CeDAR - Meet the Team
CeDAR's interdisciplinary team brings together a diverse range of skills and experiences to foster a multi-perspective approach. We draw from the disciplines of Clinical, Developmental and Health Psychology, Psychiatry, Speech and Language Therapy, General Practice, Social Work and Lived Experience to broaden our understanding of neurodevelopment and mental wellbeing across the lifespan.
Our network of researchers, partners and affiliates has grown organically since our inception over 30 years ago, with early career, clinical trainee and PhD support programmes bringing a wealth of fresh talent to our team and sustaining our research innovation.
Professor Helen Minnis
Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Helen has a clinical and research interest in long-term psychiatric impacts of childhood experiences of abuse and neglect. Focusing on initiating evidence-based interventions through randomised controlled trials. She champions interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches with colleagues across universities and third-sector organisations to embed holistic approaches to wellbeing research.
Professor Christopher Gillberg
Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Christopher is our longstanding collaborator and Honorary Professor, with 40+ years’ experience of working with families with complex psychiatric presentations clinically and through his research studies. His is renowned for his pioneering work in holistic neurodevelopmental assessment.
Dr Jason Lang
Clinical Senior Lecturer in Neurodevelopment and Honorary Consultant in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Jason advocates for neurodivergent children and young people, centering on equality, access and understanding to better serve this often marginalised population. He co-leads academic initiatives - Rethinking Neurodevelopmental Practice, Infant Mental Health MSc Programme, BSc Psychological Medicine. And brings lived experience as a autistic father with neurodivergent daughters.
Dr Ruchika Gajwani
Senior Research Fellow and Honorary Clinical Psychologist
Ruchika leads our clinical trials on early interventions for vulnerable young people. Building on her 20+ years' research expertise in neurodevelopment, trauma, and resilience in high-risk youth, and is supported by the prestigious MQ Fellowship She advocates for community interventions and the scaling up of therapeutics. Her work has received recognition for its exceptional contribution to clinical trials.
Dr Liana Romaniuk
Consultant and Clinical Senior Research Fellow in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Liana uses computational approaches and neuroimaging to advance understanding and treat early-phase mental illness. Her work focuses on fostering flexible thinking and autonomy in young people as they navigate recovery.
Dr Fiona Turner
Lecturer and Co-Lead MSc Infant Mental Health Programme
Fiona co-leads and lectures on our MSc Infant Mental Health Programme, using expertise and knowledge grounded in our clinical trial research to inform coursework. Her work focuses on attachment-based interventions for infants after abuse and neglect, and centres on recovery and improving life outcomes. She is a parent of neurodivergent children.
Kirsty Macleod
Trial Manager
Kirsty is our longstanding clinical trials manager. She has an extensive background in social work and community mental health intervention, working within the NHS and Early Intervention in Psychosis and Crisis Services. She uses her frontline experience in building relationships, partnership working within stakeholders and project management.
Abdullah Alvi
Trial Manager
Abdullah coordinates the Relationship in Good Hands Trial (RIGHT), a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) for primary school-aged children in adoptive or foster care. He manages the study across multiple sites in Scotland, England and Wales.
Dr Claire Davidson-Jamieson
Research Associate
Claire leads our studies that improve access to holistic identification tools and support services for neurodivergent young people. Using her background in speech and language therapy to advance dynamic observational assessment methods in complex cases, that establish interplays between neurodivergence and maltreatment. She actively supports early career researchers and PhD students within our team.
Jaycee Pownall
Research Associate
Jaycee brings over 20 years' experience, specialising in social and health-focused research, trialling complex interventions for vulnerable families, emphasising implementation and effectiveness. She also explores alternative education models and mentors early career researchers and PhD students, focusing on marginalised communities and neurodiversity.
Senior Administrator
Irene O'Neill, Senior Business Support Administrator, University of Glasgow/ NHS GG&C
Irene brings over 35 years of invaluable experience to our team, offering essential support to individual team members and on our clinical trials. For inquiries about office management, project assistance, website updates, or scheduling meetings, Irene is your go-to person.
Research Delivery Teams
- BeST? Services Trial: effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the New Orleans Intervention Model for Infant Mental Health
Jamieson, Donna - Research Assistant
Molloy, Anni - Trial Recruitment Manager
- BRIDGE - explores the possibility of providing a treatment programme for young people with symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) in the general population, who may or may not be accessing any mental health services.
Donegan, Julie - Research Trial Therapist
McCarthy, Claire - Research Trial Manager
- EFECT - Effective, Fast, Embedded Clinical Tools
Mcfadyen, Anne - Research Assistant
Saiger, Michael- Research Assistant
- Partnership for Change - Coproduction and feasibility randomised controlled trial of Infant, Parent Support (IPS) to improve the mental health of children with a social worker.
