Assistant professor in Occupational Therapy, University of Bradford I am an assistant professor in Occupational Therapy (OT), I have been lecturing at the University of Bradford since 2016 and I have undertaken many leadership roles over the years. My PhD is investigating the occupational behaviours of professional football players to inform the development of an occupational therapy preventative intervention. My PhD is in its final stages. My PhD includes four studies; first a literature review was conducted to identify gaps in professional football research regarding wellbeing support, subsequently a cross sectional survey of 74 professional football players was completed. My third study was two case studies with elite athletes and finally I conducted a Delphi study to gain a consensus of experts’ opinions in the development of an occupational therapy preventative intervention. The Royal College of Occupational Therapy awarded me a grant to complete a scoping study before commencing my PhD and last year I presented my findings at the RCOT annual conference. I have (and still am) supervising occupational therapy students conducting research with different populations of emerging adulthood. This stage of development I find particularly interesting as the majority of the students I teach, and research fall into this category. Previous research I have completed was developing a placement assessment criterion, for occupational therapy students.
Clinical Assistant Professor of Cardiology, University of Pittsburgh Virginia Singla, MD, specializes in cardiology and is board certified in cardiovascular disease, internal medicine, and clinical cardiac electrophysiology by the American Board of Internal Medicine. She practices at UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute and is affiliated with UPMC East, UPMC Presbyterian, and UPMC Shadyside. Dr. Singla completed her medical education at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, residency at University of Virginia Health System University Hospital, and fellowship at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Postdoctoral Researcher, Czech Academy of Sciences Vanda Černohorská, Ph.D., focuses on gender inequalities from an intersectional perspective concerning issues of digitalization, social resilience and the creation of expert knowledge. Currently, she is researching the issue of the production of gender expertise in times of crisis and post-crisis recovery in the CoRe: Beyond Security - Role of Conflict in Resilience-Building (OPJAK) project at the National Contact Centre for Gender & Science. She also works at the Centre for Science, Technology, and Society Studies at the Institute of Philosophy of the Czech Academy of Sciences, where she researches the impact of digital technologies on the perception of time and wellbeing (Time experience in Europe's digital age - TIMED). In the past years, she explored the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and related policies on existing gender inequalities as part of the RESISTIRÉ research team or the effect of the European Structural Funds on gender equality in the Czech labour market. Her doctoral research investigated the relationship between digital technologies and the contemporary feminist movement in the Czecho-Slovak region. Her other research interests include the issue of qualitative methods and multi-disciplinary approaches within social research and co-creation practices related to gender-sensitive policy design. She was awarded a Fulbright grant and spent 2015/2016 as a Visiting Assistant in Research at the Yale Center for Cultural Sociology.
Dean of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities and Professor of Sociology, Shaw University Dr. Valerie Ann Johnson is the Dean of Arts, Sciences, and Humanities and Professor of Sociology at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. Previously, she was the Mott Distinguished Professor of Women’s Studies and Director of Africana Women’s Studies at Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina. She holds a Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley and San Francisco; M.A. in Sociology from Atlanta University (now Clark-Atlanta University); and B.A. in Sociology from Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Johnson has also completed doula training focused especially on women of color. Her research conducted in Costa Rica, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, the Seychelles Islands and the US, center on gender, bioethics, disability, the health of women and girls, and environmental justice. In addition, she has published and given lectures in these research areas. In North Carolina, Dr. Johnson conducts research on both African American foodways, and African Americans attitudes toward and experiences with “nature spaces” with special emphasis on Black women’s garden clubs. Her speaking engagements include this work as well as public commentary on the issue of confederate monuments on public lands. Other scholarly projects include work with Dr. Karima Jeffrey (Hampton University), on a joint collection of essays on the speculative and science fiction work of Black women and girls and with Dr. Crystal Moten (Macalester College), on compiling and editing an interactive, intersectional database on women, gender, and slavery. Dr. Johnson chairs the North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, serves on the North Carolina Historical Commission, National Register Advisory Committee and is member of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN), North Carolina League of Conservation Voters (NCLCV) Board of Directors, Scarritt Bennett Center Board of Directors (Nashville, Tennessee), the Ms. Committee of Scholars and an advisor on the Humanities Action Lab’s initiative on climate change, immigration/migration and environmental justice. Dr. Johnson is also active on the board of directors for both NARAL Pro-Choice NC and Preservation North Carolina and serves as an advisory member for Scarritt Bennett Center’s Racial Justice Initiative.
Lecturer in Epidemiology and One Health, University of Sydney Dr Brookes’ research focuses on using field and epidemiologic methods to promote evidence-based practice in One Health, particularly emerging and neglected infectious diseases. She has extensive research experience using methods such as risk assessment and disease modelling for the development of strategies for disease preparedness, including prevention, detection, and response. Dr Brookes has led several projects including One Health for health promotion strategies in the Southeast Asian and Oceanic regions, One Health capacity building in the Pacific region, and One Health on Country: making a difference to animals and their people in remote Indigenous communities in Australia. She is also involved in epidemiologic research of a range of diseases including rabies, Hendra virus, African swine fever, and Japanese Encephalitis virus.
