Research Community

Dr Samantha Brooks is a researcher at the King’s Centre for Military Health Research at King’s College London. She has a PhD in Social Psychology, with a thesis focusing on how accountability is negotiated in talk about body image and disordered eating. She is experienced in qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches as well as evidence synthesis and literature reviews. Her previous research has spanned topics such as non-deployment stressors; stigma and help-seeking in the Armed Forces; secondary traumatic stress in veterans’ significant others; the effectiveness of a mobile app to support veterans’ mental health; the impacts of trauma; the development of trauma-informed interventions; and mental health in the workplace. She currently works on the AFTER study, exploring the psychosocial and sexual experiences of veterans and their partners affected by genital injuries sustained in combat. 

Sarah Rabin is a PhD student within King's Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR) looking at the health and well-being of UK LGBT+ Serving and ex-Serving military personnel. Before she started her PhD, she was a Research Assistant within KCMHR and held a dual role working with the NHS Check project and the Academic Department of Military Mental Health. Sarah received her Master's from King's College London in War and Psychiatry, where her dissertation focused on the final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and its impact on UK Serving and ex-Serving military personnel. She also holds experience researching suicide prevention within US Veteran communities.

Siobhan is a fully funded PhD student at The Veterans and Families Institute for Military Social Research, at Anglia Ruskin University. Her research aims to understand the experiences of Military mobility for young people from British Army families; by collecting primary data that speaks directly to young people. Siobhan also works for SSAFA Community Health, alongside British Armed Forces Overseas, as a (visiting) Child and Adolescent Mental Health Community Nursing Practitioner and a newly accredited ADOS-2 Assessor. She has volunteered in different activities to support the Armed Forces community. She has an undergraduate degree in Applied Social Science and Social Policy, a master’s degree in Psychology, and a master’s degree in Mental Health Nursing. Her research has always been focused on the Armed Forces community, with the aim to promote awareness of experiences, challenges and to recommend support.

The work of the Stress, Trauma, and Related Conditions (STARC) Research Centre focuses on the psychological well-being and mental health of those who have experienced stress, adversity, and trauma. The team focus on exploring and understanding predictors, correlates, and impacts of a range of psychological disorders including, but not limited to, PTSD, Depression, Anxiety, and Dissociation and work with a range of different populations (healthcare workers, emergency services, Armed Forces, children and adolescents, as well as the general adult population). Additionally, recent efforts have focused on exploring the concept of post adversity psychological resilience.

Tamara Obradovic is a PhD student at the King’s Centre for Military Health Research (KCMHR), King’s College London. Tamara's PhD is a mixed methods study exploring the prevalence and impacts of Military Sexual Trauma in ex-Serving females in the UK, with a particular focus on the implications for mental health and help-seeking. Before joining the King’s Centre for Military Health Research, Tamara completed a masters in psychology at the University of Bristol. Her research interests include women's mental health, the mental health impacts of trauma, and occupational mental health.

Tara Zammit is a PhD Candidate in the Department of War Studies at King's College London. She has been awarded the SSHRC-CRSH Department of National Defence MINDS Initiative Doctoral Award to undertake her research. Tara’s research is situated within the fields of ontological security, feminist security studies, and war studies. She is developing a framework for better understanding the interconnectedness of these subjects through an ontological security lens and an analysis of diverse service experiences with the aim of influencing policy to better support women and LGBTQ+ individuals pursuing careers in defence and security.