Meet our team
CBC Core Team
Professor Susan Michie
Professor Susan Michie is Director of the CBC, Professor of Health Psychology and co-Director of the MSc in Behaviour Change at UCL.
A world leader in behavioural science, her research focuses on understanding behaviour change theoretically, developing methods for designing effective interventions and translating evidence into practice and policy. Professor Michie developed the Behaviour Change Wheel framework and leads the Human Behaviour Change Project and has several policy responsibilities, including co-Director of NIHR’s Behavioural Science Policy Research Unit and chairing a Food Standards Agency scientific committee.
Publications / Email: s.michie@ucl.ac.uk / Twitter: @susanmichie
Dr Fabiana Lorencatto
Dr Fabiana Lorencatto is Co-Director of the Centre for Behaviour Change
Dr Lorencatto has extensive experience in applying behavioural science theories and frameworks to design behaviour change interventions aimed at changing the behaviours of healthcare professionals to improve clinical practice. Dr Lorencatto is the behavioural science lead on a number of multidisciplinary, international projects related to topics such as maternal health, infection prevention control, antimicrobial resistance, diabetes and transfusion medicine.
Publications / Email: f.lorecatto@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Sadie Boniface
Dr Sadie Boniface is Research Lead for the CBC
Sadie’s role is to oversee and lead day-to-day conduct of CBC research projects, initiating and developing research collaborations, and promoting publication and dissemination of CBC research. Sadie has 15 years’ experience in public health and applied health research in academia and civil society. Before the CBC, Sadie oversaw the delivery of the Institute of Alcohol Studies’s research strategy as their Head of Research. Sadie's expertise on alcohol use and harm meant she developed skills in communicating research to non-academic audiences, and her current research interests are in applying behavioural science to improve research culture.
Publications / Email: s.boniface@ucl.ac.uk
Professor Angel Marie Chater (0.1 FTE)
Professor Angel Chater is Co-Director of the Policy Research Unit in Behavioural Science
Angel’s research, teaching, training, and practice focus on the interplay between health psychology and public health. Centering on optimising health and wellbeing through behaviour change interventions, Angel has co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications and secured over £10 million in research income, extending pragmatic science in areas such as physical activity and sedentary behaviour interventions and the application of the Behavior Change Wheel in real-world practice. Following the successful funding award to extend work with the Policy Research Unit (PRU) in Behavioural and Social Sciences, Angel has transitioned from Co-Director of the CBC to Co-Director of the PRU, where she will lead the UCL team in working with government bodies and policy partners.
Publications / Email: a.chater@ucl.ac.uk / Twitter: @DrAngelChater /
Dr Louise Atkins (0.1 FTE)
Dr Louise Atkins is Lecturer Teaching (Online Training) for the CBC.
Dr Atkins is a researcher, trainer and consultant in behaviour change intervention design and evaluation. Dr Atkins coordinates the Intermediate course and Advanced modules of CBC’s International Training Programme and leads CBC's Australasian Hub. Dr Atkins’s is co-author of the book Behaviour Change Wheel: A Guide to Designing Interventions
Publications / Email: l.atkins@ucl.ac.uk
Professor Leslie Gutman
Professor Leslie Gutman is Professor of Applied Developmental and Health Psychology and Programme Director of the MSc Behaviour Change.
Professor Gutman’s research interests include developmental transitions in adolescence and young adulthood, the study of risk and resilience, mental health and wellbeing, aspirations and attainment and school-based interventions. Professor Gutman is Senior Research Associate for the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF) and Associate Editor of the Journal of Adolescence.
Publications / Email: l.gutman@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Danielle D’Lima
Dr Danielle D’Lima is Associate Professor and Teaching Lead for the MSc Behaviour Change.
Her role includes designing and delivering teaching and training in Behaviour Change, as well as overseeing research projects on Implementation Science. She has an evolving interest in capacity building in Behaviour Change Science and Implementation Science as well as the application of these to the education setting. Danielle has a PhD from Imperial College London on the influence of feedback on professional behaviour change in healthcare. She has been involved in research projects on patient safety in the mental health setting, the use of routinely collected information for quality improvement in the NHS, and process evaluation methodology.
Publications / Email: d.d'lima@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Lucy Porter
Dr Lucy Porter is a Lecturer (Teaching) and the Bespoke Training and Consultancy Lead for the CBC
Dr Porter has extensive experience in applying behavioural science theories and frameworks to develop health behaviour change interventions in academic and policy settings. She previously worked as a Principal Behavioural & Social Scientist at Public Health England and the Office for Health Improvement & Disparities where she worked on topics including diet and obesity, sexual and reproductive health, and alcohol harms reduction. Her research interests include designing behaviour change interventions to support children's healthy eating, and exploring the acceptability and implementation of behaviourally-informed public health policy.
