Biography

Leigh is a Research Assistant working on various projects within the IGSD. Her academic background is in social research, having completed a MA at the University of Warwick in 2021. Her research interests include the social aspects of climate change, sustainability, urban sociology and the relationship between nature and people.

Her MA thesis focused on public perceptions of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods in the UK.

Previously Leigh worked as a research project manager, and in roles supporting academics to develop their research impact. Prior to moving to the HE sector, Leigh worked in various roles across industry and the third sector, particularly in charities.

Projects

ASIOS: Assessing the Social Impacts of Our Spaces. Getting Creative with Sustainability and the Warwick Habitability GRP (2022, £8250) Role: Co-Investigator and Research Assistant

FIDELIO: Forecasting Social Impacts of Biodiversity Conservation Policies in Europe. A 5-year research project funded by the European Research Council (2019-2024, 1.5m euros) Role: Research Assistant

URBE LatAm: Understanding Risks & Building Enhanced Capabilities in Latin American cities. UKRI GCRF award (2019-2022, £850,000) Role: Research Project Manager

Accelerating the impact of citizen-generated data for improving the monitoring and management of catastrophic flooding. ESRC Impact Acceleration Account: Evolving Impact and Impact Network Grant, Award (2020-2022 ~£50,000) Role: Research Project Manager

Publications

Walker, L., & Jones, N. (2022) Assessing the Social Impacts of ‘Our Spaces’. Research report

Porto de Albuquerque, J., Pitidis, V., Pajarito Grajales, D., & Walker, L. (2022) Enhancing community resilience to floods and adapting to extreme weather events with data-driven citizen science. Policy briefing