Cara has joined the School of Psychology as a Teaching Fellow, working part-time alongside her role as a Research Fellow in the School of Medicine. She will be teaching at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and aims to integrate both her research and practical experience into her teaching.

She gained her PhD in Health Psychology from the School of Psychology in 2023, where she explored psychosocial adjustment to advanced oesophago-gastric cancer. Following her PhD, she joined the University of Aberdeen as a postdoctoral research fellow, collaborating on an international project that led to the development of a self-management intervention for individuals living with musculoskeletal conditions.

Her interdisciplinary research is patient-centred, focusing on how people navigate challenging life events such as chronic and advanced illness, bereavement, and grief. With lived experience as a carer herself, she is particularly committed to research that directly benefits both patients and carers. She works closely with healthcare professionals, community organisations, and individuals with lived experience to ensure her research is meaningful and applicable in real-world settings.

She is also an advocate for translating research into policy and has been an active member of the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Advisory Group for Marie Curie’s Death and Dying in the UK Research Programme. Through this work, she has contributed to policy reports that have been discussed at the parliamentary level.