Allen, Vicky - Partnership Development Manager, NSPCC
Alvi, Abdullah - Project Manager
Bates, Karen - Specialist Partnership Assistant Director, NSPCC
Burns, Anne - Famly Recruitment Manager
Dalgarno, Lindsay - Research Associate
Graham, Sharon - Patient and Public Lead
Macleod, Kirsty - Project Manager
Pownall, Jaycee - Research Associate
Robson-Brown, Emily - Acting Development Manager, NSPCC
- RIGHT - Relationships In Good Hands Trial
Alvi, Abdullah - Project Manager
Martin, Lee - Administrator
- SAM - School Attachment Monitor
Aleid, Yara - Research Assistant
Saiger, Michael - Research Assistant
Clinical Trainees and PhD Students
Clinical Trainees
- Walker, Graham - Clinical Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and Honorary Clincial Lecturer. Research: Child and Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry and on a nationally distributed questionnaire on child and adolescent psychiatrists' attitudes to Clozapine, a systemic review identifying studies examining the validity of instruments for use as outcome measures in child and adolescent forensic mental health services, and reflective pieces exploring psychiatric services in Australia. Graham is applying for a PhD focusing on prenatal substance exposure and associations with adolescent/adult criminality.
- Wilson, Naomi - Wellcome Trust Doctoral Fellow and Clinical Lecturer in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Research: currently completing a Wellcome Doctoral Fellowship, The Divergent Paths Study, which aims to explore the health trajectories and adult health outcomes of those who have engaged with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, including neurodivergent young people, using nationwide routinely collected health data. Naomi's wider research interests include the social determinants of mental health difficulties, mental health inequalities emerging in childhood and early interventions to reduce these.
PhD Students
- Dalgarno, Lindsay - Strategies for increasing inclusivity of a range of stakeholders in a trial of a complex intervention. This project seeks to examine methods of engagement used in the coproduction of an intervention for struggling families with children aged 0-5 and spans 3 phases of the Partnership for Change Study. A range of participating methods used to engage with stakeholder partners will be reported on and critiqued based on qualitative data collected and analysed throughout the study. Participants will include parents with lived intersectional experiences, and practitioners from health, social care, and third sector organisations that support struggling families. The roles of the researchers in supporting the work of the trial across phases in two distinct geographic areas will also be examined. Supervisors: Professor Helen Minnis, Dr Ruth Lewis and Dr Jaycee Pownall.
- Feng, Zejian - Neurodevelopmental Disorder Detection in Children Based on Probabilistic Behavioural Modelling. My research focuses on developing AI-based pipeline models to automatically detect neurodevelopmental disorders, such as Reactive Attachment Disorders (RAD) in children by analysing visual and audio behavioural cues. Multimodal modelling approaches are used to integrate diverse data sources, improving prediction accuracy and reliability of the behavioural patterns and mental health issues prediction. Additionally, probabilistic modellig is applied to capture the underlying distributions within multi-label behavioural datasets, enabling more nuanced and interpretable predictions. Supervisors: Marwa Mahmoud and Helen Minnis.
- Ghoyal, Monica - Service utilisation and pathways to care for young people with symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder within the BRIDGE Project. The overall objective of the research is to explore the service utilisation and pathways to care for young people (between 14-24 years) in the BRIDGE project, a feasibility randomised controlled trial of brief, intensive assessment and integrated formulation for young people early in the course of Borderline Personality Disorder. The project will also attempt to understand how care pathways for young people within BRIDGE link with quality of life, functional outcome measures and health economic indicators. Supervisor: Dr Ruchika Gajwani.
- Houston, Craig - Community-based participatory research study using ethnographic approaches to explore how community 'third' places (places away from home, work, school) impact feelings of social connection for care experienced young people. Supervisors: Dr Avril Johnstone, Professor Helen Minnis, Dr Nick Dickson and Dr Claire Goodfellow.
- Lang, Jason - Healthy Neurodivergence: Creating systems that help neurodivergent children and young people thrive. Explores how we can create environments and systems that enable neurodivergent children and young people to flourish, not forcing them to fit neurotypical norms, but by recognising, valuing and supporting their differences. This work is grounded in the concept of healthy neurodivergence, the idea that neurodivergent people can and should live healthy, connected and fulfilling lives when their needs are properly understood and met. Programme of research - Study 1: understanding neurodivergent complexity. Examined patterns of co-occurring neurodivergent traits in children referred for autism assessment. This work showed that neurodivergent children are rarely "just" autistic or "just" ADHD, most are multiply neurodivergent. Currently diagnostic system often fail to reflect this complexity, leading to unmet needs and fragmented care. Study 2: barriers and facilitators to support. Explored how professionals, including teachers, social workers, GPs and health visitors, understand and respond to neurodivergent children through qualitative interviews and thematic analysis. The study identified both barriers and enablers to accessing appropriate support. Findings highlighted a widespread lack of lived experience based understanding of neurodivergence, alongside a number of systemic factors, which prevent practitioners from delivering the best level of care. Study 3: Neurodiversity In Scottish schools (NISS). Given the importance of education in children's lives, and the barriers identified in Study 2, the final study focuses on reforming school systems to better support neurodivergent pupils. Phase 1 of NISS involved extensive engagement with young people, families and professionals to identify barriers to inclusion and co-create a framework for change in Scottish secondary schools. Why this matters - Neurodivergent children and young people experience poorer outcomes across education, health and wellbeing than their neurotypical peers. One reason for this is not their difference, but the systematic failure to recognise and support that different. This research is about shifting the conversation; moving beyond deficit; challenging outdated psycho-medical models; and building systems that see neurodivergence as part of human diversity, something to be supported, not fixed. Schools, services and systems that work well for neurodivergent chidlren are better for all children. This work is part of a growing international movement towards neuro-affirming practice, creating a future where neurodivergent young people can thrive as their authentic selves. Supervisors: Professor Helen Minnis, Dr Ruchika Gajwani and Professor Christopher Gillberg.
