About us

Professor Linda Clare

Director of DeNPRU Exeter
University of Exeter

Linda is Professor of Clinical Psychology of Ageing and Dementia at the University of Exeter Medical School where she directs the Centre for Ageing and Cognitive Health (REACH). Her research focuses on maintaining cognitive health in later life, living well with dementia, developing rehabilitative approaches to optimise independence and well-being, and supporting family carers. She leads both large observational studies and intervention trials and is particularly known for pioneering the application of cognitive rehabilitation approaches for people with early-stage Alzheimer’s disease. Linda is dementia theme lead for the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC). From 2014 to 2024 she led the IDEAL programme, the largest study of living well with dementia in Great Britain and an Alzheimer’s Society Centre of Excellence. This experience in particular led to her involvement in policy-focused research and the development of DeNPRU Exeter.

Linda has published over 300 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She is a Fellow of the British Psychological Society, the Academy of Social Sciences and the Gerontological Society of America and an emeritus member of the Governing Board of the Global Council on Brain Health. In 2023 she was awarded life membership of the Cochrane Collaboration in recognition of her long standing contribution as an editor.

Professor Jan Oyebode

Deputy Director DeNPRU Exeter
University of Bradford

Jan is Professor of Dementia Care in the Centre for Applied Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford. In her earlier career as an NHS clinical psychologist, she specialised in clinical psychology with older people, pursuing a combination of clinical and academic work.
As well as supporting Linda to lead DeNPRU Exeter, Jan is the University Lead at Bradford, guiding the work and providing expert mentoring to mid-career researchers.

Jan’s clinical practice included work with those with dementia, stroke and a range of other physical and mental health conditions. Her PhD focused on cognitive functioning in Parkinson’s Disease. Her current specialisms include expertise in young-onset/rare dementias; supporting ‘living well’; bereavement; family relationships; diversity issues; intervention design; and qualitative and participatory methods. Jan was previously Director of the University of Birmingham Clinical Psychology Doctorate and has supervised over 50 ClinPsyD trainees to successful completion of their doctoral research. Jan’s portfolio of research studies includes the DYNAMIC project, YOD-CARE, the Angela Project, and RHAPSODY. Jan is a member of the National Steering Group for the Young Onset Dementia Network and leads their Research and Evidence Workstream.

Dr Sara Hayes

Operations Manager
University of Exeter

Sara manages DeNPRU Exeter, ensuring that all financial, staffing and programme planning runs smoothly. As well as a linchpin for stakeholders and partners, Sara oversees rapid response requests and policy and practice implementation.

Sara is an experienced Research Manager, having worked within the College of Medicine and Health's Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care (APEx) group on two NIHR funded programmes – the School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) and the SPOtting Cancer among Comorbidities (SPOCC) programme. Prior to that, Sara was the Programme Manager for CanTest, a CRUK funded international collaboration looking at the early detection and diagnosis of cancer within primary care.

Emily Adams

Stakeholder Engagement and Impact Manager
University of Exeter

Emily is a Stakeholder Engagement and Impact Manager at DeNPRU Exeter. She completed her undergraduate BSc Psychology at the University of Sussex in 2019. Emily brings knowledge and experience from her career at Alzheimer's Society, working across local service delivery, research implementation and engaging with policy and decision makers to champion the needs of people living with dementia. As Local Service Manager, Emily spent much time lobbying for change with commissioners of health and social care and stakeholders at national and regional level. Emily has developed innovative service models using research and data to drive impactful and meaningful change.

Emma Walter

DeNPRU Exeter Administrator
University of Exeter

Emma is an experienced administrator, coming fresh to DeNPRU Exeter from working on the longitudinal cohort study IDEAL, which focused on improving the lives of people living with mild-to-moderate dementia and their carers in the community. Before joining health research, Emma worked in events management for several years in various settings. Her original degree in Fine Arts finds endless uses in helping design outputs and ensuring our work is appealing to broad publics.

