Research Community

Amy is a first-year PhD student based at Newcastle University. Having recently left the Royal Air Force after a varied career in the service and having directly experienced the gender culture of the UK Armed Forces, she is excited to start her PhD in Human Geography. Her research will examine how gender and the other multitude of conflicting intersectional identities of military personnel impact the social construction and speciality of the RAF. Often viewed as homogenous, Amy is focused on understanding how the RAF’s unique organisational culture and varying sub-cultures based on rank and role impact the social construction of RAF culture. Underpinning her data collection with reflexivity through her position as an RAF Veteran, Amy is excited to commence the project to support cultural understanding and effect change. 

Bruce served nearly 27 years as a soldier and officer in the British Army, before becoming a leadership lecturer in Further Education for 2 years. Bruce is currently a Level 7 Senior Leader Development Coach and completing a Professional Doctorate in Education with the University of Portsmouth. He is a Chartered Companion of CMI, Fellow of the Institute of Leadership, Fellow of IoSCM, FIEDP, and Chartered MCIPD. His research interests are in how the military and Veterans can contribute to education post-service. Bruce has a provisional agreement for this research to help evidence towards the Office for Veterans' Affairs employment policies and the Education and Training Foundations future strategies.

The Centre for Military Women’s Research (CMWR)’s core mission is to inform and improve the well-being of women in the military and Veteran community through world-leading collaborative research and evaluation. Their work highlights women’s experiences, issues, and support needs and the centre is dedicated to fostering co-production with members of the military community and collaboration with partners and stakeholders.

Dean Whybrow’s research area is organizational health and well-being. He is a subject matter expert in well-being and occupational mental health care. This includes developing resources to cope with job demands such as high workload, ethical dilemmas, or exposure to potentially traumatic events. He is focused on the interplay between job demands and job resources, and strategies for promoting employee resilience. On the flip side are employee burnout, disengagement, and workforce attrition. These factors are especially relevant to healthcare workforces where staff recruitment, education, and retention can impact service delivery. His emphasis is promoting recovery and well--being, understanding the decision to leave a job, the experience of career change and identifying opportunities to promote employee engagement and retention. 

Howard received his PhD in epidemiology for research on mental health and socioeconomic status of UK Armed Forces personnel transitioning to civilian life. Veterans and transition remain his primary areas of interest, including mental health, social, and economic outcomes. His experience is in mixed-methods research, including cross-sectional studies, longitudinal studies, randomised controlled trials, meta-analysis, and data linkage. He has published on the long-term mental health and socioeconomic outcomes of Veterans, as well as other areas of Armed Forces wellbeing and return from deployment. His current main study is ADVANCE-INVEST, on the consequences of battlefield injury to the transition outcomes of Veterans.

Dr Keeling is Research Leader at RAND Europe, where her primary role is Research Manager of the Forces in Mind Trust Research Centre. Prior to joining RAND, she worked in academia. Mary is a Chartered Psychologist who has worked in the field of military psychology since 2010, both in the UK and the US. Using quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches, her research has aimed to understand the psychosocial impact of military service on military personnel, Veterans, and Service-connected families. To date, Mary's research has focused on four broad areas: military to civilian transition; romantic relationships and military families; mental health stigma and help-seeking; and the psychosocial impact of Service-connected physical injuries.