Dr Vanessa Pinfold, PHIRST EMPower Co-Lead 

Vanessa is a co-Lead of the NIHR PHIRST EMPower Team alongside the leads based at the University of Exeter.

She is the co-founder and research director of the McPin Foundation a small mental health research charity based in London and working across the UK to ensure that research benefits communities and involved people with lived experience as co-creators.

She is a geographer by background and an experienced health services researcher who has worked in both Academica (Universities) and the voluntary sector leading research teams and projects.

At McPin her focus has been on:

• peer research
• co-production in research
• lived experience collaborations (including patient and public involvement in research (PPI).

Recent projects include a peer-led photovoice study exploring mental health and inequalities using photovoice funded by the NIHR SPHR.