Dr Catherine Charlwood

Stakeholder Engagement and Impact Manager (maternity leave)
University of Exeter

Catherine’s role extends across the different people and projects involved in DeNPRU Exeter, being an important link between the research team and our vibrant Knowledge Exchange Community. Previously part of the IDEAL programme, she passionately believes in using all of the information and expertise available, and bringing the right people together for the richest conversations.

Coming from a literature background, Catherine’s thesis looked at memory in poetry and she has published on the relationship between literature and science, and ageing in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novels among other things. More recently, she has published on the Living with Dementia Toolkit and music, dance and dementia (forthcoming).

Sarah Vinnels

PA / Secretary
University of Exeter

Sarah is Linda Clare’s PA and as such supports Linda with various administrative tasks including diary management. She has worked at the University of Exeter as a Secretary/PA since 2011 and has been providing PA support to Linda since 2020.

Rachael Litherland

Lead for Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE)
Innovations in Dementia

Rachael leads on PPIE for DeNPRU Exeter, ensuring that it is central to all our work and that experts by experience are enabled to contribute meaningfully. She mentors the PPIE co-leads, co-develops and facilitates the core Involvement Group and extended Involvement Network, and build links that help these groups evolve and thrive. She contributes expertise in accessibility and co-production.

Rachael co-founded Innovations in Dementia in 2007. She has a background in psychology and advocacy and is particularly interested in ways of working that enhances people’s day to day lives. She especially enjoys working with people with dementia in care homes, having begun her working life managing an advocacy project for care home residents with dementia.

Julia Burton

Involvement Network Lead
Expert by experience

As a former teacher and family carer for her mother, who had Dementia, Julia brings an enormous amount of experience and ability to impart knowledge with empathy and positivity. Julia is part of the leadership team and will contribute to the Patient and Public involvement strategy, ensuring that the views of people with lived experience are integrated throughout all DeNPRU Exeter activities. As a key member of the Core Involvement Group she will play an important part in ensuring that other experts by experience feel welcome and included.

Julia has been a volunteer with Alzheimer’s Society for fifteen years, initially as a lead volunteer at a memory café, meeting a large number of people with dementia and their caregivers. As a member of Alzheimer’s Society Research Network, Julia has been involved in various research projects funded by the Society, reviewing grants, monitoring funded projects and sitting on the Care, Services and Public Health Grant panels and boards. She was a member of the ALWAYs involvement group with the IDEAL programme and a driving force behind the Living with Dementia Toolkit. Julia is currently on the Programme Management Group of NIHR National Priorities ARC Ageing, Dementia and Frailty theme and spoke about the value of PPIE in research at the 2023 British Geriatric Society Conference.

Professor Claire Hulme

University Lead (Exeter)
University of Exeter

Claire is the designated University lead for Exeter, overseeing researcher recruitment and development, facilitating engagement with regional infrastructure, and drawing in additional institutional expertise where needed. Claire’s expertise in Health Economics provides robust support in methods and health and care economics.

Claire is the Head of Department for Health and Community Sciences at the University of Exeter, where she is Professor of Health Economics. Her background and vast research experience covers areas in complex interventions (specifically those which span the health and social care sectors) with interlinked interests in health inequalities, particularly informal care and the economic impact of ill-health on individuals and their families. Her research includes a wide range of methodologies including economic evaluation, large data analysis and use of qualitative methods in health economics.

Dr Sahdia Parveen

Leadership Team
University of Bradford

Sahdia, a health psychology researcher, is the lead for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) for DeNPRU Exeter. Given her extensive knowledge in the field of diversity and caregiving, she provides topic expertise in the engagement and inclusion of minority ethnic communities in health research, implementation science, behaviour change and patient safety in health care.

