Leadership Team
The Midlands Mental Health & Neuroscience PhD Programme for Healthcare Professionals Leadership team for cohort intakes 2022-2026.
Programme Director
Professor Dorothee Auer
University of Nottingham
Professor of Neuroimaging and Head of the Division of Radiological & Imaging Sciences at the University of Nottingham and Honorary Consultant Neuroradiologist at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust.
Deputy Directors
The Director is supported by three Deputy Directors, one at each partner university. The Deputy Directors deputise for the Director in their absence.
Professor Noelle Robertson
University of Leicester
A clinical and health psychologist, Noelle is Director of Research for the Doctoral Training Programme in Clinical Psychology at the University of Leicester, and a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.
Professor Matthew Broome
University of Birmingham
Academic psychiatrist and Director of the Institute for Mental Health at the University of Birmingham. He is a leader in the field of early psychosis and in the philosophy and ethics of mental health.
Dr Vivek Furtado
University of Warwick
Associate Clinical Professor in Forensic Psychiatry at the University of Warwick and Honorary Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist to an enhanced rehabilitation medium secure service in the West Midlands.
Assistant Deputy Directors
Professor Patricia Lockwood
University of Birmingham
Professor of Decision Neuroscience.
Associate Professor Hayley Crawford
University of Warwick
Hayley Crawford is Associate Professor at Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick where she leads the Neurodevelopmental Conditions Research group. Her research aims to reduce negative clinical outcomes for individuals with intellectual disabilities through improving health care, and developing tools to better understand presentation, trajectories, risk factors and mechanistic underpinnings of mental health conditions and behaviour. Hayley is committed to creating environments in which researchers can contribute to and lead high-quality, impactful research.
Associate Professor Michelle O’Reilly
University of Leicester
Associate Professor of Communication in Mental Health at University of Leicester
Programme Leads
Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Coordinator
Director of Training
Director of EDI & WP
Kate Horton
Public Involvement Lead - Institute of Mental Health
The PPI coordinator provides training for PPI members, coordinates PPI across the various projects, and manages the PPI newsletter and database.
Assistant Professor Elena Nixon
University of Nottingham
Dr Elena Nixon is an Assistant Professor in Applied Neuropsychology at the University of Nottingham, working within the Institute of Mental Health since 2013. Her teaching and research focuses on mental health and wellbeing, applied psychology, behavioural sciences and neuroscience, with a particular interest in cognitive-behavioural mechanisms that shape executive functioning, wellbeing and performance in everyday and academic or professional contexts.
Professor Stacy Johnson MBE
University of Nottingham
Stacy Johnson is a Professor at the University of Nottingham, a nurse by training, and has a wealth of experience in improving EDI in academic and healthcare settings. She is on the Chief Nursing Officer’s BAME Advisory Group.
The EDI&WP Director supports the DTP Executive in monitoring and analysing EDI data, offering sector-wide best practice guidance to improve EDI culture; supports scholars’ WP activities, and is responsible for ensuring the implementation of the EDI, bullying and harassment policy.
Programme Manager
Roxanne Lockett
University of Nottingham
Roxanne leads the operational delivery of the programme, overseeing student recruitment, admissions, training, events, communications and partnership, working across the consortium and NHS organisations to deliver a high-quality doctoral training experience.