Members

Professor Bryer is highly published and conducts extensive research in the areas of public participation and collaboration across segments of society, including government, non-profit, private, faith-based, and voluntary sectors. He has won multiple awards for his research, teaching, and service. In 2015, he was granted a Fulbright Core Scholar award to conduct research in Lithuania from 2015-2017, and he is currently a Fulbright Specialist, which will include work in Russia. He maintains an affiliation at Kaunas University of Technology in Lithuania as Project Chief Researcher, leading research on non-economic factors of emigration.  He is the author or editor of four books:  Higher education beyond Job Creation: Universities, Citizenship, and Community (2014); National Service and Volunteerism: Achieving Impact in Our Communities (2015); Social Media for Government: Theory and Practice (2016); Poor Participation: Fighting the Wars on Poverty and Impoverished Citizenship (2018). 

Dr Rachel Bragg OBE is a consultant and advocate for nature connection, green care & care farming. She brings extensive expertise in nature-based interventions for mental health, fostering connection to nature, and measuring outcomes for green care programmes in the field. Additionally, Rachel is skilled in participatory appraisal and consultation, Theory of Change development, and strategic planning for third sector organisations. She will support the newly established APRIN group, participate in CSR events, and deliver workshops, webinars, or guest lectures annually or as needed.

Professor Michael Hardman is Chair of Urban Sustainability at the University of Salford. Mike is an interdisciplinary researcher interested in urban sustainability and has published widely on topics from guerrilla gardening to urban agriculture and green infrastructure. His work is global in nature, with projects in the likes of Africa, North America, Europe and elsewhere, focussing on themes from the potential to upscale radical greening initiatives, to large-scale urban farming. This work has ranged from ethnographic work with green activists to exploring the impact of pioneering sustainability schemes in cities. Mike has obtained funding from charities, industrial partners and global bodies for this work, with recent projects funded by the likes of Horizon Europe to the British Science Association / Wellcome Trust and beyond. He also holds a number of senior editor roles, external advisory roles and regularly speaks in the media on urban sustainability.

Nicky has held senior leadership roles in the third sector throughout her career which spans over thirty years, during which she has developed and directed mental health services at both regional and national level.   Her areas of interest include peer support in mental health,  computerised therapies for the treatment of anxiety and depression and multi modal practice as a way of supporting individuals with multiple needs.  More recently she has led the development of a global alliance of not for profit organisations focused on the treatment and management of common mental health problems and takes a lead on research and innovation.

Dr Marisa de Andrade is a Senior Lecturer in Health, Science and Society at the University of Edinburgh in the School of Health in Social Sciences. She uses “traditional” and (post)-qualitative methodologies to situate arts at the helm of strategic decision-making across multiple sectors including health and social care, employability, education and social justice. Marisa is Programme Director for the MSc by Research in Health Humanities and Arts;  Co-Director of the Centre for Creative-Relational Inquiry; Co-Director at the The Binks Hub; and Programme Director of the PhD Health in Social Sciences. Marisa is also a Board Director for Youth Theatre Arts Scotland (YTAS). She was Joint Winner of the 2023 International Congress of Qualitative Inquiry Book Award for Public Health, Humanities and Magical Realism: A Creative-Relational Approach to Researching Human Experience, Routledge. Marisa has received several grants as Principle Investigator from funders including the NHS, Cancer Research UK, ESCR, AHRC and the Scottish Government amongst others. She is currently (2024-2027) Project Lead on a £2.5 million UKRI consortium award for REALITIES in Health Disparities: Researching Evidence-based Alternatives in Living, Imaginative, Traumatised, Integrated, Embodied Systems.

Dr Ashby Sachs is Wellbeing in Horticulture Research Fellow at the Royal Horticultural Society. This involves studying how garden design, gardening, and spending time with plants and wildlife can improve health and wellbeing. She shares findings through scientific articles and informal writing, helping RHS members and the public understand how gardening can be an important tool for improving wellbeing. Ashby’s work also involves connecting gardening with health and well-being across RHS gardens, events, education programs, communities, and partnerships.

Dr Katy Goldstraw is passionate about creative and participatory approaches to learning. Katy specialises in participatory arts-based research methods to include and empower the voices of previously unheard communities within her research.

Katy is a senior lecturer in Health and Social Care at Staffordshire University and works in an independent capacity with the APLE Collective, an anti-poverty collective led by people with lived experience. Katy has worked with members of the voluntary and community sector to co-produce a Sustainable Livelihoods Resource Book. This resource book is a toolkit that VCS organisations can use to facilitate an assets based organisational evaluation. She has worked in higher education and the Voluntary Sector throughout her career. A fellow of the higher education Academy and the Royal Society of Arts; Katy has published extensively on topics including VCS assets, citizens voice, and anti-poverty participatory approaches.