Research Community

Dr Ellen McHugh is Senior Lecturer in Education in the Department of Education, Brunel University London. Ellen’s research interests focus on education and student experience; higher education and widening participation; transnationalism and belonging.

Dr Emma Senior is an Assistant Professor in Nursing and Specialist Community Public Health Nursing, alongside being a Veteran spouse. As a member of the Northern Hub for Veterans & Military Families' Research, Dr Emma Senior completed her PhD exploring the experiences of military spouses who have lived alongside their UK serving partner with a mental health issue. Her military focused research interests seek to explore the qualitative experiences of military spouses/relationships, mental health, and well-being to inform mechanisms for support and CPD opportunities within health and social care. 

Dr Faye Acton is Research Fellow and the lead for military connected children and young people in the Veterans and Families Institute for Military and Social Research (VFI) at Anglia Ruskin University. As a qualitative researcher her work is focused on developing practice-based evidence with the voices and lived experiences of children and young people at the core of her work. She is particularly interested in developing the concept of identity and understanding military connected children and young people’s lives more comprehensively, including school and educational experiences. Faye has both academic and professional experience of working with both children and young people and professionals to inform and enhance policy and practice.

Faye joined Anglia Ruskin University in 2016 as a researcher following a professional practice-based career in health and education. Faye worked as a Health Improvement Practitioner in the NHS with primary and secondary schools to develop, deliver and evaluate health and wellbeing interventions and programmes of support for children and young people. She subsequently qualified as a primary school teacher, where she worked as a classroom teacher, PSHE lead, and gained the national award for Special Educational Needs Coordination to work as an Inclusion Manager.

Dr Gemma Carr is a Researcher at the Westminster Centre for Research in Veterans at the University of Chester. She previously led on the 'Exploring the Employment Experiences of Serving Partners' project. Gemma has extensive experience in qualitative and quantitative methodologies. She is also the wife of a serving soldier and also has a son who is serving. 

Dr Georgina Normile is a researcher from Bath Spa University whose interests focus on the well-being of early-years Service children during a deployment-related parental separation. Her PhD research was entitled ‘A case study exploring the impact of parental deployment on the well-being of British Army children in the pre-school year’. Georgina is passionate about representing a range of perspectives within her research, including those of young children themselves. A key aim of her research is to highlight how the nebulous term ‘well-being’ can be understood and operationalised to better inform educational and Armed Forces policy and practice for young Service children.

Dr Gill McGill is Co-director of the Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families Research at Northumbria University, supporting its development since 2015. Gill has a growing portfolio of expertise and publications in the field of Veterans and military families research including leading research projects exploring access to health and social care for alcohol-related issues, bereavement, maintaining independence following limb loss and social isolation and loneliness among the LGBT+ Veteran population.  Gill also has significant experience in participant recruitment from ‘hard or reach’/seldom heard populations as well as in the design of peer-informed research projects.  Gill is also employed as an Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Social Care in the Department of Nursing, Midwifery and Health at Northumbria University. Gill has a background in Public Health, working as a commissioner and service provider, and she has extensive experience in project management and strategy development in the NHS, Local Authority and Third Sector settings.