Warren Mansell
Psychology
Warren is an internationally recognised mental health researcher who takes his inspiration from engagement with nature (https://tinyurl.com/ybxlog5a). Following a first class degree in Natural Sciences from University of Cambridge, he now focuses on transdiagnostic approaches to mental health and cross-disciplinary theory with over 3,000 Scopus citations (>7,000 Google Scholar). He was the PI for an NIHR feasibility trial for cognitive therapy in bipolar disorder and CoI for an ESRC Large Grant on emotion regulation. In 2011 he received the May Davidson Award from the British Psychological Society for his outstanding contribution to clinical psychology in the ten years since qualifying. He manages a website on cross-disciplinary theory (www.pctweb.org).
Sara Tai
Psychology
Sara has an international reputation as a researcher, practitioner and trainer in clinical psychology. Her transtheoretical research focuses on mediating psychological mechanisms and interventions for mental health and wellbeing in adults and young people. Sara has been Co-I on large international clinical trials that have included culturally and ethnically diverse inner city populations. She has published research from very large online studies in collaboration with the BBC (LabUK and Citizen Science), exploring psychological processes that mediate biopsychosocial pathways to mental health and wellbeing. Her work has also led to the development of several smartphone apps for young people (e.g. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details). Her theatre and music background entailed her involvement in the ‘Heal2Toe’ wellbeing program in the USA, teaching dance, art, and culture to children to connect with and “Protect, Respect & Project” their unique culture.
Sarah Pierce
Biology
Sarah is an early career researcher and community scientist at the University of Nottingham School of Life Sciences. Her research is in ecology and citizen science, most recently working on the Open Air Laboratories (OPAL, www.opalexplorenature.org) national citizen science programme. She has directly engaged with more than 15,000 people on ecology and nature engagement activities, in settings ranging from schools, parks, and nature reserves to the House of Lords, Chelsea Flower Show, and Glastonbury Music Festival. She has worked with all ages, engaging schools in deprived areas, disability support groups, and a local homelessness charity. She developed the successful “Healthy by Nature” conference which attracted representatives from 30 organisations across the health, environment, research, and local government sectors.
Paul Moseley
Ecological Identity
Paul is an international trainer in developing collaborative communities, transformative learning and ecological identity for Forest Schools Education (www.forestschools.com). His background in social forestry, wilderness travel and skills along with a decade of working with outdoor, social and educational practitioners in discovering the value in developing nature-based practice for improved personal and social sustainability make him a leading contributor in the field. Currently his work is focused on developing research frameworks and employs phenomenological approaches and ethnographic methods and applying complexity-based models to network development.
Teresa Day
Education, Communities & Systems
Teresa is the Schools & Families Director for the Charlie Waller Memorial Trust (CWMT), a national mental health charity. She directs the Trust’s schools training programme, which has extensive reach across a wide range of schools and educational settings. She oversees a network of associate trainers who provide training to schools and other settings. She also leads on the Charity’s work to support parents, carers and families and works closely with CWMT’s Young Advisors Group. She recently led a large HEE-funded project focusing on the mental health needs of vulnerable children.
Previously she was a Public Health manager for children and young people (leading on mental health) and supported the commissioning of an outdoor learning as part of their programme to promote health and wellbeing. She has experience of working with children and young people experiencing mental health difficulties in both clinical and educational settings.
Steven Pryjmachuk
Children & Family Mental Health
Professor of Mental Health Nursing and an internationally known researcher and educator in mental health nursing, having more than 60 publications including a core text (Mental Health Nursing: An Evidence-Based Introduction; Sage, 2011). Several of his publications are co-authored with young people. He has been involved in five NIHR studies focussing on children and young people’s mental health (total £850k) including a major self-care support study as PI.He is elected Chair (2017-18) of Mental Health Nurse Academics UK, a body representing more than 60 universities involved in mental health nursing research and education, elected Vice-President (2017) and President (2018) of the International Society of Psychiatric-Mental Health Nursing.
