Ava Hodson

I joined Sheffield Centre for Health and Related Research (SCHARR) in 2025 as a Research Associate for the NIHR's Health Determinants Research Collaboration with Doncaster City Council and Sheffield Hallam University. 

Prior to this, I completed my PhD at King’s College London within the Health Protection Research Unit in Emergency Preparedness and Response. My thesis was titled ‘Understanding the role of schools in the delivery of extreme event preparedness education’. At King’s, I was involved in a range of research projects, for example, exploring how families coped with and managed their wellbeing and child’s education during COVID-19 lockdowns, as well as the factors influencing vaccine uptake, especially among minoritised ethnic groups in the UK. 

I have also previously worked as a researcher at the NSPCC, where my work was community-led, and used co-creative and participatory methods. You can read the report for our evaluation of the Building Brains Together for Childhood here