Meet the team

Professor Amanda Amos - Professor of Health Promotion

Amanda Amos is Professor of Health Promotion at the Centre for Population Health Sciences at the University of Edinburgh. She has been teaching and researching health promotion for over 20 years. Current research includes studies evaluating interventions on smoking in the home and smoking cessation, reducing inequalities and smoking, and investigating young people’s sources of cigarettes. Amanda is leading on the qualitative phase of the REFRESH research.

Amanda is convenor of the University of Edinburgh Tobacco Control Research Group, and is a member of the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies (UKCTCS), the Scottish Ministerial Working Group on Tobacco Control and the Board of the International Network of Women Against Tobacco (Europe).

Dr Lynsey Mills – Research Fellow

Lynsey is a research fellow at the University of Aberdeen where she completed both her PhD and MSc after completing her BSc at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. Lynsey’s background is in nutrition and health sciences, mainly looking at the effects of different dietary components on cardiovascular disease. She joined the REFRESH team in 2010 as a fieldwork researcher responsible for going into parents’ homes and delivering information to them about air quality in their home and the best ways in which they could reduce the amounts of secondhand smoke their children are exposed to.

Dr Rachel O’Donnell - Project Leader

Dr Rachel O’Donnell is the Policy and Research Manager at ASH Scotland. She leads the development of new evidence-based policy and research projects within ASH Scotland, and oversees work including the Big Lottery funded REFRESH project, which aims to reduce children’s exposure to second-hand smoke in the home.  Before joining ASH Scotland in 2003, Rachel worked as a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, and as a Lecturer/Research Officer at the University of Roehampton, London where she ran both undergraduate Health Psychology courses. She completed her PhD at the University of Roehampton and in conjunction with the Royal Hospital for Neuro-disability, researching quality of life and severe neurological disability in individuals with multiple sclerosis.

Dr Deborah Ritchie – Senior Lecturer in Nursing Studies

Dr. Deborah Ritchie, PhD, MSC, RMN, RNMS, Dip. Community Mental Health, is a senior lecturer in Nursing Studies at the University of Edinburgh (2005-present). She previously worked at Queen Margaret University (1999-2005). She has worked in public health as a health promotion specialist, both in the NHS and the voluntary sector, and as a qualitative tobacco control researcher for 24 years. She has significant experience of working and researching in areas of multiple deprivations and this is reflected in her research interests. Her current research interests are in the development and evaluation of smoke-free homes and protecting children from the harm of second-hand smoke, particularly children from disadvantaged communities. She has a commitment to translating research into practice and is involved in this aspect of the REFRESH project.  She has been involved in several significant research projects and is also interested in mental health settings and works as an honorary nurse consultant for one day per week.

She is involved in the Global Nurses’ Network for Tobacco Control and is involved in many international discussions with nurses.  She is involved in the researchers’ group of the Scottish Tobacco Control Alliance and is a member of the University of Edinburgh Tobacco Control Research Group. She is a collaborator, as a member of the University of Edinburgh, in the UKCTS. The partnership is led by the University of Nottingham and this partnership also involves the Universities of Bath, UCL, Birmingham and Stirling.  January 2008-2013.  She is also an Invited member of the Research and Evaluation Sub-Group of the Ministerial Working Group on Tobacco Control (Scotland) April 2009- present.

Dr Sean Semple – Senior Lecturer

Dr Sean Semple is the Director of the Scottish Centre for Indoor Air. He is a Senior Lecturer in the Population Health section at the University of Aberdeen and also holds an honorary post at the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh. His research interests include exposure assessment to particles in the home and workplace and he has been involved in projects to evaluate the effect of smoke-free legislation across the UK. Sean is leading on the measuring of air quality in the home for the REFRESH project. He is also involved in studies of biomass fuel smoke exposure in the developing world where he has assisted in projects in Malawi, Nepal and India.

April Shaw -Senior Researcher

April Shaw is Senior Researcher with ASH Scotland. Her key roles on the REFRESH project are to co-ordinate the portfolio of research and deliver all of the research elements led by ASH Scotland. She has spent the last 10 years involved in research in the illicit drugs field. Her main research interests have included research into interventions aimed at reducing drug deaths. Previous work has involved mapping public injecting sites and collaboration in a Hepatitis C Prevalence Study.  Most recently April was involved in a collaborative European study looking at the health and social care needs of older drug users.

Steve Turner – Consultant Paediatrician

Steve qualified from medical school in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1992 and started paediatric training in 1993.  His training took him across the North East of England, New Zealand and Western Australia.  He was appointed Senior Clinical Lecturer at University of Aberdeen and Consultant paediatrician at NHS Grampian in 2003.  His clinical activities include on call, ward rounds and clinics.  His research is based around early childhood exposures and how these may cause asthma. Steve is the lead for the REFRESH quantitaive research phase.

John Watson – Director of Policy and Communications

John Watson is Director of Policy and Communications for ASH Scotland. His first employment was as an astrophysicist but he has now spent nearly 20 years working in a variety of charity campaigning and communications roles. Firmly believing that our actions can make the world a better place John has worked in the peace movement, environment sector, international development, children’s services and human rights. All of this has proved invaluable experience for his current job tackling the harm tobacco causes to people, families and communities across Scotland