Dr Sarah Lester
- Research Associate (Public Health)
Biography
I joined the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit Systems Science team in November 2024. Originally, I set out to capture learning across two different projects taking systems approaches to tackling health inequalities - the SIPHER Consortium and the GALLANT programme.
I now focus primarily on GALLANT (Glasgow as a Living Lab Accelerating Novel Transformation), a project which uses Doughnut Economics, alongside other alternative economic paradigms, to work towards a Climate Resilient Glasgow through City-University Partnership. I'm a member of the workstream one team (systems transformation), which draws from a range of participatory and systems science approaches to help the city move towards climate resilience whilst tackling health, social and economic inequalities.
Before moving to Glasgow I worked at the EPPI-Centre at University College London (UCL), where I produced evidence syntheses for a range of policy and practice partners including the Department of Health and Social Care. I also worked on systematic reviews for the purposes of informing National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines on a range of mental health and social care topics.
My doctoral work, funded by NIHR ARC North Thames, used qualitative complexity-informed methods to explore how local authorities in England responded to initiatives to build up collaborative research infrastructure to address health inequalities and the social determinants of health.
Research interests
I am interested in using a complex systems lens in order to understand the relationship between evidence and policy in public health and climate change-related topics.
Publications
Prior publications
Thesis
Sarah Lester (2025) Becoming research-active in the social determinants of health: a study of intelligent accountability in local government Sarah Lester.
Article
Rachael C. Edwards, Dylan Kneale, Claire Stansfield, Sarah Lester (2024) “They don't have the luxury of time”: interviews exploring the determinants of public health research activity that contextualise embedded researcher roles in local government Health Research Policy and Systems Sarah Lester. ISSN 1478-4505 (doi: 10.1186/s12961-024-01162-2)
Rachael C. Edwards, Dylan Kneale, Claire Stansfield, Sarah Lester (2024) What are the mechanisms driving the early stages of embedded researcher interventions? A qualitative process evaluation in English local government Social Science & Medicine Crossref. (doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116407)
Theo Lorenc, Sarah Lester, Katy Sutcliffe, Claire Stansfield, James Thomas (2020) Interventions to support people exposed to adverse childhood experiences: systematic review of systematic reviews BMC Public Health Sarah Lester. ISSN 1471-2458 (doi: 10.1186/s12889-020-08789-0)
Report
Dylan Kneale, Rachael C Edwards, Claire Stansfield, Sarah Lester, Rebecca Goldman, James Thomas (2023) What are embedded researchers and what influence do they have in public health settings? EPPI Centre, University College London Sarah Lester.