Ellie Hepworth

Ellie is completing her PhD in the department of Public Health and Sports Sciences at the University of Exeter. The focus of her research is public health approaches to identifying and preventing intimate partner violence/abuse in older age. To explore this topic, she is currently undertaking a systematic review and meta-ethnography, and a primary qualitative study, both of which consider the experiences of older victims/survivors of intimate partner violence/abuse, and the practitioners who support them. Ellie is supervised by Professor G.J. Melendez-Torres, Professor Helen Dawes, and Dr Rebecca Abbott.

Prior to undertaking this PhD, Ellie worked as a domestic abuse practitioner within the third sector. Her roles primarily involved collaboration with health professionals within health services to strengthen and inform responses to domestic abuse. It is her professional experience that drives her passion for her research topic and led her to undertake the Master of Public Health programme at the University of Exeter. 

Ellie’s research interests lie at the intersection of gender-based violence and healthcare. This includes: the impact of gender-based violence on health, particularly for those with comorbidities; the development and evaluation of health-based gender-based violence interventions; and embedding systemic change to improve the response to gender-based violence in healthcare settings. She is also particularly interested in co-production in research, collaboration between the third sector and academia, and research ethics.