Honorary Fellows

Professor Christopher J. Armitage is a Health Psychologist registered with the UK Health and Care Professions Council, a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and a Director of Research at the Manchester Centre for Health Psychology in the School of Health Sciences at the University of Manchester. His research uses mixed methods to develop tools for effective behaviour change among diverse populations, including children, healthcare professionals and patients. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles on these topics and is currently working on over £40 million in active grants from several sources, including the NIHR, European Commission and Tesco PLC.

Prof Simon Capewell manages a research programme focusing on the prevention of non-communicable diseases. That includes developing effective and cost-saving non-communicable disease (NCD) prevention strategies regionally, nationally, and internationally, using policy analyses, empirical evidence & quantitative modelling. Simon contributes to policy development, service work and advocacy locally, nationally, and internationally chairing several national and international committees. Simon is valued as a public health policy advisor to WHO, AHA, ESC, and UK agencies. He is a “generalist” with expertise that spans the clinical, health service, population and policy aspects of health and disease prevention.

Tony Cassidy is Professor of Child and Family Health Psychology at Ulster University and has previously been Head of Psychology at the University of Limerick, De Montfort University, and the University of West London. He is currently Chair of the Health Psychology Qualifications Board (HPQB) of the British Psychological Society (BPS), Chair-Elect of the Northern Ireland Branch of the BPS, and past Chair of the Division of Health Psychology in the BPS. He is a Registered Health Psychologist and Registered Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). He is a Fellow of the BPS, the HEA, and the RSA. He is a Registered Applied Psychology Practice Supervisor. During his tenure as Chair of the DHP Tony initiated the discourse which led to the development of the BSPNN.

Professor Angel Chater is a Chartered Psychologist, an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society (BPS) and a Registered Health Psychologist and Sport and Exercise Psychologist with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC). She is a Professor in Health Psychology and Behaviour Change at the University of Bedfordshire, situated within the Institute for Sport and Physical Activity Research (ISPAR) where she leads the Centre in Health, Wellbeing and Behaviour Change.  She is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Health Psychology and Behavioural Medicine at UCL School of Pharmacy and an Associate and Course tutor to UCL Centre for Behaviour Change Summer School. In her roles, she integrates health psychology into non-psychology curriculum, CPD training and applied health research, with a focus on communication skills, behaviour change interventions and adolescent health. She is Past Chair of the British Psychological Society Division of Health Psychology (DHP) and passionate about the scientific application of health psychology to public health and its role in intervention design. She is working closely with Local and National Government and County Sport Partnerships on the Behaviour Change Agenda.

Professor Kevin Fenton is the Strategic Director for Place and Wellbeing at the London Borough of Southwark. In this role, which incorporates the Director for Public Health statutory functions, he leads the Council’s portfolios on Planning, Regeneration, Community and Voluntary Sector Engagement and Public Health. He works across the entire Council to champion and promotes health, well-being and equity in all policies and programmes. Key priorities include social regeneration, asset-based community development, developing sustainable, high-quality, and integrated health and social care systems, improving health and reducing inequalities for all of Southwark’s residents. At Public Health England, Professor Fenton is the Senior Strategic Advisor for HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health. Professor Fenton is on secondment to Southwark Council from Public Health England (PHE), where he was the National Director for Health and Wellbeing leading PHE's national prevention programmes including screening for cancer and other conditions, Health Checks, public mental health, sexual and reproductive health, and a range of wellbeing programmes for infants, youth, adults, and older adults. He also led PHE's health equity portfolio with a range of programmes and activities focused on addressing the social determinants of health and promoting place-based approaches to health improvement.

Andrew is Centre Director for Public Health England (PHE) in Yorkshire and Humber. He originally trained as a General Practitioner and is now a Public Health specialist with international experience. He worked for seven years in Nepal at all levels of the health system and has taken short-term assignments in several other countries. In the UK he worked as a Director of Public Health from 2007 to 2018 and is the immediate past President of the Association of Directors of Public Health UK (ADPH).

Jo Hart is a Health Psychologist, Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Reader in Health professional education at the University of Manchester, UK where she is deputy head of the Division of Medical Education. She studies the education and training of healthcare professionals and has special interests in healthcare professional behaviour and in communication about lifestyle behaviours. She co-leads The Change Exchange, a project in which health psychologists volunteer to work with health partnerships between UK and low-income country healthcare organisations. She is the Past Chair of the British Psychological Society Division of Health Psychology and is interested in the development of health psychology in the UK and globally.