Sahdia holds a BSc (Hons) in Psychology with Neuropsychology, an MSc in Clinical Psychology and a PhD in Health Psychology. Her keen interest in ethnicity, care research and patient and public involvement flows through her work. Sahdia has led a number of research projects focusing on reducing health inequalities and implementing interventions into practice. In 2023, she was awarded the Alzheimer's Society Dementia Research Excellence ‘People’s Champion’ award for her work on patient and public involvement in research.

Dr Catherine Quinn

Associate Deputy Director
University of Bradford

Dr Catherine Quinn is an Associate Professor at the Centre of Applied Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford where she teaches about post-diagnostic support for people living with dementia. Within DeNPRU Exeter, Catherine oversees capacity building, enabling the team to develop and strengthen their skills. She also provides topic expertise in frailty, caregiving, quality of life, education for practitioners within primary and secondary care, and non-pharmacological interventions.

Catherine’s research focuses on improving the quality of life of those affected by dementia and she is particularly interested in improving the support provision for carers. Catherine is currently Co-PI on the DYNAMIC study which focuses on improving social care planning and provision for people with young onset dementia and their families. Catherine is the Bradford University Healthy Ageing Theme Lead for Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research. She is a member of the NIHR Dementias Portfolio Development Group and the Older People theme within the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Yorkshire & Humber.

Professor Karen Windle

Leadership Team
University of Ulster

Karen moved to the University of Ulster in 2025 as Professor of Healthcare Research and Impact. Previously, she was Professor of Applied Ageing and Dementia Research and Acting Director for the Centre for Applied Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford.

Karen has worked across health and care leading research and evaluation programmes focused on adults and older people and, which have explored well-being, prevention and early intervention, personalisation, long-term conditions, multimorbidity, mental health, health and work, health and technology, acute care, cancer care, and system and service integration. Her projects have consistently engaged healthcare clinicians, professionals, and diverse populations, including seldom-heard voices.

Outcomes from her research have been cited in seminal policy documents, influenced national policy, supported strategic and clinical practitioners in implementing evidence-based services, demonstrated cost efficiencies across the health and social care economy, and ultimately improved the quality of life for users and carers.

Professor Martin Knapp

Leadership team and University lead for LSE
London School of Economics and Political Science

Martin is Professor of Health and Social Care Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), based in the Health Policy Department. He is a Professorial Research Fellow in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at the LSE. From 2009 to 2024, Martin was Director of the School for Social Care Research, part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in England. Since 2023, he has been Programme Director for the NIHR Research Programme for Social Care. Much of Martin’s work uses economic arguments and evidence to inform policy discussion and influence practice development. His research has wide-ranging national and international impacts on policy and practice in a number of fields.

As University lead for LSE, Martin provides supervision for the DeNPRU Exeter team at LSE. He builds on links with other Policy Research Units (PRUs), further NIHR structures (including Strategy and Engagement Board, and the cross-ARC dementia fellowships programme), and international collaborations through projects like STRiDE.

Adelina Comas-Herrera

Leadership Team
London School of Economics and Political Science

As an emerging research leader, Adelina works closely with Professor Martin Knapp and in a supervisory capacity to early career researchers. She has expertise in the economic aspects of dementia, dementia care policy, and simulation modelling of future resource requirements.
Adelina’s main research interests are economic aspects of care, treatment and support of people with dementia, and long-term care financing, both in the UK and globally. She the director of the Global Observatory of Long-Term Care and is an Assistant Professional Research Fellow at LSE at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC).

Professor Dame Louise Robinson

Leadership Team, University Lead for Newcastle and Expert Collaborator Network Lead
Newcastle University

Louise is a Professor of Primary Care and Ageing and Regius Professor of Ageing and is the University lead for the Newcastle team. Louise brings with her a huge wealth of knowledge and experience as both an academic GP and Professor in Primary Care and end-of-life care. Her clinical expertise in primary care, dementia care and research experience enables her to provide first rate support and guidance to the team of researchers within DeNPRU Exeter.

