race, inclusion, and education policy, though she also has published research in relation to outdoor therapy and wellbeing.
Alessio D’Angelo
Impact and Engagement
a.dangelo@derby.ac.ukUniversity of Derby
Alessio is Professor of Social Policy at the University of Derby, where he co-directs the Centre for Criminology and Social Policy Research.
His research interests include migration, social inequalities and access to public services, with a particular focus on the role of Third Sector organisations. Most recently he has been working on EU and UK funded grants on school engagement, migration and education, diverse communities in changing urban settings, intra-European migration and refugee reception.
His work employs quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods and he has particular expertise in Social Network Analysis (SNA). He is also Editor of the SPA journal Social Policy and Society.
Hayley Bennett
Awards
hayley.bennett@ed.ac.ukDr Bennett is a Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh.
Her research examines the design and delivery of UK social security, active labour market programmes, and anti-poverty initiatives. She has a particular interest in multi-level governance, devolution, and place-based inequalities. She predominately uses qualitative methodologies and specialises in collaborative and participatory research approaches.
Gideon Calder
Grants
g.j.calder@swansea.ac.ukGideon is Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Criminology, Sociology and Social Policy at Swansea University.
His main current research interests lie in three areas, which sometimes overlap: inequalities and social justice around families and childhood; ethics, including in research; and co-production. He is co-editor of the journal Ethics and Social Welfare, and chair of the Newport Fairness Commission.
Alexandra Chapman
Membership Secretary
a.chapman1@ulster.ac.ukUlster University
Alexandra Chapman is an Early Career Researcher and Lecturer at Ulster University School of Applied Social and Policy Studies.
Her research interests include adult social care, social security and devolution.
Elizabeth Cookingham Bailey
Committee Member
elizabeth.bailey@york.ac.ukUniversity of York
Dr Elizabeth Cookingham Bailey is a Lecturer in Public Policy and Management at the University of York. She was previously a Lecturer in Public Service Management at the University of South Wales and a Research Fellow at the Third Sector Research Centre at the University of Birmingham.
Her research looks at the role of voluntary sector organisations and interest groups in the creation of policy, the mixed economy of public service provision, education policy and the history of social policy.
Naomi Finch
Marketing
naomi.finch@york.ac.ukUniversity of York
Naomi is a lecturer in Social Policy at the University of York.
Her research interests focus on gender equality specifically related to work and care, and how welfare states shape, support and value care. She mainly focuses on intra-household care, how parents share care and work, and the implications of this both in terms of gender equality in the labour market, and other areas such as parental and child wellbeing and poverty. She specialises in micro and comparative quantitative analysis.
Enrico Reuter
Teaching and Learning
enrico.reuter@york.ac.ukUniversity of York
Enrico is Lecturer in Public and Social Policy at the University of York.
His current research interests are in self-employment (and the wider context of changing wage-labour conditions and social protection systems), in public service reform (with a focus on the ideational underpinnings of reform trends), and in the crisis of liberal democracy (notably with respect to the principle of popular sovereignty).
Ewan Robertson
Communications
Ewan.Robertson@ed.ac.ukUniversity of Edinburgh
Ewan is a Teaching Fellow in Comparative Social Policy at the University of Edinburgh.
Ewan also holds a PhD in Social Policy from the University of Edinburgh. His thesis examined the driving forces behind the development of in-work benefit policies in France and the UK since the 1990s. His wider research interests include working-age social security, the interaction between labour markets and social security, comparative welfare state analysis, and the role of ideas in (social) policy-making.
Steve Rolfe
Strategy
steve.rolfe1@stir.ac.ukUniversity of Stirling
Steve is a Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Stirling, having escaped to academia after 15 years in local government.
His research interests are quite diverse, including housing, health, local government and community participation. The common thread lies in evaluation methodology, focused on understanding causality in complex processes and systems.
Kat Smith
Conferences
katherine.smith.100@strath.ac.ukUniversity of Strathclyde
Kat Smith is Professor of Public Health Policy at the University of Strathclyde, where she co-directs the Centre for Health Policy.
Kat’s research interests include policy responses to health inequalities, public engagement with public health research and policy and democratic innovations (such as citizens’ juries), and understanding how different actors (corporations, advocacy organisations, researchers, civil society) shape the policies that impact on people’s health. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Carolyn Snell
Early Career Research (ECR)
carolyn.snell@york.ac.ukUniversity of York
Carolyn Snell is a Reader in Social Policy at the University of York. Carolyn holds a degree in Politics and English Literature and an MA and PhD in Social Policy.
Carolyn's research and teaching focus on the relationship between the environment, justice, and social policy. Carolyn is co-chair of the SPA's Climate Justice and Social Policy Group.
Ellen Stewart
Conferences
Ellen.Stewart@strath.ac.ukUniversity of Strathclyde
Ellen is a Senior Lecturer and Chancellor’s Fellow in Health Policy, in the School of Social Work & Social Policy.
Her research interests are in citizen participation in healthcare; critical approaches to evidence-based policy; and interpretive policy analysis.
Janice Tripney
Publications
janice.tripney@ucl.ac.ukUniversity College London
Janice is Associate Professor of Social Policy at UCL (University College London).
She is the Programme Director for the MSc Social Policy and Social Research, Pathway Leader (Social Policy) for the UBEL (UCL, Bloomsbury and East London) Doctoral Training Partnership, and an editor of the journal London Review of Education. Key interests and publications include work on methods for research synthesis and research-policy relations.
JOURNALS
Note: the chairs of our journal editorial boards are not members of the Social Policy Association executive. However given the importance of our journals for our activities and mission, we include their profiles here for informational purposes. The journals are represented on the executive via the publications portfolio.
Fiona Dukelow
Chair of the Editorial Board, Journal of International and Comparative Social Policy
f.dukelow@ucc.ie
Chris Holden
Chair of the Editorial Board, Journal of Social Policy
chris.holden@york.ac.ukUniversity of York
Chris Holden is Professor of International Social Policy at the University of York, UK, where he is Director of the Centre for Research in Comparative and Global Social Policy (CRCG).
His research focuses on the impacts of the global economy and the activities of transnational corporations on health and welfare outcomes.