Sara Goodacre
Biology
Sara is an evolutionary biologist who studies patterns of genetic diversity in nature in order to understand the forces that have shaped the world around us. She has a degree in Natural Sciences from Cambridge, a PhD from the University of Nottingham and was awarded an RCUK Research Fellowship at Nottingham in 2006. She is now Associate Professor and Head of Division in the School of Life Sciences. Sara’s research is inspired by spiders and spider silk and in addition to communicating with academic audiences she is interested to use spiders as tools to engage with the public. She is the academic lead at Nottingham for a UK-wide citizen science and outreach project called the ‘Open Air Laboratories project’. The lab has also recently established a living spider exhibit specifically for outreach: www.arachnotts.com and works with local schools to deliver outreach activities. Sara sits on the management committee of the award winning, ‘Attenborough Nature Reserve’ that provides an outstanding place where members of the public can learn about and experience nature
Mary Oliver
Education
Mary is a science educator, working extensively with students, teachers and schools. She managed the CASE intervention across Australia in high schools with promising effect sizes on students’ cognitive, achievement in science and affect. With international colleagues, she has used secondary analyses of large data sets to explain and explore relationships between achievement, interest and engagement in science. She led a qualitative study of the top performing female Physics students in Western Australia to show that one of the significant factors in sparking their interest in science was opportunities created by families and friends to experience ‘nature’ throughout childhood. She was Co-I on an ESRC/ Wellcome/NSF grant to study the impact of natural history museums on students’ learning and is currently PI on a Nuffield-funded project to address questions about teaching strategies in science classrooms both in the UK and Anglophone countries.
Cross Diciplinary Advisory Board
Elizabeth Turner is the Head Teacher of Millbrook Primary and Nursery School who have used a forest school approach for 9 years, evaluating its impact on emotional development and wellbeing.
Nicky Lidbetter is CEO of AnxietyUK, UK’s largest user organisation for adults and children with anxiety disorders.
Kirsty Hughes is a Co-Director of Nurture-Psychology Services Ltd who provide attachment training in schools and has longstanding experience developing and managing Steiner education including forest school.
Dawn Edge is University of Manchester’s Academic Lead for Equality Diversity & Inclusion, and Chair of the wellbeing Committee for Longsight Community Primary School, in one of the most deprived parts of Manchester.
Pacorrosa is an artist involved in large-scale paintings, interfacing with science and nature, e.g. Biocosmos.
Rebecca Elliott is an internationally leading researcher on the neural basis of mental health problems and maternal responsiveness (>10,000 Scopus citations).
Tom Scholte is an actor, director and researcher on reflective practice within naturalist theatre.
Sergio Pellis is an international researcher on animal play and social development (>5,500 Scopus citations).
Louise Barrett is a leading researcher on the evolutionary ecology of social cognition, author of Beyond the Brain: How Body and Environment Shape Animal and Human Minds (2015).
Liz O’Brien is an environmental sociologist specialising in the connection between the natural landscape, health and culture, author of Forest School and its Impacts on Young Children (2005).
Pasco Fearon is an internationally leading researcher on attachment relationships, gene-environment factors in mental health, and emotion regulation in young children.
Alex Gomez-Marin is a researcher with a background in physics, engineering and philosophy who integrates cognition in human, animals and machines.
Zoe Jaques is researcher of the role of animals in children’s literature and author of Children’s Literature and the Post-human: Animal, Environment, Cyborg (2016).
David Roberts is researcher on social communication in virtual and immersive environments.
Jeffrey Alan Lockwood is an environmental scientist and author of The Infested Mind: Why Humans Fear, Loathe and Love Insects (2013). Andrew Lane and Tadhg MacIntyre are internationally recognised sports psychologists who research the relationship between exercise, natural environments and emotion regulation (see gogreenex.org).
Chris Sutton is an experienced statistician focusing on randomised trials of complex healthcare interventions.
Elizabeth Camacho is health economist with expertise in mental health interventions and mother-child wellbeing.
Michael Wigelsworth is an education researcher with longstanding expertise in designing, delivering and evaluating universal school-based interventions for mental health and wellbeing.
Lisa Fenton is a lecturer in Outdoor Studies who draws from wilderness-based experiences, anthropology and indigenous knowledge.
Simon Watson is a researcher with expertise in bio-inspired robotics.