Louise has 20 years of experience as a health services researcher with expertise in mixed methods research. She was primary care lead for the Prime Minister’s Dementia Challenge and is a member of the National Dementia Care Guidelines Development Group. Louise received a damehood for services to Primary Care and for improving older people's quality of life and care they receive in 2018.

Professor Matthew Prina

Leadership Team
Newcastle University

Matthew is a Professor of Ageing and Epidemiology within the Population Health Sciences Institute. He has a strong quantitative background that focuses on both research and education, including capacity building. Before moving to Newcastle, Matthew was based at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (King's College London), where he headed the Social Epidemiology Research Group.

Matthew’s interests focus on healthy ageing, inequalities and lifecourse epidemiology, as well as the relationship between physical and mental health. He works closely with several international collaborators, including the World Health Organisation. Within DeNPRU Exeter, Matthew is taking a lead on literature reviews and our quantitative work with national datasets.

Professor John-Paul Taylor

Leadership Team
Newcastle University

John-Paul is a Professor of Translational Dementia Research and an Honorary Consultant in Old Age Psychiatry. He provides expertise in Old Age Psychiatry and neurodegenerative conditions and is an important link to key organisations, such as the NIHR Translational Dementia Research Collaboration (D-TRC) and the NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).

John-Paul leads a specialist Lewy Body dementia clinic at Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust. His research focuses on understanding symptom causes in dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease dementia and developing better management approaches for people with Lewy body disease.

Professor Kaarin Anstey

Leadership Team
University of New South Wales

ARC Laureate Fellow Kaarin Anstey is Scientia Professor of Psychology and Director of the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute. She shares insights from an international perspective, providing the team with a broader view of overseas initiatives and good practice and well as widening the impact of policy-related work.

As a world leader in prevention and risk-reduction of dementia and other neurodegenerative and age-related conditions, Kaarin has advised government policymakers in a range of countries. She contributes expertise in global policy and practice and where international evidence is needed to inform national policy decisions. She has held advisory roles with the World Health Organization (WHO) and contributed to the WHO Guideline on Risk Reduction of Cognitive Decline and Dementia. She is also a member of the World Dementia Council and the Governance Committee of the Global Council on Brain Health. Kaarin’s research has made a major contribution to understanding which risk factors are amenable to policy interventions, increasing knowledge of what works in policy and practice, evaluating policy initiatives, and developing preventive approaches tailored to underserved groups.

Dr Anthony Martyr

Senior Research Fellow
University of Exeter

With over 100 academic papers to his name to date, Anthony has established himself as an important contributor to international dementia research. He obtained his PhD from Bangor University for a thesis on cognition and activities of daily living in ageing and dementia, and he maintains a strong interest in functional ability and cognition.

Anthony was part of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Early Career Research Online Community Project Steering Group, advising on the direction, design and content of the now-thriving Dementia Researcher web resource. He joins DeNPRU Exeter fresh from his work on the decade-long IDEAL dementia research programme. An experienced quantitative researcher, Anthony has strong interests in conducting meta-analysis and systematic reviews.

Dr Laura D Gamble

Research Fellow
Newcastle University

Laura is a statistician involved in quantitative analysis across the DeNPRU Exeter projects. She gained her doctorate from Newcastle University and has previously worked as a postdoctoral researcher on the IDEAL dementia research programme. To date, she has published 38 articles as lead or co-author.

Dr Maria Caulfield

Research Fellow
University of Bradford

Maria is a Research Fellow involved in qualitative research and analysis for the DeNPRU Exeter projects. Previously, she has contributed to numerous process evaluations within Randomised Controlled Trials, evaluating interventions' effectiveness in dementia and Parkinson’s disease. Her interests primarily revolve around qualitative evidence synthesis and implementation research. Maria gained her PhD from Bangor University, North Wales.

Dr Magdalena Walbaum

Research Assistant
London School of Economics and Political Science

Magdalena Walbaum is a Research Officer in Social Care at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), based in the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre in the Department of Health Policy.

