Executive Group
The Executive Group is made up of representatives from the organisations that formed part of the consortium that collaborated in the development of the PPIW: Cardiff University, Swansea University, Aberystwyth University, University of South Wales, Bangor University, Liverpool University, and The Bevan Foundation.
Professor Catherine Farrell (Chair)
BA, PGCE, PhD
Catherine is a Professor of Public Management at the University of South Wales. Her research interests are in the areas of citizen participation in governance and the effectiveness of voice and choice mechanisms. Her work on public service boards included school governing bodies as one approach to be evaluated in terms of the level of involvement of board members in strategy. Catherine chaired the review of ‘School Governance in Wales’ and is a regular speaker on a range of governance issues. Catherine leads the University’s new Post Graduate Certificate in Governance.
Professor Nigel O’Leary
Nigel is an Associate Professor in the Labour Economics Section in the School of Management at Swansea University
Professor Laura McAllister CBE
BA, PhD
Laura is Professor Public Policy and the Governance of Wales at Cardiff University’s Wales Governance Centre. She was educated at the London School of Economics and Cardiff University. Laura is the Former Chair of Sport Wales (2000 – 2016). Laura’s principal academic interest is devolution. She holds honorary degrees from the Universities of Bangor, Cardiff and South Wales. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours Lists in 2016.
Professor Gareth Rees
BA, MPhil, AcSS, FLSW
Gareth is a Research Professor at the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) and in the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. He has held a number of senior managerial roles at Cardiff, including being Head of the School of Education, Deputy Director of the School of Social Sciences, Acting Director of the School of Social Sciences and Director of the University Research and Graduate School in the Social Sciences.
Dr Victoria Winckler, Bevan Foundation
BA, MSC, PhD
Victoria is Director of the Bevan Foundation. She is also a leading contributor to public policy in Wales, having worked in senior roles at the Welsh Local Government Association and Mid Glamorgan County Council. At the Bevan Foundation Victoria has fought tirelessly for equality and social justice. She has particular expertise on poverty, regeneration and equality issues, writing on and researching these issues extensively as well as commenting in the media and on the Bevan Foundation’s blog, and advising government on them.
Professor Michael Woods
BA, PhD, FRGS
Michael is Professor of Human Geography at Aberystwyth University and also Professor of Transformative Social Science. He is Co-Director of the Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research, Data and Methods (WISERD) and of the ESRC WISERD/Civil Society Research Centre, and was formerly Co-Director of the Wales Rural Observatory. His research interests include rural change and development and community governance, and he was author of the 2003 ‘Aberystwyth Report’ to the Welsh Government on Town and Community Councils.
Dr Myfanwy Davies
BA, MA, MSc, PhD
Myfanwy is a Senior Lecturer in Social Policy with the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol in Bangor. Myfanwy’s main Research and teaching interests are in health inequalities, mental health and women’s expereinces of health and health care. Her teaching traces processes of policy formation and explores influences on policy formation and explores health and social care policy performance in Wales and beyond. Her Research examined aspects of patient decision-making on care and treatments.
Former Members:
Dr Catherine Robinson
BA, PhD
Catherine is Professor of Social Policy Research in Bangor University and Head of the School of Social Sciences. She is the national lead of the NISCHR Academic Social Care Collaboration (ASCC) and is Co-Director of the Centre for Mental Health and Society.
Professor Philip Murphy
BSc (Econ), MA
Philip Murphy is a Professor of Economics in the Department of Labour Economics in the School of Management at Swansea University. Before joining Swansea University in 1991, Professor Murphy held academic positions at the universities of Manchester, East Anglia, Aberdeen and IUPUI (USA). He is an applied labour economist whose research interests span a number of areas including wage inequality, the economics of discrimination, training, economic inactivity, spatial modelling, the dynamics of the national minimum wage, and the determinants of subjective wellbeing.