Integrating Community Voices into Global Health Research
"My goal is to ensure research outcomes are not only scientifically sound but also relevant and beneficial to those most affected.
I focus on embedding community engagement into scientifically robust research."
Nicola's Background
Nicola has over a decade of global experience in infectious disease research, specialising in community engagement and involvement in humanitarian settings. With a strong academic background coordinating clinical trials and operational research, Nicola is dedicated to bridging the gap between research teams and affected communities, to ensure that the community perspective is meaningfully integrated into all stages of the research process for more impactful outcomes.​
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Her areas of research include drug-resistant TB, malaria, soil-transmitted helminths, oncology, and refugee, mobile and migrant populations. She previously worked for Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) on the successful TB-PRACTECAL clinical trial which found more effective and safer treatment for people with DR-TB which is now being used worldwide.
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Nicola has also worked for the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit and the International Organisation for Migration coordinating multidisciplinary research studies in complex settings.
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She holds a Master’s in Control of Infectious Diseases from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Services
(not limited, please get in touch for more information)
Community Engagement and involvement
Strategy development and implementation of community engagement and involvement in research (clinical trials and other research study types), including participatory approaches.
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Recruitment strategies, development of patient-facing materials, including informed consent forms
Research Coordination
Ethics and regulatory approvals, protocol review, standard operating procedure development, trial master file/documentation management, logistics and team coordination
Scientific and lay communications
Scientific publications, conference abstracts and presentations.
Scientific and lay blogs, press releases, patient education, webinars, website content, promotional materials, social media content.
Patient insights
Development and implementation of patient surveys, focus groups, patient advisory boards and patient review panels.
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Data analysis, visualisation and report writing.
Project management
Research, project and grant management, stakeholder management, administration, budget management.