Association for Psychological Science Board Election

About me

I am a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the University of Cambridge, where I direct the Digital Mental Health Group at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit. I am also a Fellow of St. John’s College. My internationally renowned research programme investigates the link between digital technology use and adolescent mental health, using diverse research methods taken from cognitive, developmental, quantitative, social and personality psychology. I advise governments and policymakers around the world, including the US Surgeon General and the UK Secretary of State for Education, and am a member of the British Academy Public Policy Committee.

I have received numerous prestigious awards for my research (e.g., Association for Psychological Science Rising Star Award; British Psychological Society Award for Outstanding Contributions to Doctoral Research) and efforts to improve research culture and practice (e.g., UK Medical Research Council Impact Prize; Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science Mission Award). I also co-founded ReproducibiliTea, one of the most successful grassroots open science and research culture campaigns to date, whose journal clubs have reached 100+ universities worldwide. To further enable positive change across the discipline I recently became Associate Editor at Psychological Science and am an active member of a range of advisory boards and committees for funders, government departments and research organisations.

Why I am standing for election to the global board of APS

In a time of worldwide crises – whether they be social, environmental or political, APS has a crucial role to play in encouraging our discipline to address, and adapt to, huge challenges.

I am committed to amplifying the voices, concerns and aspirations of psychologists – especially those early in their career – who are committed to doing great research, while also caring deeply about issues such as societal relevance, environmental sustainability, equal opportunities, as well as research culture and quality.

If elected, I will bring five priorities to my tenure on the APS board:

  1. Building a global and inclusive community

I believe that to successfully adapt to and face substantial challenges we need to nurture our global community. Having built and lead a variety of successful societies (e.g., cofounding the international open science initiative ReproducibiliTea), I know the opportunities and challenges of building and maintaining a community first-hand, especially in a time when exhaustion levels across academia are high. I will actively seek out conversations with those in (and not in) our membership to ensure all psychologists feel welcome and supported by the APS, whether they have been a member for 3 months or 30 years.

3. 21st century conferencing

Our post-pandemic world has adopted many changes to work and collaboration models. I will therefore use my time on the board to ensure that APS has a vision for providing e-conferencing and networking opportunities fit for the 21st century. This also means facing up to long-term sustainability threats and the climate crisis, and I will push for APS to consult on its strategy and approach to Net Zero.

5. Psychology for policy and the public


One of the parts of my job I value most deeply is being able to engage directly with international policymakers and the public, and I intend to bring this expertise to the board to develop a range of APS activities to help the association – as well as its members – bring our most exciting and impactful science to those who can use it to improve society and help tackle global challenges.

2. Adapting to new publishing models

The academic publishing landscape will drastically shift over the next decade, with funders, governments and universities increasingly putting pressure on the publishing industry to improve. I have contributed to this first-hand as a longstanding member of the University of Cambridge Open Research Steering Committee and co-lead for the university’s Rights Retention initiative. I will bring this expertise to the APS board to tackle these changes head-on, to ensure long-term sustainability of the APS financing and publishing model.

4. Positive research culture and practice


I first felt the power of academic community during my longstanding campaigns to improve research culture and practices, and this will continue to be a priority of mine, as it is for many early-career psychologists. During my tenure on the APS board I will continue to advocate for changes that not only improve the day-to-day working conditions of psychologists across all career stages, but also improve the quality of our outputs so that we retain and build trust for our discipline on the global stage.