The Academy Advisory Board

Prof Donald Macaskill (Chair)

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Prof Donald Macaskill has worked for many years in the health and social care sectors across the United Kingdom. A particular professional focus has been issues related to bereavement, palliative care and individual human rights. He is the CEO of Scottish Care and serves on a number of Scottish, UK and international charities and boards related to health and social care. 

Dr Sarah Barry

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Dr Sarah Barry, PhD, is Director of Academic Programmes & Senior Lecturer at Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin. She is Centre Director and Director of the HRB funded National SPHeRE Programme in health services, policy and population health. Her research focusses on integrated care implementation in complex systems. Recent work includes evaluation of Community Healthcare Networks Implementation for the HSE.

Prof Juliet MacArthur

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Juliet is strategic lead for nursing and midwifery research in NHS Lothian and Honorary Professor of Practice at Queen’s University, Belfast. Her role includes professional leadership of 180 clinical research nurses/midwives working on clinical trials and research capacity building including developing clinical academic career pathways for health and care professionals, working in partnership with 6 universities across Scotland.  She supervises 6 PhD students in 4 different institutions in nursing, learning disabilities, mental health and midwifery. 

Irene Oldfather

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Irene Oldfather is a former MSP and Chair of the Scottish Parliament European and External Affairs Committee. Now Director of Strategy and Engagement with ALLIANCE Scotland, she consults with a range of national and advisory bodies including the Health and Social Care Partners Group, the IHub Board, the Focus on Dementia Advisory Forum, and Living Well in Communities Board. She is also on the board of the Scottish Ambulance Service.

Dr Margaret Whoriskey

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Margaret is Head of Care and Well Being Innovation at the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre  with a focus on  supporting innovation in care and whole system working. She previously led the national Technology Enabled Care programme in Scotland since 2014 in partnership with the NHS, Local Government, Third, Housing and Independent sector providers which aimed to support at scale deployment in Scotland. She is active in  the European arena and wider international work.  

Margaret is a Trustee /Board member  of ENABLE Scotland and Hanover Housing Association.

Student Representatives

Anna Bryan

Anna has a BA in Music from Columbia University and an MSc in Music by Research from the University of Edinburgh. During her MSc, Anna worked on a project that explored the use of music in Edinburgh care homes. Her PhD is titled 'Exploring the pathways for music engagement in care homes'.

Clare Halpenny

Clare has a BA in European Studies, BSc in Occupational Therapy, and an MSc in Health Inequalities and Public Policy from Edinburgh University. She has worked as a clinical occupational therapist with the NHS since 2008, and hopes her clinical background will help inform her PhD study. 

Kayla Ostrishko

Kayla has a B.A. in Psychology with a Minor in Health in Society from Rutgers-New Brunswick. She completed her MRes in Population Health Sciences at The University of Edinburgh. She is interested in examining the influence of systemic racism and its relationship to medical care services within the NHS, refugee and asylum seeker health experiences, and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within University systems. Kayla is also a committee member of the CMVM EDI committee as a postgraduate research representative and has worked on multiple projects within the University focusing on EDI initiatives within STEM.

Christian Newman 

Christian has an MA (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Edinburgh. He has worked in homelessness and substance use for two years and has been involved in various projects that include street outreach, pharmacy outreach, and psychosocial group work. He is also interested in film and helps run a community cinema in Edinburgh for people facing social isolation and experiencing homelessness. 

Deniz Hepdogan 

Deniz Hepdogan holds a BA in Psychology, along with a minor degree in Media and Visual Arts from Koc University in Istanbul, Turkey. With an interest in assistive technology, she then completed her master's degree in Cognitive Systems and Interactive Media at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain. Deniz gained research experience in various academic laboratories, with a particular focus on alternative reality technologies and participatory design. Having explored the effects of environmental rhythms on human wellbeing within her master's thesis, she now aims to investigate how music can benefit human wellbeing and be utilised in novel assistive technologies for the care of the ageing population. 

Melody Wang

Melody holds a double-degree master's in Product-Service System Design from Tongji University in China and Politecnico di Milano in Italy, along with a Bachelor of Engineering in Furniture Design from Nanjing Forestry University in China. After graduation, she worked as an experience designer for the autonomous delivering service in Alibaba.Inc. Her research spans co-design, service design, human-computer Interaction, human-robot Interaction, and design ethics with a passion for bridging the gap between technology and humanity through design and multidisciplinary approaches.