Amy is a Lecturer in Public Health (Policy) at the University of Sheffield‘s School of Health and Related Research. Her research focuses on politics/policy, participation, and health equity. She is interested in government and civil society action to address wider determinants of health.
In the UK, Amy has explored initiatives that seek to empower people to have more control and influence in decision-making about where they live/their lives (e.g. Big Local community empowerment initiative, neighbourhood planning, coproduction in commissioning). She has also led a comparative project exploring policy approaches to public health across the four countries of the UK and has worked with community partners around Sheffield, using participatory methods, to support public health action within local neighbourhoods (e.g. community cohesion, air pollution, green space, early cancer prevention).
Internationally, Amy has worked on issues of aid, health equity and governance. She worked with partners in Ghana and Kenya to implement the INFORMAS Food EPI: a civil society-led process to assess government action to create healthy food environments. She is currently working with partners in Pakistan and Canada on a study of the scale up of 24/7 round-the-clock maternity care for women in Basic Health Units (BHU) in Punjab.
Amy has an academic background in geography (BSc), environment and international development (MA Econ) and politics (PhD), and works at the interface of these disciplines and public health. Before joining ScHARR, Amy worked in management roles at Imperial College London (including a short period working with the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative) and at the Natural Environment Research Council, before completing her PhD on international aid partnerships and health system governance in Zambia.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-barnes-26169a19/