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Who We Are

Sergio Silverio PIVOT-AL
Senior Lecturer in Psychology

Sergio A. Silverio

Sergio A. Silverio is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Liverpool John Moores University and a Research Fellow in Social Science of Women’s Health at King’s College London.  A Psychologist and Anthropologist by training, Sergio draws on the traditions of Public Mental Health, as well as Critical and Theoretical Psychology in his research.  His work can therefore best be described as falling within the field of ‘Medical Psychology’, that is, the experiential enquiry into the mental health, wellbeing, and illness of people, and the application of psychological knowledge to both health and healthcare services. This work aims to understand both personal experiences of psychopathology, and health system policy and practice, regarding public health priorities by addressing narratives of recovery, healthcare access, pathways through care, and service utilisation and suitability.  Over the course of the pandemic, Sergio amassed the largest portfolio of social science research investigating the impact of COVID-19 on maternity care services reconfiguration, re-organisation, recovery, and re-build; as well as outcomes for women and healthcare professionals.  He serves as the Policy Lead for PIVOT-AL.

Soo Downe PIVOT-AL
Professor of Midwifery Studies

Soo Downe

Soo Downe spent 15 years working as a clinical and research midwife in Derby, before joining UCLan in 2001. She has led and collaborated in research in maternity care in the UK and internationally, including the organisation of services, bereavement after stillbirth, the safety and use of caesarean section, and the nature of, and cultures around, physiological (normal) birth. She has been a member of the Technical Working Group of the WHO antenatal, intrapartum, postpartum, ultrasound, uterotonics for the prevention of PPH, and optimising caesarean section guidelines. She has published over 180 peer reviewed papers, and several books, and has been a co-author in three Lancet Series (Midwifery, Stillbirth, and Optimising Caesearan Section).  She led the UKRI/ESRC ASPIRE COVID-19 study, and set up the PIVOTAL network as part of this work. She is an NIHR Senior Investigator, and has been a member of the NHSE Better Births Stakeholder Council since its formation. 

Claire Cameron PIVOT-AL
Professor of Social Pedagogy

Claire Cameron

Professor Claire Cameron’s research focuses on children’s services, the children’s workforce and children’s and young people’s experiences in their families and with services. She works extensively in and with local authorities, NGOs and cross-nationally. She is Co-I on Act Early, a five year UKPRP funded city collaboratory supporting early life interventions to enhance health and wellbeing outcomes of children in Bradford and Tower Hamlets. Current research projects: Urban Forest Schools: designing-in play to urban environments for health and wellbeing; What are the most effective models used by community food assets to prevent the need for emergency food aid?; Coastal youth – exploring the impact of coastal towns on young people’s life chances; Healthier, Wealthier Families in East London Pilot, and Inequalities of Access to Early Childhood Services. Claire is the UK’s first Professor of Social Pedagogy, an emerging discipline in the UK that integrates care, education and upbringing, well established in continental Europe and elsewhere.

Lucy Frith PIVOT-AL
Reader in Bioethics and Social Science

Lucy Frith

Lucy Frith is Reader in Bioethics and Social Science, in the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, School of Law, University of Manchester. Her research focuses on the social and ethical aspects of improving healthcare practice and policy, with a particular interest in empirical ethics and public involvement. She has carried out research on pregnancy and childbirth; research ethics (clinical trials and public involvement and cross-cultural issues in consent); the organisation and funding of health care provision (priority setting); and the use of evidence in practice and policy and has a long-standing interest in the social and ethical aspects of reproductive technologies. She has held visiting professorships at the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law the University of Hong Kong and Charles University, Prague.

An overview of her research can be found here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lucy-Frith

Mari Greenfield PIVOT-AL Square
Research Associate

Mari Greenfield

Dr. Mari Greenfield is a qualitative researcher who specialises in perinatal experiences amongst groups traditionally not included in research. Mari has a particular expertise in participatory research methodologies, using her background in community engagement work to co-design research and co-develop outputs.

Leanne Jackson PIVOT-AL
Lecturer in Women's Health

Leanne Jackson

Dr Leanne Jackson is an early career researcher who specialises in maternal mental health, infant feeding, infant development, and qualitative research methods more broadly. Dr Jackson graduated in December 2022 and holds appointment at the University of Liverpool as a Lecturer in the Lifespan, Health, and Wellbeing research group. Dr Jackson produced a body of mixed-methods research in collaboration with the PRegnancy and Maternity (PRaM) team during the COVID-19 pandemic. Her COVID-19 works investigated the psychological and social impacts of national lockdown restrictions on the transition to new motherhood in a UK sample of women. Dr Jackson’s more recent portfolio of work has incorporated non-clinical therapeutic interventions in maternity care settings to improve parental wellbeing.

