Bernadette Bartlam

I joined BSG in 2000 and was very struck by the supportive and nurturing environment the society offers its members and am delighted to have an opportunity to contribute in a practical way to its work. I hope to contribute to ways of strengthening research activity, particularly through supporting the development of PhD students. I am also keen to work towards closer cooperation with other societies and professional groups.

Research interests include: quality of life through the life course; the social construction of ageing from the perspectives of wellbeing, identity and gender; existentialism, particularly in the context of involuntary childlessness; death and dying; intergenerational relationships; social exclusion; ethics, its role and function in the relationship between research and practice; research methodologies, particularly action research and narrative analysis.

Originally a nurse, in 1997 I was awarded an NHS New Blood research fellowship to undertake my PhD, exploring the relationship between research, ethics and practice. With colleagues I recently completed two research projects, one on quality of life amongst older people living in rural areas, and the other on developing measures of pensioner poverty. With colleagues in the Centre for Social Gerontology at Keele, I am currently working on a longitudinal study exploring life in a retirement village.

Kate M Bennett

Dr Kate M Bennett is Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology,  University of LIverpool. I have been working in the field of ageing  since 1991 when I worked on the Nottingham Longitudinal Study of  Activity and Ageing. I was appointed to a Lectureship at De Montfort  University in 1993 and moved to the University of Liverpool in 1999.  The major focus of my work is the psychology of later life including  the interplay between physical and mental health and social  relationships. I am carrying out research into the longitudinal  effects of gender and marital status on health and psychological  wellbeing in older people. Funding includes the ESRC's Go Programme  and a Leverhulme Fellowship. I am also interested in the relationship  between social engagement and physical and mental health, and in  exercise and nutrition in later life. I use a wide variety of  methodologies which range from in-depth interviews and grounded  theory through to multivariate analyses including structural equation modeling.

Vanessa Burholt

Vanessa Burholt, BSc, PhD, is head of CSPRD, Senior Research Fellow and Co-Director of Postgraduate Gerontology Studies. She is a social gerontologist with a background in sociology and psychology. Previously, Vanessa was a researcher on the 20-year Bangor Longitudinal Study of Ageing. More recently she was Principal Investigator on a range of projects that span local, national, European and international locations. These include: Families and Migration: Older People from South Asia; Housing for an Ageing Population:Planning Implications and; a six-country study entitled Ageing Well: European Study of Adult Well Being. She is currently involved in a joint project with Age Concern Gwynedd a Môn (Rural North Wales Intitiative for the Development of Support for Older People – RuralWIDe) involving training older volunteers as researchers. Her areas of expertise include intergenerational, support and social relationships, attachment to place, housing and migration of older people and she has published widely on these topics.

Kate Davidson

Kate’s background is in nursing and health visiting and completed a BSc in Social Policy with Women’s Studies as a mature student at Roehampton.  In 1994 she embarked on a PhD at Surrey to investigate how differently older men and women experienced widowhood. This stimulated interest in research on older men, with which she has been primarily involved on different projects since 1999.  She was Honorary Secretary of the British Society of Gerontology from 1996 – 2002, which was probably the most exciting and rewarding period in her new career in academia. She is enjoying her role as President of BSG and is very grateful that like Good King Wenceslas’ servant, she has deep footprints to step into along the way.

Simon Evans

Since 1991 I have worked as a researcher in the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of the West of England, Bristol, where I manage a broad portfolio of research projects across health, housing and social care. These include an exploration of extra care housing for people with dementia, a study of a mixed tenure continuing care retirement community, a project comparing new methods of service delivery in care homes and a study of social wellbeing for frail older people. I am also carrying out several evaluations of service developments for older people in the south west of England. I am an Associate of Dementia Voice, I have a strong interest in user involvement and I am Chair of our faculty research ethics committee.

As a very new member of the BSG Executive Committee I am still developing my role, but I am currently sitting on the Conference Liaison Working Party. I am also a member of the committee which is organising the 2008 BSG conference, which is to be held in Bristol.

Ingrid Eyers

Based at the University of Surrey, Ingrid is Lecturer at the European Institute of Health and Medical Sciences and a member of the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG) where she was previously a Research Fellow. Joining the BSG as an MSc student was influential on her further career and as a PhD student she was proactive in the development of the Network of Gerontology Students arranging and hosting the student conference day together with Khim Horton in 2000 and 2001. Initially elected onto the Executive Committee in 2001 and in 2003 Ingrid was elected to become Honorary Secretary. In keeping with the policy for officers to have two years to ‘shadow’, two years in post and two years to be in the background providing support and guidance Ingrid will be in post until September 2007.

