Midlands satellite

Peymané is a public health physician and Professor of Chronic Disease Epidemiology & Public Health at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on prevention and health promotion.

A major area of her research is around obesity prevention and management, particularly in children and minority ethnic groups. Her work has informed policy; she has contributed to the development of two UK National guidelines on the prevention and management of childhood obesity and was a member of the Obesity Health Alliance Independent Obesity Strategy Working Group, which produced the Turning the Tide 10-year strategy (http://obesityhealthalliance.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Turning-the-Tide-A-10-year-Healthy-Weight-Strategy.pdf) . She is currently a member of the advisory group for NESTA’s “Blueprint to halving obesity” and a member of the NIHR Policy Research Unit on healthy weight. She has also led research on childhood obesity internationally, including China.

She has also led research programmes on the early diagnosis and prevention of COPD in the UK and as part of two Global Health Research programmes, currently focusing on South America. This work includes a trial of case finding for undiagnosed COPD and the development and validation of risk prediction tools for COPD, the findings of which have been used in international guidelines for the management of COPD.

She chaired the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research Funding Committee from 2019-2024, leads the PHRESH membership for and is Deputy-Director of the NIHR School for Public Health Research, and co-leads the PHIRST PHRESH team. She is also the co-Director of the Midlands Satellite for the NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health.  

Miranda Pallan is a Professor of Child and Adolescent Public Health and co-leads the PHRESH (Public Health RESearch for Health) Consortium, part of the NIHR School for Public Health Research (NIHR SPHR).

Miranda’s research focuses on the health and wellbeing of children and adolescents, encompassing diet and nutrition, physical activity, obesity prevention, food insecurity and mental wellbeing. Her research seeks to improve health at an early stage of the life course to reduce longer term ill health, chronic disease and premature death. Within these research areas Miranda has developed expertise in complex intervention development and evaluation, multi-methods research, and research with disadvantaged and ethnically diverse communities in the UK. 

Dr Joanne Clarke is Research Design Lead for the Midlands satellite. She has worked in public health research at the University of Birmingham since 2011, having previously led a local authority healthy schools team.

Joanne completed her PhD, which explored the role of the primary school in preventing childhood obesity, in 2016 and continues to be involved in research projects in public health, infant feeding and obesity prevention. 

Joanne has expertise in mixed-methods research, process evaluation, qualitative research and metasynthesis. 

Lauren is a Research Fellow in the Department of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham. As a Methodologist at the NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health, Lauren is part of a dynamic team of methodologists focused on advancing research methods and providing grant application and funding advice. With a background in Sociology, her expertise lies within qualitative research, with a particular interest in areas of Governance and Ethics, as well as Public and Patient Involvement. 

Lucy is a Programme Manager overseeing the Midlands Satellite for the NIHR RSS Specialist Centre for Public Health. Lucy has a special interest in Public Involvement and works to support Public Involvement across the Public Health space at Birmingham.

Lucy also works to support PHRESH which is a consortium of researchers from the Universities of Birmingham, Warwick and Keele. PHRESH have membership of the NIHR's School for Public Health Research and were also selected as an NIHR PHIRST Team, supporting evaluations of public health interventions for local authorities. 

Katie Youngwood is an experienced Research Administrator at the University of Birmingham, with a strong background in project support across various public health research projects.