Members of the SSRC

Thursday 17 April 2008

Details of the membership of the Social Science Research Committee (SSRC).

Professor Sir Roger Jowell (Chair)
Professor Sir Roger Jowell is the founding Director for the Centre for Comparative Social Surveys at London City University from where he also directs the European Social Survey. Before joining London City University, he was the founder-Director of the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR), the UK's largest social research institute. He ran the NCSR from 1969 to 2001 and initiated several well known time series, such as the British Crime Survey, the Health Surveys for England (and Scotland) and the British Social Attitudes survey.

Roger has published a number of method books and articles, and was invited by the Cabinet Office to chair a review of the role of pilot schemes to Government policy making. He is also the Vice President of the Royal Statistical Society and a frequent public speaker at professional meetings and conferences.

Mary Brennan
Mary Brennan qualified in agriculture and food engineering in Ireland before moving into the social sciences. Mary currently works at the University of Newcastle where she is Programme Director for the BSc Marketing degree and has an active research interest in public attitudes to food risk and food safety as well as the communication of food risk to the public.

Dr Steven Cummins
Dr Cummins is a human geographer with training in epidemiology and public health. Steven is Senior Lecturer and National Institute for Health Research Fellow in the Department of Geography, Queen Mary, University of London, where he leads the Healthy Environments Research Programme. He is currently working on a number of research projects related to the social, consumer and environmental determinants of food choice and diet-related health inequalities. Steven was recently awarded a Phillip Leverhulme Prize for his work on the socio-environmental determinants of health.

Joy Dobbs
Joy Dobbs has extensive experience in research and analysis working in social science and statistics in Government. Joy has been a senior official at the Office for National Statistics for many years, first specialising in social survey research and more recently leading divisions providing demographic, social and health analysis. She has good links with a wide range of academic institutions, for example the Economic and Social Research Council (particularly the new UK Household Longitudinal Survey) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Professor Ben Fine
Professor Fine is a political economist and development specialist at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Ben is internationally recognised as a scholar of consumption in general, and of food in particular. He has been awarded a number of research grants including one from the Economic and Social Research Council to explore the socio-economic determinants of the UK nation’s diet under its Nation’s Diet Programme.

Dr Arthur Fleiss
Dr Fleiss has a PhD in social anthropology and considerable experience of managing and conducting applied social research on Government policy and in the charity/voluntary sector. Arthur has experience across a range of research methods, most recently in the area of attitudes and behaviour relating to retirement saving. He has also researched public engagement with science, and spent two years in Mali where he led an evaluation of an appropriate technology programme which, among other things, examined eating and cooking patterns.

Dr Michael Howard
Dr Howard is a lecturer in environmental health at King's College, London. Originally qualified in biology and pesticide use, Michael has 14 years' experience in carrying out social science research. His particular research interests are the linkages between social and physical science in the area of enforcement, food safety and risk.

Professor Peter Jackson
Professor Jackson is a human geographer. From 2004 to 2007, Peter served as Director of Research for the Social Sciences at the University of Sheffield. He has managed a range of research projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, Leverhulme Trust and the Nuffield Foundation. Peter currently directs a large interdisciplinary programme on Changing Families, Changing Food.

Professor Richard Shepherd
Professor Shepherd is a psychologist at the University of Surrey and has recently become a Fellow for Food Standards Australia and New Zealand providing advice on the social science aspects of food policy. Previously Richard was programme manager of the LINK Programme on eating, food and health jointly sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, Biotechnology and Biological Research Council and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs.

Ann Williams
Ann Williams is a Community Business Consultant in Merseyside and is currently working on a joint advocacy strategy for Liverpool Primary Care Trust and City Council to support people with mental health problems, learning difficulties and people in care. Ann was previously a Citizens Advice Bureau manager for sixteen years and helped teenage mums access Sure Start provision.

Laura Willoughby MBE
Laura has been an elected councillor for ten years on an inner London local authority and has considerable experience if championing residents’ issues to improve local services. She has experience and interest in equalities, regenertion, leisure, voluntary sector and health. Laura was recently Chief Executive of a charity delivering nutrition services to people with HIV and HIV related illnesses and is currently a political advisor at London Councils. She also sits on the Big Lottery Fund Reaching Communities Board and the Nags Head Town Centre Management Committee. She was awarded in MBE in 2005 for services to the community in London.

Dr Wendy Wills
Dr Wills is a registered public health nutritionist and is a sociologist at the University of Hertfordshire. She is qualified in food and consumer studies and has a PhD in sociology and population studies. Wendy’s areas of interest are food choices and the diets of children, young people and families. She is also co-convenor of the British Sociological Association sociology of food study group and has good links with social scientists in Scotland and England.