Ms Sarah Lester

  • Research Assistant (MRC/CSO Social & Public Health Sciences Unit)

Biography

I joined the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit Systems Science team in November 2024 as a Research Assistant. 

Before moving to Glasgow I worked at the EPPI-Centre at University College London (UCL), where I produced evidence syntheses for a range of policy and practice partners including the Department of Health and Social Care. I also worked on systematic reviews for the purposes of informing National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on a range of mental health and social care topics.

My doctoral work, funded by NIHR ARC North Thames, explores how local authorities in England responded to initiatives to build up collaborative research infrastructure to address health inequalities and the social determinants of health.

I will be capturing learning across two different projects taking systems approaches to tackling health inequalities SIPHER Consortium and the GALLANT programme.

SIPHER (Systems Science in Public Health and Health Economics Research) seeks to create a new framework for system science public health research that blends qualitative research, data science, (health) economics, epidemiology and macro- and micro-level systems modelling approaches. Working in collaboration with policy and practice partners, SIPHER aims to create the evidence base to underpin Wellbeing in all Policies efforts by local, regional and national governments.

GALLANT (Glasgow as a Living Lab Accelerating Novel Transformation) aims to deliver a Climate Resilient City through City-University Partnership. The team use qualitative and quantitative systems science approaches to help the city move towards climate resilience whilst tackling health, social and economic inequalities, and draw heavily on ideas from Doughnut Economics and Wellbeing Economy work. 

Research interests

I am interested in using a complex systems lens in order to understand the relationship between evidence and policy in public health and climate change-related topics. 

Publications

Prior publications

ORCiD

Rachael C. Edwards, Dylan Kneale, Claire Stansfield, Sarah Lester, (2024) “They don't have the luxury of time”: interviews exploring the determinants of public health research activity that contextualise embedded researcher roles in local government Health Research Policy and Systems (doi: 10.1186/s12961-024-01162-2)(issn: 1478-4505); source: Sarah Lester

Dylan Kneale, Claire Stansfield, Rebecca Goldman, Sarah Lester, Rachael C. Edwards, James Thomas, (2024) The implementation of embedded researchers in policy, public services, and commercial settings: a systematic evidence and gap map Implementation Science Communications (doi: 10.1186/s43058-024-00570-3)(issn: 2662-2211); source: Sarah Lester

Dylan Kneale, Rachael C Edwards, Claire Stansfield, Sarah Lester, Rebecca Goldman, James Thomas, (2023) What are embedded researchers and what influence do they have in public health settings? EPPI Centre, University College London ; source: Sarah Lester

Sarah Lester, Claire Khouja, Meena Khatwa, Gary Raine, Rebecca Rees, Irene Kwan, Kath Wright, Amanda Sowden, James Thomas, (2022) Adult Specialist Services for Victim-Survivors of Sexual Violence and Abuse Evidence for Policy and Practice Information Centre (EPPI-Centre) ; source: Sarah Lester

Theo Lorenc, Sarah Lester, Katy Sutcliffe, Claire Stansfield, James Thomas, (2020) Interventions to support people exposed to adverse childhood experiences: systematic review of systematic reviews BMC Public Health (doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-08789-0)(issn: 1471-2458); source: Sarah Lester

Sarah Lester, Meena Khatwa, Katy Sutcliffe, (2020) Service needs of young people affected by adverse childhood experiences (ACEs): a systematic review of UK qualitative evidence Children and youth services review ; source: Sarah Lester

Sarah Lester, Theo Lorenc, Katy Sutcliffe, Meena Khatwa, Claire Stansfield, Amanda Sowden, James Thomas, (2019) What helps to support people affected by Adverse Childhood Experiences? Evidence for Policy and Practice Information Centre (EPPI-Centre) ; source: Sarah Lester


A smiling headshot of Sarah Lester