International Advisory Group
GRG’s work is supported by a group of international scholars with expertise in different aspects of gambling studies and the study of gambling harms.
Dr Manase Chiweshe
Dr Manase Kudzai Chiweshe is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social and Community Development, University of Zimbabwe and a Research Fellow, Sociology Department, Rhodes University, South Africa. He is the winner of the 2015 Gerti Hesseling Prize for Best Paper Published in African Studies. His work revolves around the sociology of everyday life in African spaces with specific interest in gender, football, and sports studies.
Professor Ross Gordon
Ross Gordon is a Professor of Behaviour and Social Change at UTS Business School, University of Technology Sydney. Ross is also the Director of Change for Good @ UTS – a Research Centre focused on transdisciplinary behaviour and social change for social good. Ross has been a principal or named investigator on projects attracting over $10m in research funds, and works across various issues including gambling, non-communicable diseases, Covid-19, energy hardship and energy efficiency, climate action and environmental sustainability, alcohol, tobacco control, mental health, childhood obesity, workplace bullying, and power and politics in the neoliberal university. He served on the inaugural WHO Technical Advisory Group on Behavioural Insights and Sciences for Health from 2000-2024 and currently serves as an observer for the group.
Dr Virve Marionneau
Virve Marionneau is an associate professor in sociology at the University of Helsinki and the director of the Centre for Research on Addiction Control and Governance (CEACG). She is also a consultant for the Council of Europe Pompidou Group and she was a commissioner on the Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling. Her research focuses on gambling regulations, the commercial and legal determinants of gambling, and gambling harms. Her on-going projects focus on data-driven practices in online gambling, social impacts of gambling and policy evaluations.
Dr Darragh McGee
Dr Darragh McGee is a Senior Lecturer in the Department for Health at the University of Bath, with research interests spanning the globalisation of sports gambling, digital technologies, and youth wellbeing. His work critically explores how technological innovation and industry expansion impact young people’s welfare, particularly through the lens of surveillance capitalism and risky consumption. He has received funding from the British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, and the Global Challenges Research Fund, and his research has been featured in international media outlets such as The Guardian, WIRED, and CBC. In 2020, he was named a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker and has contributed to public radio and podcast programmes including BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking and The Essay.
Professor Shekhar Saxena
Shekhar Saxena is a mental health professional, who worked for World Health Organization (1998 to 2018) and Harvard School of Public Health (2018 to 2025). His areas of interest include mental health, substance abuse, gambling and gaming behaviours. He was one of the authors of the Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling, published in 2024. He advises governments and non-profit organizations on policy and programmes related to his areas of interest.
Dr Kristiana Siste
Kristiana Siste, MD, PhD is a lecturer and addiction psychiatrist in Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Universitas Indonesia-CiptoMangunkusumo National General Hospital. She is focusing in gambling disorder. She has conducted extensive research on gambling disorder in Indonesia and established the first national treatment center for gambling disorder in the country. She is also a member of The Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling.
Professor Malcolm Sparrow
Malcolm K. Sparrow is Professor of the Practice of Public Management at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Previously he served 10 years with the British Police Service, rising to the rank of Detective Chief Inspector. His research interests include regulatory and enforcement strategy, fraud control, corruption control, risk management and harm reduction—subjects on which he has authored nine books. Malcolm served as Commissioner on the Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling.
Professor Rachel Volberg
Rachel Volberg has been involved in research on gambling and problem gambling since 1985 and has directed or consulted on numerous studies internationally. Dr. Volberg has published extensively and advised governments and private sector organizations on issues relating to gambling legalization, the epidemiology of problem gambling and public policy approaches to developing and refining services for problem gamblers and their families. From 2013 to 2025, Dr. Volberg served as Principal Investigator of the multidisciplinary Social and Economic Impacts of Gambling in Massachusetts (SEIGMA) study, funded by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and the largest and longest study of the impacts of gambling ever conducted.
Dr. Joana Salifu Yendork
Joana Salifu Yendork, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Director of the Centre for Disability Studies and Advocacy (CEDSA) at the University of Ghana. Her research spans child and adolescent mental health, religion and well-being, and gambling harm prevention, where she has co-led international projects and served as Commissioner on the Lancet Public Health Commission on Gambling. A Fulbright African Research Scholar at Virginia Commonwealth University (2023–2024), she has authored more than 60 peer-reviewed publications and book chapters. She continues to advance research and advocacy to improve mental health and well-being across diverse Ghanaian and African contexts.
Associate Professor Angela Rintoul
Angela is a public health policy researcher, based at Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, whose interests span the public health aspects of gambling, commercial determinants of health, suicide prevention, inequities and family violence. Angela's work has also explored the relationship between place, social circumstances, and the regulation of gambling. She has conducted reviews of policy interventions to prevent gambling-related harms. Angela currently holds a Suicide Prevention Australia postdoctoral fellowship, allowing her to investigate the links between gambling and suicide to identify prevention pathways.