Debbie is a Research Fellow working with Dr Martin Dempster and Dr Emma Berry in a multi-disciplinary project called the Advancing Creative Circular Economies for Plastics via Technological-Social Transitions (ACCEPT) Project. https://www.qub.ac.uk/sites/CreativeCircularEconomies/. This research collaboration seeks to address some of the problems with plastic waste in the United Kingdom.

 

Debbie completed her BSc in Psychology at Birkbeck College in London. Following on from this a few years later, she obtained her MSc in Applied Psychology at Ulster University, and spent one year of her degree at Queens College, City University of New York, where she studied applied behaviour analysis (ABA). She obtained her PhD at Ulster University in 2010. In her PhD, Debbie examined investment decision making and energy saving appliances.

 

At the University of Bath Debbie expanded her interests in environmental sustainability to focus on psycho-social constructs such as habits and their role in pro-environmental behaviour change, as well as developing her interests in work health and wellbeing. As a researcher she is experienced in mixed methods, and has conducted qualitative research in NHS settings, and experimental research both in the field, and in laboratory settings. Before her research career, Debbie was a senior manager in the NHS in London, where her roles included improving information used to assess organisational, as well as NHS service quality, and performance.