Clive Newton, Chair
Clive Newton started out as a social worker and community worker in the early 1970s. Since then, he has been involved in university-based research and in training, with a particular focus on mental health and on partnership practice in social work which included brief pieces of work with Averil Osborn. He has spent many years employed in the voluntary sector working with Age UK, Age Concern England, and is currently the Chair of Age UK Derbyshire.
Annabel Ditton, Secretary, University of Exeter
Annabel is a PhD candidate in the University of Exeter’s health and life sciences faculty. Prior to her PhD, Annabel spent several years working in psychological services to support individuals' emotionally adjustment to living with a neurological impairment. Her current work focuses on developing digital solutions to support the quality of life of people living with dementia. She is particularly interested in creative methodologies, and collaborative working with people living with dementia.
Sheila Peace, The Open University
Shelia Peace is Emeritus Professor of Social Gerontology within the Faculty of Well-being, Education and Language Studies at The Open University having taken early retirement in 2016. A social geographer by first discipline, she gained her PhD in 1977. She joined The Open University in 1991 and contributed to the development of participatory research involving older people. Her research within environmental gerontology has concerned quality of life for older people living in care homes, mainstream housing and supportive housing as well as intergenerational social interaction within the community; collaborative work concerning the ‘kitchen’ with ergonomic colleagues from Loughborough University, and a study of the needs and aspirations of visually impaired older people for the Thomas Pocklington Trust. Since retiring she has remained research active currently a co-researcher within the Amar Bari, Amar Jibon (My Home, My Life) study of the housing needs and aspirations of older Bangladeshi’s in East London. Sheila is a former President of the British Society of Gerontology (2014-16) and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. Widely published she co-authored the seminal study in care homes Private Lives in Public Places in 1987; ‘Environment and Identity in Later Life’ in 2006, co-edited ‘Ageing in Society: European Perspectives in Gerontology’ for the BSG now in its third edition (2007), and most recently ‘Environment and Ageing: Space, Place and Materiality’ in 2023 for Policy Press.
Rachael Frost, Liverpool John Moores University
Dr Rachael Frost is a Senior Lecturer in Health and Social Care at Liverpool John Moores University and was the BSG Treasurer 2021-2024. Her research interests include physical and mental health promotion in later life, complementary therapies and the role of green space in health. She is the Qualitative Research Advisor for the COST Programming Action 21122 to promote geriatric medicine in European countries where it is still emerging. She has previously been part of a team who won an Averil Osborn Award and found it a brilliant experience.
Fiona Poland
tbc
Matthew Lariviere, Northumbria University
Dr Matthew Lariviere is a social anthropologist and currently Associate Professor of Gerontology at Northumbria University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK. His research explores the possibilities and anticipations of ageing and care futures globally. Recent research projects have included investigations of digital care technology design and delivery in adult social care, policy analysis of digital futures for care and human security in the UK and South Korea, and the contextual factors that support older people and family carers to sustain or secure employment. He is a member of the executive committee of the British Society of Gerontology and co-leads the Society’s Ageing Futures Special Interest Group.