Mark Faulkner

I am currently a Senior Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University; Faculty of Health and Wellbeing. Prior to this, I spent 11 years nursing older people in a variety of clinical fields, including neurological rehabilitation and day hospital. Through this, I have developed a better understanding of the challenges faced by older people and their families; 'real world' experience that has informed both my teaching and research. In 1997, I left nursing to conduct doctoral research at Oxford Brookes University. This was completed in year 2000 with research entitled 'The onset and alleviation of learned helplessness in older hospitalised people.' Since arriving at Sheffield, I have contributed to a variety of research projects, most recently the development of a quality assurance package for nursing and residential homes. I was invited to stand for the BSG committee in 2003 and, now elected, consider it a privilege to serve the society as treasurer. Within this role, I am mindful of the ultimate purpose of the society; enhancing the welfare of older people.

Jenny Hislop

Jenny Hislop (PhD, MSc, MEd, BA (Hons)) is a Lecturer in Social Gerontology at Keele University. Following a career in education in Australia, Jenny moved to the UK in 1997 to complete an MSc in Social Research. From 2001-2005 she worked as a Research Fellow in the Centre for Research on Ageing and Gender (CRAG) at University of Surrey, where her projects included the EU-funded Sleep in Ageing Women and the ESRC-funded Negotiating Sleep amongst Couples. She completed her PhD on the Social Context of Women's Sleep in 2004.

Jenny's research interests focus on the social construction of ageing. As well as working with colleagues on research projects in the Centre for Social Gerontology at Keele, she coordinates the MA in Social Gerontology and teaches on undergraduate sociology courses. Jenny is Secretary-Elect of the British Society of Gerontology, and is a member of the Council of the Beth Johnson Foundation.

Angela Kydd

I work as a senior lecturer at the University of Paisley. My specialist area concerns frail older people. I recently completed my doctorate on delayed discharge from a patient and policy perspective. I am programme leader for the overseas nursing programme and many of these nurses undertake their adaptation in care homes. I run a gerontology interest group and am involved in a care home interest group, both held at the University. I also am project leader for an exchange intensive module on health and social care with Sweden and Finland as partners. I am currently undertaking a piece of research on health care beliefs of women with diabetes.

Tony Maltby

Tony Maltby has recently (February 2007) moved to work with the Centre for Research on the Older Workforce (CROW) based at the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) in Leicester as a Research Fellow. Previously he was Senior Lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Birmingham, UK.

He researches and writes on the social policy of employment, work and income in later life. He was the founding Editor of the journal Social Policy and Society, published by Cambridge University Press, is co-editor (with Dr Debra Street, SUNY at Buffalo, USA) of the Ashgate series New Perspectives on Ageing and Later Life and with Karen Clarke (Manchester) and Patricia Kennett (Bristol) co-editor of Social Policy Review a publication of the Social Policy Association and Policy Press. He is co-author with Alan Walker of Ageing Europe (Open University Press). Among his more recent publications include Ageing Matters: European Policy Lessons from the East, Ashgate, with John Doling and Catherine Jones-Finer, (Eds.) and as lead editor, Ageing and Transition to Retirement. A Comparative analysis of European welfare states, Ashgate. He also co authored (with Jo Cook and Lorna Warren), ‘A participatory approach to understanding older women’s quality of life’ in Alan Walker and Catherine Hagan Hennessy, (Eds.) Growing Older: Quality of Life in Old Age, Open University Press, Maidenhead, based upon their involvement in the ESRC’s Growing Older research programme. He rejoins the Executive Committee of the BSG as Chair of the Executive Working Party developing the Society’s national profile and welcomes contributions from any member. He was previously Honorary Treasurer of the Society from 1996 to 2002. He lives in Sheffield and in his spare time he is Treasurer of Darnall Dementia Group and enjoys fell walking, bird watching, good beer and fine food.

Wendy Martin

Wendy Martin is a Research Fellow at the School of Health and Social Care, University of Reading. Wendy’s background is in nursing and she has completed a BSc in Sociology and Anthropology at Oxford Brookes University and an MA in Sociological Research in Health Care at the University of Warwick. At present she is completing her doctorate into people’s own experiences and perceptions of their bodies, health and emotions in later life at the Department of Sociology, University of Warwick. Previously she has been engaged in a variety of research projects at Oxford Brookes University (1998-2002) that include the family lives of young people and the empowerment of older people with dementia. Wendy has belonged to the BSG since 2000 after attending her first BSG conference at Oxford. Wendy is a member of the BSG Executive Committee, a member of the BSG publications group and is co-editor of the on-line BSG newsletter Generations Review.