Marie Johnston is a registered Health and Clinical Psychologist, and Emeritus Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Aberdeen. She has worked as a practitioner in primary care, general hospital departments and public health and as an academic in psychology and medical departments at the Universities of Oxford, London, St Andrews and Aberdeen. She was the first chair of the UK British Psychology Society (BPS) Section (now Division) of Health Psychology and the second President of the European Health Psychology Society. Her research focuses on theory, methods, and interventions of changing behaviour to enhance health and healthcare and has been supported by funding from research councils, government and charities. She has over 400 publications. She is an Honorary member of the BPS and has received various fellowships (F.B.Ps.S., F.R.S.E., F.Med.Sci., F.A.S.S., F.E.H.P.S., F.R.C.P.E.)

Eugene Milne is Director of Public Health for Newcastle upon Tyne, Joint Editor of the Journal of Public Health, and Honorary Treasurer of the Association of Directors of Public Health. He holds a visiting Professorship at Newcastle University and is a member of the NIHR Public Health Programme Prioritisation Committee and the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation. He trained initially in paediatrics but has been a public health practitioner for approaching 30 years, during which time he has worked across a broad spectrum of public health activities but particularly on tobacco control, with research interests in biodemography and ageing.

Susan Michie (FMedSci, FAcSS) is Professor of Health Psychology and Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change at University College London. She is co-Director of NIHR’s Behavioural Science Policy Research Unit, leads UCL’s membership of NIHR’s School of Public Health Research and is an NIHR Senior Investigator. Professor Michie’s research focuses on behaviour change: how to understand it theoretically and apply theory to complex intervention development, evaluation and implementation. Her research, collaborating with disciplines such as information science, environmental science, computer science and medicine, covers population, organisational and individual-level interventions. Examples include the Human Behavior Change Project and Complex Systems for Sustainability and Health. She serves as an expert advisor to Public Health England and the UK Department of Health and Social Care, is Chair of the UK Food Standard Agency’s Social Sciences Advisory Committee and chaired the Academy of Social Science’s ‘Health of People’ project.

Jane Ogden is a Professor at the University of Surrey. She currently teaches psychology, vet, medical, nutrition and dietician students to think more psychologically about health and carries out research in eating behaviour, weight management, communication, and symptom perception. She is the author of 8 books including The Psychology of Dieting, The Good Parenting Food Guide and Thinking Critically about Research and has published over 200 research papers. She is also a frequent contributor to the TV radio and print media.

Duncan Selbie is the founding Chief Executive of Public Health England. Before 2013, he was Chief Executive of Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals, the regional teaching hospital for the South East of England. From 2003 to 2007 he was the Director General of Programmes and Performance for the NHS and subsequently its first Director General of Commissioning. Before this, he was Chief Executive of Southeast London Strategic Health Authority and before that Chief Executive of the South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust. He joined the NHS in January 1980.

Falko Sniehotta (FAcSS, FEHPS) is Professor of Health Psychology & Behavioural Medicine at the Universities of Newcastle and Twente, Director of the NIHR Policy Research Unit Behavioural Science and senior investigator of fuse, the UK Centre of Excellence for Translational Research in Public Health. He is one of the founding honorary fellows of the network since 2017. Professor Falko Sniehotta’s work focuses on the behaviour of healthcare professionals, health service users and members of the public contributing to population health. This involves developing a theory on how behaviour changes, how change is maintained and how change can be supported through interventions. The focus of the research is translational aiming to develop science to improve practice, policy and population health. This involves working closely with national, regional and local government, practitioners and members of the public to create evidence with the potential for significant impact on policy and practice. Professor Sniehotta was past president of the European Health Psychology Society, serves as an expert advisor to the UK Society of Behavioural Medicine, is a member of funding panels in the UK and internationally and is associate editor of Health Psychology Review.

Vivien Swanson is a Reader in Health Psychology at Stirling University and national Lead for Health Psychology with NHS Education for Scotland. Research focuses on maternal and infant nutrition, diabetes, and health professional training in different contexts. She has developed unique nationally funded practitioner health psychology training, helping to establish health psychology postgraduate courses in Scotland, and securing trainee funding. Work within NHS Scotland has increased the number of qualified health psychologists working on key social issues and developed national programmes of training for health professionals, including the development of blended learning to upskill practitioners in behaviour change, enhancing the psychological skills of the wider NHS workforce.