Research Community

Kirsty Davies is a second year Doctorate of Education (EdD) student at the University of Winchester with a background in Primary Teaching and Teacher Training. Her husband serves in the British Army and she is currently based in Germany. At the moment, Kirsty is working on her pilot study; due to personal experiences, as a spouse of a serving soldier and mother of three Service children, as well as her professional roles, Kirsty’s research focuses on teachers’ knowledge, understanding and confidence in supporting the needs of Service children in a primary school setting.

Laura Grover is undertaking a mixed-methods PhD as part of the ADVANCE study at King's College London. Her project is centred around social support in the ADVANCE cohort: a longitudinal study investigating psychosocial outcomes of military personnel who obtained a combat injury during the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts. She is interested in exploring the prevalence of social support among injured and uninjured personnel, the role of different sources of support and the relationship between social support and mental health outcomes. 

Laura Waddams is currently a second year Doctorate in Clinical Psychology student at the University of Essex. Laura has research interests in male and Veteran mental health, anxiety disorders, and the connection between mental health and physical health. Laura’s prior research has included a systematic review on the experience of depression in older men, and a narrative analysis on recovery memoirs. Laura is currently working on her thesis project, which is a qualitative exploration of body modification practices in UK male military Veterans who have an injury, disability, illness, and/or mental health condition.

Linda Slapakova is a Senior Analyst at RAND where she leads work on the Defence workforce and Armed Forces Community. Her work cuts across personnel policy (particularly understanding future personnel policy challenges, incentivisation, career and talent management) and understanding the experiences and support needs of Veterans and military families. In the latter category, her recent projects have focused on understanding the financial stability of military families, the lived experience of military-to-civilian transition among Veteran cohorts with protected or minority characteristics, and implementation of the Armed Forces Covenant. She is a primarily qualitative researcher and her research interests mainly sit within the field of military sociology and applied policy research.

Lisa Campbell is a Counselling Psychologist in training, studying at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her research interests include trauma, PTSD, Complex PTSD, and psychological safety. Prior research based on Veteran populations includes a qualitative exploration of therapy experiences for PTSD and presenting symptoms and coping styles of Veterans who experienced trauma. Additionally, Lisa has conducted two systematic reviews synthesising qualitative literature on treatment seeking and treatment dropout for PTSD. She has presented her research at UK conferences. Her current project leads from her previous research which is a qualitative study to explore counselling psychologists' approach to treatment for CPTSD in UK Veterans.

Lisa is a Trainee Clinical Psychologist studying for her doctorate at the University of Southampton. Her thesis topic is about understanding LGBTQ+ veteran's experiences of mental health and help seeking.