Naviation

Helen Chatterjee

(she/her)

I am a Professor of Human & Ecological Health at UCL and the AHRC Programme Director for Health Inequalities, leading the Mobilising Community Assets research programme on behalf of UKRI. I am a biologist by training and my research includes evidencing the impact of natural and cultural participation on health. For 10 years I ran the Grant Museum of Zoology at UCL and am passionate about finding ways to ensure that everyone has access to community resources such as museums, libraries, and nature - which we know benefit our health. When I am not working you can usually find me in the park with the dog, in a museum or up a hill.

Helen smiling with babirusa skull in GMZ

Alex Coulter

(she/her)

I have been Director of the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH) since it launched in 2021. I was the Director of Arts & Health South West (AHSW) from 2010 until the organisation closed in 2024. In that role I provided the secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing and project managed the APPG’s two-year inquiry which led to the publication of the Creative Health report in 2017. In my time at AHSW, we delivered three Culture Health and Wellbeing International Conferences and along with colleagues in the field helped set up the Culture, Health and Wellbeing Alliance (CHWA) and the Lived Experience Network (LENs).

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Kiz Manley

(she/her)

I am a Lived Experience Producer. My current role and research focuses on lived experience, trauma and Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI). My key duties involve cultivating inclusive spaces, and research and training for Lived Experience to flourish. I discovered creative health in 2007. After feeling its powerful potency first-hand, due to my lived experience of trauma, I completed an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes and became the UK's first Hip Hop Therapist. My favourite way to chill is by walking in green space, with my tunes on. Woodland and forests make me feel most alive, in the green, with my senses on fire.

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Rabya Mughal

(she/her)

I am a developmental psychologist with a background in working with children with special educational needs. My work over the years has spanned public services such as social care, health, education and the prisons system, and also within user centred public service design and policy. I am interested in the way that human development is influenced by the social structures around us – and by pulling on the strings of all of the systems surrounding us, we can make real changes to even our biological make up. My working life has been driven by my lived experience – initially as a young carer and now as an adult carer. Outside of work I enjoy getting lost in music, philosophy and art.

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Linda Thomson

(she/her)

I am a Senior Research Fellow for Health Inequalities at UCL on the Mobilising Community Assets programme. I am a cognitive psychologist and my doctorate concerned the effects of context on human memory. I was research lead for the award-winning ‘Museums on Prescription’ project running weekly sessions where people feeling isolated and lonely met up in museums for behind-the-scenes tours, object handling and creative activities. I developed the UCL Creative Wellbeing Measures for assessing the benefits of cultural, heritage, and nature-based activities. I am enthusiastic about the ways in which creative and co-productive activities can enhance health and wellbeing through multi-sensory engagement and social connection. When I am not at a desk, I like to be inspired by nature to take photographs and paint watercolours.

LT Pic NCCN website

Hannah Waterson

(she/her)

I am Research and Policy Manager at the National Centre for Creative Health (NCCH), where I make sure we keep up with the rapidly expanding evidence base for creative health and look for opportunities to advocate for creative health in policy. As part of my role, I work with the Mobilising Community Assets team at UCL to support the funded projects and bring together the findings from across all phases of the programme. I came to creative health via Public Health, and I like to experience the benefits myself through visiting galleries, exhibitions and gigs, reading, journalling and taking my camera out to explore new urban and natural spaces.

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