Professor Angela Harden is a social scientist with 20 years experience of conducting mixed methods health research. She joined UEL and IHHD in 2008 as Professor of Community and Family Health, a post jointly funded by Newham University Hospital NHS Trust (now part of Barts Health NHS Trust) linked to improving health and reducing inequalities in East London. She has built a research team across the Trust and the University and is currently leading work on new models of antenatal care, addressing low birth weight and community centred approaches to promoting health and well-being. In 2014, she was appointed as the Director of IHHD. Angela is also an internationally recognised expert on systematic reviews and evidence synthesis and has conducted more than 20 reviews in diverse policy areas. Prior to joining UEL, she worked at the Social Science Research Unit at the Institute of Education, University of London (now part of UCL) as associate director of the Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre. Here she developed ground-breaking methods for the inclusion of qualitative research alongside trials in systematic reviews to enable learning from those targeted by professional intervention and a better understanding of how social interventions work. She also co-founded a new MSc in Evidence for Policy and Practice and co-directed the Methods for Research Synthesis Node of the ESRC National Centre for Research Methods which aims to build research capacity amongst UK social scientists. She has published extensively and has secured funding from national and international bodies such as NIHR, ESRC, AHRC and EUFP7 as well as local health trusts and charities. She is a co-convener of the Cochrane Collaboration’s Qualitative and Implementation Group and a member of the NIHR Health Technology Assessment Commissioning Board.

Community health care Genomics Diabetes Antenatal care paediatrics