Prof Penny Cook
| Biography | Professor Penny Cook is Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the School of Health and Society. Her role is to develop the strategic direction of research within the School. She has been in this post since September 2022, stepping aside for a period in order to be Interim Pro Vice Chancellor Research and Enterprise (April 2024-December 2024). Penny joined the University of Salford in June 2012 to teach on the MSc Public Health programme, and was made Professor of Public Health in 2013. She was appointed to the role of Associate Dean Research and Innovation in 2022, where she provided strategic leadership for the School of Health and Society on matters related to research culture, funding, impact, integrity, knowledge exchange and research quality. Penny has a personal research track record of research on a range of public health topics including sexual health and alcohol harm, as well as nature-based interventions to improve health. She has received research funding from UK research councils, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Department of Health, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), Horizon Europe, charities and local authorities. Previous research includes: the overlap between population-level indicators of alcohol use, teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections in teenagers; research contributing to the NICE guidance on HIV and sexual health; and understanding the benefits and values of urban green and blue spaces for older people in the Ghia (Green Infrastructure and the Health and wellbeing Influences on an Ageing population). She is co-investigator on GreenME, a Horizon Europe project that aims to identify ways in which effective nature-based therapy and a broader green care framework can be scaled-up to improve adult mental health and wellbeing equity. She has just completed an NIHR-funded ‘community alcohol health champions’ project (Communities in Charge of Alcohol, CICA), which was looking at how the communities can support each other with alcohol advice and whether communities can influence local alcohol licensing decisions. Penny leads a research team investigating the impacts of alcohol exposure during pregnancy, and associated Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), in collaboration with the National FASD Clinic. Her research recently made news headlines with the findings that this under-recognised condition may affect 2-4% of children in the UK. She currently leads an MRC/NIHR/charity funded project to test a parenting intervention for caregivers of children with FASD. |
|---|---|
| Research Interests | Public health, Sexual health, Alcohol harm, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Physical activity, Green Space, Nature |
| PhD Supervision Availability | Yes |
| PhD Topics | Alcohol harm, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Physical activity, Green Space/Nature and wellbeing/health |