Dr Megan Wood

Profile

I am a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Leeds, working in collaboration with the Bradford Institute for Health Research (BIHR) and Born in Bradford’s Centre for Applied Education Research.

My background is in Psychology, where my doctoral thesis explored the development of children’s sensorimotor development and the intersections with ethnicity and socioeconomics.

Since my PhD, my interests have broadened somewhat, spanning structural inequalities across health and education. I am interested in using population-level data to link public services such as administrative health records, education records and data from other services such as the criminal justice system and social services, to gain a more holistic picture of patterns leading to adverse outcomes (e.g., ill-health or unemployment). During my time working with BIHR, I have developed and built datasets for the Connected Bradford population linked database.

I currently supervise several projects based at Leeds Institute for Data Analytics, with a focus on using linked health and education data to address vulnerabilities in childhood.

Research interests

I have recently led a report commissioned by the Child of the North APPG which laid bare the stark inequalities faced by children growing up in the North of England and what the government can do to reduce such inequalities. https://www.healthequitynorth.co.uk/app/uploads/APPG-REPORT-SEPT-23.pdf  

Qualifications

• PhD Developmental Psychology
• MA Social Research (Interdisciplinary)
• BSc (Hons) Psychology (Industrial)

Professional memberships

• Research Affiliate at ESRC Vulnerabilities and Future Policing Centre