Lesley joined the AskFuse service in March 2018 as Research Associate.  She supports the work of the AskFuse manager and Fuse knowledge broker Dr Peter van der Graaf. 

AskFuse is the responsive research and evaluation service for public health, which is part of Fuse, the Centre for Translational Research in public health.  Although based at Teesside University, AskFuse covers the North East and North Cumbria region.    You can find more information on Fuse and AskFuse at http://www.fuse.ac.uk/

Lesley's AskFuse role includes facilitating knowledge exchange in public health by bringing researchers across the 6 Fuse universities together with people working in practice (practice partners), such as the voluntary and community sector, local authorities, healthcare,policy and statutory sector to co-produce research which improves public health and reduce health inequalities.   

 Lesley also supports Fuse in delivering events to make the research/evaluation process as fully participatory as possible by bringing policy, public and practice partners together with Fuse researchers to define research priorities, develop collaborations and disseminate Fuse research. 

Lesley also supports the operational public and community involvement and engagement work of Fuse and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) School for Public Health Research (SPHR).  Fuse is a founding member of SPHR.

Her research interests include public mental health/wellbeing, asylum/refugee  health, public and patient involvement and engagement, health inequalities,  the public health benefits of interacting with nature ("green and blue spaces"), promoting creative research methods which aim to increase inclusion and diversity in research participation and creative ways to disseminate research.

Prior to joining AskFuse, Lesley qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1997 and worked in the NHS for 20 years alongside people of all ages who had physical/mental health/learning disabilities.  She also worked in research delivery for the NHS in the Tees Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV) and facilitated research  placements for Occupational Therapy and Nursing students.   She was seconded to TEWV training and to Middlesbrough Council to co-produce, deliver training and conduct evaluation and strategies to meet future staff training needs.  

As a former carer, Lesley has used her experience to become involved as a public partner on two research projects into improving end of life care: 1) End of Life Care - Is there a system response? (funded by NIHR Applied Research Collaboration and winner of Dialogue and Change Award) and 2) End of Life Care - developing a supportive system partnership (funded by the NIHR).