Magdalena works as a researcher in health economics and has worked in public health and policy planning in Chile. Her research interests are centred around economic evaluations for interventions in social care, mental health, dementia and other non-communicable diseases to inform policy and influence practice.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2179-9224

Dr Gary Fry

Researcher
University of Bradford

Gary is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Applied Dementia Studies at the University of Bradford. After gaining a PhD in psychology from the University of Huddersfield, he has worked in the field of social care research for over twenty years, making significant contributions to research projects focused on family carers of people with a variety of health conditions, most recently dementia.

Nazak Salehi

Researcher
London School of Economics and Political Science

Nazak Salehi is a Researcher at the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre (CPEC) at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Her research experience is related to inequalities in dementia care, perinatal mental health, age-friendly cities initiatives, and migration and social care. She is a Registered Pharmacist from Canada with specialization in Addictions and Mental Health Issues, Long Term Care Settings, and HIV Treatment and Prevention. Nazak has a MSc. in International Health Policy from LSE and is passionate about analyzing the impacts of gender, race, and class on health outcomes.

Dr Smruti Bulsari

Researcher
University of Essex

Smruti Bulsari is an NIHR ARC East of England Research Fellow at the Institute of Public Health and Wellbeing, University of Essex.

Smruti is currently researching dementia strategies, inequalities and modifiable risk factors for dementia, in English context. She undertakes research, broadly in the domain of social sciences, human development, and development economics with an objective to inform policy. A large quantum of her work has been in Indian context.

Louis Compton

Research assistant
London School of Economics and Political Science

Louis is a Research Assistant within CPEC at LSE. He holds an undergraduate degree in Economics and has completed an MSc in International Health Policy (Health Economics) from LSE with his postgraduate dissertation exploring "The impact of geographical inequalities in the English long-term care system for people living with later-stage dementia, and their carer's".

Thus far, Louis' research has focused on acute care and social care interactions, care financing, and inequalities in relation to dementia care. Much of Louis' research involves the application of a number of quantitative methods, however, he has also gained experience on projects more qualitative in nature. Louis has had experience in the pharmaceutical industry and has gained advanced skills in decision modelling.

William Byrd

Research Assistant
London School of Economics and Political Science

Will is a Research Assistant within the Care Policy and Evaluation Centre at LSE, involved in evidence synthesis and analysis for the DeNPRU Exeter projects. Previously, he has contributed to projects focusing on the Covid-19 pandemic and long-term care, specifically, interventions to mitigate negative impacts, impacts on unpaid carers, and policy changes adopted internationally. In 2022, he was awarded an NIHR SSCR Career Development Award to focus on developing his qualitative skills, and drafting a PhD application. His interests lie in resilience, the relationship between knowledge and practice, and the workforce.

Juliette Bross

Research Assistant
London School of Economics and Political Science

Juliette is a research assistant for the DeNPRU Exeter LSE team. She is also currently pursuing her MSc in Behavioural Science with a focus on health at LSE. Her primary interest is finding effective and sustainable early interventions for preventing illnesses by considering behavioural, social, and environmental aspects.

Professor Fiona Matthews

Collaborator
University of Hull

Professor David Burn

Leadership Team
Newcastle University

David is a Professor of Movement Disorder Neurology and Honorary Consultant Neurologist. His role within DeNPRU Exeter involves imparting his vast knowledge in understanding, diagnosing, and treating neurodegenerative conditions. David contributes to influencing policy and guidelines in the management of cognitive impairment associated with neurodegenerative diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease.

David has an international reputation for research in dementia associated with Parkinson’s. He is an Emeritus NIHR Senior Investigator, Chair of the Northern Health Science Alliance Board and has been Director of the NHS-E/NIHR Academic Health Science Centre, Newcastle Health Innovation Partners since April 2020.

Our people

Director

Deputy Director

Operations Team

Involvement Network Leads

Leadership Team

Research Team

Students

Collaborators