Sheila Peace

Sheila Peace is Professor of Social Gerontology and Associate Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Health & Social Care at The Open University. Sheila is a human geographer by first degree with a specific interest in environment and ageing, both micro and macro, utilising multi-disciplinary approaches to understand space and place in later life from the experiences of older people living within accommodation both ‘ordinary’ and ‘special’ to their wider participation within community life. Before moving to the OU, Sheila was a founder member of the Centre for Environmental and Social Studies in Ageing (CESSA) at the Polytechnic of North London now London Metropolitan University and involved in a number of national research studies concerning residential care for older people. At the OU, she is a member of the Centre for Ageing and Biographical Studies (CABS) and recently researched ‘environment and identity’ within the ESRC Growing Older Programme. A member of the BSG Executive Committee in the late 1980s/early 1990s, she was elected to the present committee in 2004. She has been involved in membership development and publications as well as recent work on ethical guidelines for the organisation; she was a co-editor of Generations Review from 1994-97 and co-editor of the second and third editions of the text Ageing in Society.

Chris Phillipson

Chris Phillipson has held a Professorship in Applied Social Studies and Social Gerontology at Keele University since 1988. He is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Learning and Teaching for the University. He completed his Ph.D., a study of men's experience of retirement, in 1977 at Durham University. He was a research assistant for a period at Birmingham University, studying psychological differences between identical and non-identical twins. He returned to a focus on ageing as a Senior Research Fellow at Keele, leading a longitudinal study of Pre-Retirement Education. He subsequently founded the Centre for Social Gerontology at Keele (in 1987) and one of the first Master's programmes in the discipline in the UK. His research interests including: social theory and ageing; urbanisation and ageing; social exclusion and poverty in later life; the impact of globalisation on social policy for older people; and issues of generational change, particularly in respect of the 'baby boom' generation.He has served two periods on the Executive of the British Society of Gerontology, including one as President (2004-2006). He has co-organised conferences for the BSG (at Keele University)and was co-editor of the Futures of Old Age volume (published by Sage in association with the BSG). He has been active in the development of the British Council for Ageing for the BSG.

Judith Phillipson

Judith Phillips is Professor of Gerontology and Social Work at Swansea University. Following a geography degree at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Judith went on to study at Stockholm and Oxford Universities (MSc. and CQSW) and at UEA, Norwich, where she gained a PhD in social work. She worked as a researcher and a lecturer at UEA before joining the University of Keele in 1993, where she directed both the social work and gerontology programmes until 2004.

Her research interests are in social work and social care and include work-life balance, housing and retirement communities, intergenerational family and kinship networks, carework and older offenders. Her most recent publication is ‘Social Work with Older People’ (Palgrave 2006). She was International Liaison Officer for the British Society of Gerontology for five years and review co-editor of Ageing and Society. Judith sits on a number of research advisory boards in the UK and Canada and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Randall Smith is Senior Research Fellow,School for Policy Studies,University of Bristol. This is a post-retirement Fellowship held since 2001,when I reached state pensionable age. My interest in social gerontology spans forty years,starting with a project on planning local authority services for elderly people in the mid 1960s and subsequently encompassing a book on the provision of social care for older people between 1939 and 1971,followed by a similar volume covering 1971 to 1993. I am joint author of a textbook on community care first published in 1994. Current activities include the preparation of a fourth edition of this book and conducting an ESRC funded research project revisiting Peter Townsend's seminal work on residential care, The Last Refuge, published in 1962. I have been a member of the Executive Committee of BSG since 2003 and have recently been re-elected for a further three year period. I am particularly interested in the research-policy interface and am a member of a Planning Group for the 2008 BSG Conference to be hosted by both the University of Bristol and the University of the West of England.

Susan Tester

I am currently an Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Applied Social Science, University of Stirling. From 1991 until my retirement in September 2005 I was Lecturer, then Senior Lecturer in Social Policy in the Department. I previously worked in London at the Centre for Policy on Ageing, Policy Studies Institute and London School of Economics as a social researcher. My main areas of interest in ageing are in quality of life and care of frail older people, comparative aspects of community care, and older people with marginalised sexual identity. I was organiser of the BSG Annual Conference at Stirling in 2001, where I was elected Secretary-Elect of BSG. From 2002-2005 I was Honorary Secretary of BSG and since 2005 I have been Past Secretary, as well as Co-ordinator of BSG Scotland.

Julia Twigg

I am currently Professor of Social Policy and Sociology in the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent. I did my first degree in History at the University of Durham, and then did a Masters and PhD at the London School of Economics in Sociology. My first academic jobs were in research units, in PSSRU at Kent and SPRU at York. After working briefly in the teaching department at the University of Hull, I returned to Kent in 1996.

My interests in aging cover: informal care, debates about care, the body in health and social care, clothing regimes and ageing. I am particularly interested in developing the cultural analysis of ageing.

In relation to BSG, my primary responsibility is for publications. I sit on the editorial boards of Ageing & Society and the International Journal of Ageing and Later Life.