Employed by the university since July 2020, I have a social sciences background, with Masters degrees in Applied Population Research and HealthCare. After an early research career in mental health in the UK, I spent the last 15 years in East Africa, working in palliative / end-of-life care, women’s health (including female genital cutting) and sexual / reproductive health generally.
After seven years in senior management addressing learning and research at the African Palliative Care Association, based in Kampala, Uganda, I was the Deputy Director of Research at Healthcare Chaplaincy, New York, USA, before returning to Africa as the Deputy Chief of Party on a multi-million dollar five-year, USAID-funded project focussed on monitoring and learning, knowledge management and HIV research in Kenya.
A referee for multiple academic journals, Richard was the founder and coordinator of the African Palliative Care Research Network, a member of the research committee of the International Children’s Palliative Care Network, a member of the steering committee of the International Palliative Care Family Carer Research Collaboration, and a co-chair of the European Association of Palliative Care’s Task Force on Palliative Care in Africa. I am currently on the Executive Committee of PALChase, the Palliative Care in Humanitarian Aid Situations and Emergencies network focussing on addressing the palliative care needs of refugees and others in vulnerable crises.
With an interest in diverse health areas, and seeking to make the interconnections between them, multi-morbidity research overlaps considerably with my ongoing interest in chronic care, caring communities and palliative care generally, wellbeing research, and differential service access, use, outcomes and satisfaction. These interests are both UK-focussed but also international in nature, especially in low- and middle-income countries, including those in sub-Saharan Africa.