Professor Jane Powell
University of the West of England
Jane is an economist and social scientist. She is a public health academic, leader of the Public Health and Wellbeing Research Group and Professor of Public Health Economics at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Jane specialises in making ‘health economics feel accessible’. She is the author of over 140 journal papers, books and articles and a co-editor of the textbook ‘public health for the 21st century: new perspectives on policy, participation and practice’ Open University Press.
Jane’s research is applied around how the environment influences behaviour including physical activity and health. Jane was an investigator within the EPSRC-funded iConnect Consortium, evaluating Sustrans’ Connect2 infrastructure to promote walking and cycling and led the economic evaluation component. She has taught on the MSc Public Health Programme at UWE for 16 years. The programme is accredited by the Agency for Public Health Education Accreditation (APHEA) and has many local and international students.
Professor David Gunnell
University of Bristol
FFPH FMedSci is Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Bristol (UK) School of Social and Community Medicine and Hon Consultant in Public Health. His research is focused on two main areas: (1) national and international strategies for preventing suicide and improving mental health; (2) early life influences on adult health, particularly mental illness.
He is a member of the National Suicide Prevention Advisory Group for England and contributed to WHO’s 2014 Preventing Suicide Report. Key areas of current research include: the impact of the global financial crisis on suicide and interventions to offset the impact of future recessions; the global burden of pesticide suicide; identifying and responding to emerging / new methods of suicide; the role of the internet in suicide. He leads an NIHR-funded programme of research in support of the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England; the research is carried out in partnership with service users and research colleagues from the Universities of Oxford, Manchester and Glasgow.