Publications / Email: lucy.porter@ucl.ac.uk
Professional Services
Karen Rumsey, Administrative Manager
Karen oversees the administrative functions of CBC, including finance and Human Resources activities, and ensures the smooth running of the centre.Email: karen.rumsey@ucl.ac.uk
Isabelle Olson, Training, Events and Communications Manager
Izzy is responsible for co-ordinating and promoting the CBC’s extensive training and events programme, as well as leading on promoting the work of the CBC through multiple communication channels.
Izzy’s interest in behaviour change stemmed from her BSc in Psychology. She then gained a wide range of experience across different industries and sectors, including working at several market research agencies as a qualititative researcher, at a clinical trials unit, and most recently as the Communications Manager for a large research funder in the charity sector. Email: i.olson@ucl.ac.uk
Sophia Bowes (0.5 FTE), Teaching Administrator
Sophia oversees the administration for our MSc in Behaviour Change. Sophia has a strong background in higher education administration, which began with her tenure at Middlesex University. Her professional journey continued at the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, where she played a significant role in student services and actively contributed to community engagement initiatives through The National Citizen Service. These experiences allowed her to cultivate strong skills in both academic administration and community outreach.In addition to her practical experience, Sophia recently graduated from the University of Hertfordshire, earning a BA (Hons) in Business Administration. Sophia now plans to pursue a MSc in Business Psychology.
Email: sophia.bowes@ucl.ac.uk
Milly Massoura (0.5 FTE), BR-UK Administrator, based at CBC
Milly provides administrative support across the Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK) project, a research consortium funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) via the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Before BR-UK, Milly was at the University of Kent working in Research and Innovation Services. Milly has a background in life sciences, completing her BSc (hons) in Medical Biochemistry and PhD in molecular pharmacology at the University of Birmingham. Following this she worked at the National Institute for Biological Standards and Control (NIBSC) as a business support officer. Milly has a wide range of experience in providing support to researchers at all levels in a variety of disciplines.Email: m.massoura@ucl.ac.uk
Research Fellows
Vivi Antonopoulou, Senior Research Fellow
Vivi is a Research Fellow for the Behavioural Science Policy Research Unit. Vivi’s current research focuses on optimising behaviour change interventions targeting healthcare professionals and on synthesising evidence to inform health-related policies. Her research interests include using behaviour change theory and models to design and develop effective interventions and the implementation of research evidence into practice. Prior to working in this post, Vivi was involved in projects aiming to change social work and social care professional practice and exploring the effectiveness of training on evidence-based approaches such as Motivational Interviewing on eliciting motivation and behaviour change with families working with Children’s Services. Vivi is a BPS Chartered Psychologist.Dr Jo Davan Wetton (0.8 FTE), Senior Research Fellow
Jo is a Senior Research Fellow at CBC. Her work focuses on improving national capability in behavioural research, as part of Behavioural Research UK (BR-UK). As a behavioural scientist, Jo specialises in pro-environmental action and the use of systems thinking. Before joining BR-UK, Jo was awarded an ESRC Policy Fellowship to deliver research on behavioural science and net zero for Defra. She previously led behavioural science input to the international project, Complex Urban Systems for Sustainability and Health (CUSSH). Jo has worked with organisations including Welsh Government, BEIS, WRAP, Policy Connect and the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology.
Dr Neil Howlett (0.2 FTE), Honorary Senior Research Fellow
Dr Howlett's expertise focuses on combining theoretical behaviour change and applied public health research, to achieve community impact, and improve public health services. He has been a successful lead or co-applicant on nearly £5million of grants. A key current project is the NIHR-funded PHIRST grant, for which he is leading evaluations on COVID-19/Vaccine champions in Southampton and Green Health Partnerships in Scotland. Dr Howlett has extensive experience of synthesising evidence on the most effective behaviour change techniques for different groups and behaviours. Neil’s work in the CBC focuses on the NIHR-funded Policy Research Unit.Dr Alison McKinlay, Senior Research Fellow
Dr McKinlay's research interests include public health policy, intervention evaluation, health stigma and social inequality. She is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society and an Associate of the Royal Society for Public Health. She is available to supervise projects incorporating qualitative research methodology and/or literature review and evidence synthesis approaches.
Dr Elise Crayton, Research Fellow
Dr Crayton is a Research Fellow at CBC. She is also the Faculty of Brain Sciences Disability Equity Lead. Elise’s research has focused on the use of evidence synthesis and application of behavioural science methods to design, deliver and evaluate behaviour change interventions. Elise has carried out research across multiple healthcare settings within the NHS, engaging with patient, general public and healthcare professional populations. Her research to date has focused upon anxiety and social support for elderly stroke survivors, medication adherence in stroke survivors and pregnant women, quality improvement of the two-week wait cancer referral pathway and safe stewardship of antimicrobials. Elise has been involved in exploring and assessing healthcare professionals use of protective behaviours during health pandemics such as the COVID-19 outbreak and understanding barriers and enablers to vaccine uptake. Most recently, Elise has been applying behavioural science to help support Equality, Diversity and inclusion Initiatives in the hope of increasing inclusive practices for staff and students at universities.Dr Amanda Moore, Research Fellow
Dr Moore is a Research Fellow at CBC. Amanda is a Public Health Nutritionist with a particular interest in diabetes and women’s health. Her research focuses on the development of complex interventions, particularly to help address health inequities faced by people from minority ethnic groups. She primarily uses qualitative, participatory methods and follows a design-led approach to co-design. She is currently working on the UPTURN study, a 5-year NIHR programme grant to co-design an intervention to support engagement with Pulmonary Rehabilitation and is supporting the co-design and behaviour change work package with people of Bangladeshi, Black African and Caribbean heritage.