- Pollock, Julia - Examining the relationship between autonomic dysregulation and communication in care experienced young people. This research will investigate how changes in the body's stress and regulation systems affect communication in care experienced young people. It will focus on how those internal states and sensory processing may impact on more complex communication skills (e.g. the communication skills that are required for thinking and for processing social situations) which are often misunderstood as behavioural problems. Supervisors: Dr Claire Davidson-Jamieson and Professor Helen Minnis.
Honorary / Affiliate Members of the Team
- Beadel, Alexander - Research Assistant
- Bear, Holly - Research Fellow
- Blower, Aileen - Clincial Senior Lecturer
- Bryce, Graham - Senior Research Fellow
- Chaplan, Richard - Senior Research Fellow
- Cosgrave, Nicola - Senor Lecturer
- Crawford, Karen - Research Fellow
- Dertwinkel, Greta - Research Fellow
- Donaldson, Julia - Clinical Senior Lecturer
- Fraser, Lisa - Lecturer, Infant Mental Health MSc Programme
- Ginnell, Lorna - Research Fellow - Emotional Availability Scales: Video coding for the RIGHT Trial
- Havovi, Khareghat - Research Assistant
- Ito, Kayoka
- Kainth, Gary - Social Work Research Affiliate
- Kerr, Daniel - Clinical Senior Lecturer
- Koepplinger, Stephen - Research Assistant
- Lockhart, Elaine - Clinical Senior Lecturer
- March, Joshua - Lecturer, Infant Mental Health MSc Programme
- MacLaughlin, Jeanne - Lecturer, Infant Mental Health MSc Programme
- Marryat, Louise - Lecturer
- Matta, Nashwa - Senior Lecturer
- Mitchell, Fiona - Clinical Lecturer
- Morton, Michael - Clinical Senior Lecturer
- Nagiub, Youstina - Research Assistant
- Nichol, Katie - Senior Research Fellow, Orgyen, and the Centre for Youth Mental Health, The University of Melbourne
- O'Connor, Dominic
- Omosehin, Oluwaseun - Clinical Lecturer
- Puckering, Christine - Clinical Senior Lecturer
- Punukollu, Mallika - Senior Lecturer
- Romao, Paopula - Research Assistant
- Thompson, Lucy - Research Fellow
- Wilkinson, Gordon - Clinical Senior Lecturer
MSc Infant Mental Health Programme
Postgraduate Taught
Infant Mental Health MSc/PgDIP/PgCert
Online distance learning
This progamme in Infant Mental Health explores the journey of the infant from pre-birth to pre-school. The foundational thread of the centrality of relationships; significance of environmental influences; and competence of the infant will run throughout the programme. By providing a solid grounding in theory and equipping students with contemporary insights into the observation and practice of supporting Infant Mental Health and development, the programme aims to produce graduates who will contribute to the mental health and wellbeing of infants in their own unique context. Developed in collaboration with the National Health Service, the Scottish Government and the Association of Infant Mental Health (AIMH) UK, this programme is at the forefront of the rapidly developing policy and practice landscape. The teaching team comprises internationally renowned clinical and research experts in the field.
Dr Fiona Sim, Lecturer, and is the Programme Director of the online distance learning (ODL) Masters in Infant Mental Health. Fiona graduated BSc (Honours) in Psychology from the University of Glasgow (2008)and graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in Applied Health Sciences from the University of Aberdeen (2018). Fiona gained RET Fellowship on completion of the PG Certificate in Academic Practice (with Distinction, 2024).
Dr Fiona Turner, Lecturer, and co-lead for the online distance learning (ODL) Masters in Infant Mental Health. Fiona graduated BSc (Honours) in Psychology with Sociology and applied Social Policy (2002). MSc Health Psychology (2003) and Doctorate in Health Psychology (2013) from Queen Margaret University. Fiona then completed her PhD at University of Glasgow (2022), which examined the effects of foster carer commitment on infants who have suffered abuse and neglect and explored drivers and barriers in relation to commitment within short-term foster care.