Laura Magee PIVOT-AL
Professor of Women’s Health

Laura Magee

Laura Magee is a general obstetric internist (Internal Medicine and Clinical Pharmacology, Royal College of Canada); Fellow ad eundem, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), UK; former Chair, Maternal Medicine Clinical Study Group of the RCOG; and immediate Past-President, International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy. In 2017, she joined King’s College London as Professor of Women’s Health, following academic consultant posts at St. George’s, University of London, UK (2015-2017), and the Universities of British Columbia (2000-2015) and Toronto (1996-2000), Canada. Laura’s research is focused on pregnancy hypertension, particularly antihypertensive therapy.

Hiten Mistry PIVOT-AL
Senior Research Programme Manager

Hiten Mistry

Dr Hiten Mistry is a scientist working on a range of national and global women’s health studies alongside Professors Laura Magee and Peter von Dadelszen. Hiten’s main research interests are the pathophysiology of the hypertensive diseases of pregnancy, nutrition in pregnancy and on improving maternity services. Hiten held Personal Fellowships at the Universities of Bern (European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplantation Association) and Nottingham (British Heart Foundation). He also worked at University of Nottingham, coping with the institutional complications of the pandemic, where he was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s Achievement Award. He has published widely, including peer-reviewed journals, expert reviews, book chapters and Guest Editor for Special Issues. He’s on the Editorial board for Placenta; Associate Editor for Frontiers in Cardiovascular and Smooth Muscle Pharmacology; Review Editor for Frontiers in Reproduction, Frontiers in Developmental Endocrinology, and Integrative Physiology and Topical Advisory Panel for International Journal of Molecular Sciences. Current projects include RESILIENT and PRECISE/PRECISE-DYAD.

Daghni Rajasingam PIVOT-AL
Consultant Obstetrician

Daghni Rajasingam

Daghni Rajasingam is a consultant obstetrician with a specialist interest in high risk maternal care, who is passionate about reducing health and gender inequalities. Daghni is Deputy Medical Director at Guys and St Thomas Hospital Foundation Trust with a portfolio for leadership development, quality improvement and resilience and is the Regional Lead Obstetrician for South-East of England. She is a maternity clinical advisor to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch. Daghni has a Masters in Leadership and Partnership Working and has an honorary readership with Kings College London in Healthcare Management and Leadership. 

She is an accredited Executive Coach and trained mediator in alternative dispute resolution. She is actively involved in research and training for resilient healthcare professionals and is the senior clinical lead for Care Redesign Improvement System (the improvement system at Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital Foundation Trust). 

She was an elected Council member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and is a RCOG trustee board member. Daghni is also an official spokesperson for the RCOG. She was the national lead for inclusion and a council member of the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management. She was co-chair for the South-East London Local Maternity System and supported integration of the maternity governance framework within the Integrated Care System. 

Daghni was NHS London’s clinical lead for leadership development, clinical lead for London’s Clinical Leadership Network and a member of the National Task Force for senior female medical leadership. She helped develop the CLN REAL, promoting BAME leadership within the NHS and developed the CLN/ National Clinical Commissioning Group Congress 2011. She was listed in the 2013 HSJ BME Pioneers list and 2014 HSJ Inspirational Women in Healthcare Awards.

Caroline Redhead PIVOT-AL
Research Fellow

Caroline Redhead

Caroline is a Research Fellow in the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy at The University of Manchester. Having worked as a commercial solicitor for many years, in the UK and in Hong Kong, she moved from private practice to academia in 2020.

Caroline’s research interests lie broadly in the dynamic interplay between law, ethics (particularly bioethics) and social change. She is particularly interested in the way legal and ethical frameworks are interpreted and experienced by people in their everyday lives, in decision-making processes and practices, and in exploring the role of therapeutic jurisprudence, especially in healthcare regulation. She is currently working on the ConnecteDNA project, examining how the use of direct-to-consumer genetic testing is changing the landscape in which donor conception is experienced, and how it impacts the management of information about donor conception.

Caroline has a PhD in Palliative Care and an LLM in Child Law.

Staci Weiss PIVOT-AL
Research Associate

Staci Weiss

Staci Weiss is a Research Associate at University of Cambridge, examining how fetal motor activity and health disparities contribute to variability in the trajectory of neonatal neural activity from 1 week to 1 month after birth. She collects and analyzes the kinematics of fetal ultrasound and neonatal EEG as part of the longitudinal Perinatal Imaging Partnership with Families (PIPkin) with the goal of identifying biomarkers pertaining to infant health. As a sonographer and midwife trained abroad, she approaches PIVOT-AL with a decade of scanning experience and a cross-cultural lens from having installed modern fetal monitoring systems in Guatemala, Honduras, Peru and Chile and trained sonographers embedded in local rural perinatal care units.