Dr Paulina Schenk, Research Fellow
Dr Schenk has been working as a Research Fellow at CBC since 2022. Her research experience has been around developing and applying theories and frameworks to synthesise knowledge about behaviour change and mental health interventions.Paulina completed her PhD in Health Psychology at UCL in 2022, developing an ontology of mechanisms of action in behaviour change interventions. Since then, she has worked on developing ontologies as part of the Human Behaviour Change Project and supporting projects around behaviour change in healthcare as part of the NIHR Policy Research Unit. Her current work focuses primarily on developing an ontology of mental health as part of the Galenos Project.
Dr Ayse Ustaoglu Allison, Research Fellow
Dr Allison is a Research Fellow in Behavioural Science at CBC and UCL Plastic Waste Innovation Hub. Ayşe's research focuses on applying principles, methods and frameworks from the social and behavioural sciences to understand and change behaviours concerning health and sustainability. Ayşe is an interdisciplinary, mixed-methods researcher and has a wide range of research interests including circular economy, just transitions and 'commoning'. Her research to date has primarily focused on waste management with a focus on food and plastic waste. She has also conducted research into the adoption of clean cooking technologies, social life cycle assessment methodology and gardening promotion. Most recently, Ayşe has been applying behavioural science to optimise the system for the sustainable provision of nappies, incontinence pads and period products.
PhD Students & Research Assistants
Rachel Perowne, Doctoral Student
In 2019 Rachel returned to the world of academia (having originally studied chemistry many years ago) to study part-time for an MSc in Behaviour Change at the Centre for Behaviour Change, UCL, whilst working for a charity. She loved this so much that decided to have a complete career change and in 2022, Rachel started a full-time PhD within the Centre for Behaviour Change on the involvement of young people in mental health research.Gemma Spickernell, Doctoral Student
Gemma completed a MA in Psychological Research at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa before moving to London to pursue a career in research. She has several years of experience working in consultancy, using tools and methods from the behavioural sciences to optimise healthcare behaviours. Her research interests include optimising health and wellbeing through applied behavioural science to understand and intervene with factors that influence behaviours that impact on health, illness and the health care system. In 2023, Gemma started a PhD within the Centre for Behaviour Change on promoting physical activity in pregnancy.
Zoe Upton, Doctoral Student
Zoe completed her BSc in Psychology at Durham University, before pursuing a Dual Master’s in Brain and Mind Sciences at UCL and Sorbonne University (Paris). She has a keen interest in interdisciplinary research, having previously contributed to research on the effects of climate change on human health. Specifically, she investigated the effects of heatwaves and indoor overheating on the symptoms and management of neurological conditions (i.e., seizures in patients with epilepsy). She is enthusiastic about the value and application of behavioural science to promote environmental sustainability and combat climate change. In 2024, Zoe started a PhD within the Centre for Behaviour Change on changing gardening practices to peat-free.Catherine Lawrence, Doctoral Student
Catherine is the Team Lead Physiotherapist in Critical Care at University College London Hospital and is spending one year as a CLAHRC HEE NCEL pre-doctoral fellow. Catherine has a keen interest in early rehabilitation on critical care and the management of patients who require prolonged critical care admission.
Catherine obtained a BSc (hons) degree in Physiotherapy at Brunel University in 2010. She then went on to complete a Master of Research Degree (MRes) in Clinical Research at City, University of London. Catherine’s MRes project was focused on exploring the relationship between patient motivation and adherence to rehabilitation in critical care. Catherine's PhD is exploring behavioural factors influencing patient participation in rehabilitation on critical care.
Lisa Zhang, Research Assistant
Lisa is currently working on the Human Behaviour-Change Project, and in particular, the Behaviour Change Intervention Ontology which specifies all key components of behaviour change intervention scenarios and their evaluations. Her research interests include intervention development and evaluation, and applying behaviour change principles to real-world issues such as environmental sustainability and public health. Lisa received a MSc in Behaviour Change from UCL in 2021.
CBC Associates
CBC Associates are colleagues within and beyond UCL who actively participate in our consultancy, research, teaching and training, and in representing CBC on external bodies. View our list of associates below.
CBC Associate
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Professor Susan Michie
Dr Fabiana Lorencatto
Dr Sadie Boniface
Professor Angel Marie Chater (0.1 FTE)
Dr Louise Atkins (0.1 FTE)
Professor Leslie Gutman
Dr Danielle D’Lima
Dr Lucy Porter
