Meet the team

Julia Frost Associate Professor Health Services Research, and medical sociologist. She is interested in qualitative research in and of clinical trials (including process evaluations and the use of longitudinal/mixed methods), and the use of theory to inform the research that we do. Her NIHR funded work has mostly been about cardiovascular disease (heart failure, stroke, and diabetes), and she recently held an MRC Innovation Scholarship award, exploring widening patient engagement for orphan drug trials.

Professor Conny Guell is a medical anthropologist researching practices and policies related to physical activity and nutrition. This includes active living infrastructure and food systems.

Conny’s work focuses on how healthy living is shaped across the lifecycle, within population groups, and in and by various socio-cultural, political and economic contexts. Her work is based in the UK, the Caribbean region and elsewhere.

Conny is particularly interested in developing social theoretical and participatory qualitative methodological approaches for exploring the social and physical environments that shape health behaviours, policies and intervention outcomes.

Sarah Bell is a Senior Lecturer in health and disability geography at the University of Exeter, whose work examines experiences of health, wellbeing, disability and social inclusion in and with diverse forms of ‘nature’ - from parks, gardens, woodlands, coast and countryside to the weather, seasons and climate change (www.sensing-nature.com). Most recently, Sarah has been developing new collaborations to understand how the climate crisis – and prominent societal responses to it – is shaping the everyday lives and adaptive capacities of disabled people (www.sensing-climate.com).

Jo Day is a psychologist and a Senior Research Fellow in the National Institute for Health Research Applied Research Collaboration South West Peninsula (PenARC). Her work involves developing, supporting and undertaking research to understand and evaluate how evidence-informed health and social care innovations and research findings can be implemented/applied into everyday practice. She has experience in qualitative implementation evaluation/research methods, narrative analysis, knowledge translation/mobilisation, collaborative academic-practice-public research partnerships and conducting research with older adults. Current work includes developing understanding of health and social care professionals experiences of implementing changes/innovations in community settings (e.g. care homes and pre-hospital stroke pathways); and researching and evaluating the processes involved in implementing innovations and improvements in acute/hospital settings. Jo also teaches post-graduates and health and social care professionals an introduction to qualitative research and analysis. 

Sarah Morgan-Trimmer is a Research Fellow in Process Evaluation in the Psychology Applied to Health group. She develops and advises on process evaluations for trials of complex interventions, specialising in qualitative and mixed methods to understand how interventions are implemented, how they change participants’ behaviours and health outcomes, and how interventions are affected by context. She has experience in qualitative methods, ethnography, evaluation research, research on social inequality, and conducting research with children and young people.  

Dr Bethan Treadgold is a chartered psychologist and postdoctoral research fellow in primary care research. Her research sits in the area of digital health services research, focusing on patients and carers' experiences of using digital health services, including peer online support communities for advice and support about managing long-term health conditions, as well as primary care resources such as remote consultations. Bethan's research is underpinned by her passion for qualitative research methods, and has experience in qualitative internet-mediated research and ethnography. She has previously worked as a qualitative advisor for the Research Design Service South West and continues to support researchers within Exeter Collaboration for Academic Primary Care as part of her role within the Research Delivery Group. Bethan also contributes widely to postgraduate research programmes across the Medical School, in teaching qualitative data collection and analysis methods, qualitative quality appraisal, and supervises students' research projects.