Cara Black
Cara is a first-year PhD student in the School of Geography and Environmental Sciences, passionate about empowering communities through participatory action research and creative research methods. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on youth voice within the food aid system, asking: How can young people shape food aid provision, and what are the individual, practice, and policy impacts of their involvement? Through this work, she brings young people with lived experience of food insecurity together with decision-makers and the third sector to ensure nutritious food is accessible in their local communities and to support their overall health and wellbeing.
Prior to her PhD, Cara worked as a Senior Research Assistant at the University of Southampton on projects focused on adolescent health and wellbeing. She holds an MRes in Medicine from the University of Leeds and a BSc in Human Life Sciences from Stellenbosch University, South Africa.
As a Policy Associate, Cara hopes to develop her understanding of how research translates into meaningful policy change and to build connections with practitioners and policymakers working to address community health and wellbeing.