LEPH 2026 Orator

Karyn McCluskey FRSE

Karyn McCluskey FRSE is Chief Executive of Community Justice Scotland and one of Scotland’s leading advocates for prevention, public health, and justice reform. Originally trained as a nurse and psychologist, she spent more than 20 years in policing and played a key role in establishing Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit, helping to pioneer the internationally recognised public health approach to violence prevention.

She leads national efforts to reduce offending and reoffending by tackling the underlying causes of crime, including trauma, addiction, homelessness, and inequality. Karyn is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health. She is Chair of the Centre for Justice Innovation and River Garden, a residential rehabilitation facility, and serves as a Non-Executive Director of the Scottish Professional Football League. She is also a trustee of Simon Community Scotland, a homelessness charity, and PEEK, which supports children and young people through play in Glasgow.

Invited Speakers

Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman

Amanda joined West Mercia Police in 1992 and throughout her career has held various posts.

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Helen Christmas

Helen is a Public Health Consultant at Hull City Council with lead areas including babies, children and young people; drugs and alcohol; public mental health; inequalities; inclusion; and trauma informed city.

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Brandon del Pozo

Brandon del Pozo is an assistant professor of Medicine, and Health Services, Policy, and Practice (Research).

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Greg Fell OBE

Greg Fell is the Director of Public Health in Sheffield. He graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in biochemistry and physiology in 1993.

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Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dr Alison Heydari

Alison joined Hampshire Constabulary in 2000 and is now a chief officer in the Metropolitan Police Service on secondment to National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

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Professor Simon Lindgren

Simon Lindgren is a Professor of Sociology and director of DIGSUM, an interdisciplinary academic research centre for the study of social dimensions of digital technology.

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Baroness Alison Lowe of Armley OBE

Alison Lowe is the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime in West Yorkshire. She started her role in July 2021 and was appointed by the new Metro Mayor, Tracy Brabin.

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Professor Ingrid Nyborg

Ingrid has worked in development research and education for the past 30 years, first in Africa, and then in South Asia.

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Professor Kate Pickett

Kate Pickett OBE FRSA FFPH FAcSS is Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Science & Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change University of York.

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Gary Ritchie

Gary Ritchie is a Managing Partner in the Global Consortium Group (GCG). Prior to this he was an Assistant Chief Constable with Police Scotland for 33 years, retiring in 2025. 

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Chief Constable Sir John Robins QPM DL

Sir John is one of the longest serving and most experienced Chief Constables in the UK.

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Dr Amy Stevens

Dr Amy Stevens is a Public Health Consultant in Yorkshire with a degree in International Health and a Master’s in Public Health. 

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Dr Diane Stockton

Director of Public Health for Public Health Scotland and the Director of the Clinical and Protecting Health Directorate.

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Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland

Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) Mark Sutherland is Police Scotland’s executive lead for Criminal Justice and Contact, Command and Control (C3).

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Associate Professor David Thacher

David Thacher is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan.

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Professor Kiran Trehan

Professor Kiran Trehan is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise, Partnerships and Engagement at the University of York.

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Professor Jennifer Wood

Jennifer Wood is a Professor of Criminal Justice and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA.

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Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman

Amanda joined West Mercia Police in 1992 and throughout her career has held various posts. She spent the first 11 years of her service gaining an invaluable amount of experience and knowledge across a variety of roles as a police constable.

In 2003 she was promoted to sergeant and, since then, across several ranks, has led teams in delivering critical services to communities. She has held the responsibility for intelligence and proactive functions and has been a Senior Investigating Officer as part of the Force Serious and Organised Crime Unit.

In 2008, seconded to the West Midlands Regional Intelligence Unit, she led the development of the critical processes around identifying and disrupting Organised Crime Groups. In addition, she has led the delivery of policing operations on a local level as a Local Policing Area Commander. She has also held the roles of Head of Public Protection and Head of Operational Support for West Mercia Police and Warwickshire Police. She has been a Tactical Firearms Commander and was a Specialist Strategic Firearms Commander.

Amanda has a Bachelor’s in science with Honours in Crime and Criminology.

Amanda was appointed as Deputy Chief Constable for West Mercia Police in February 2017 having previously been Assistant Chief Constable for Local Policing, since October 2014, for Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police. She joined Gwent Police in October 2019 as Deputy Chief Constable.

Appointed as Chief Constable for North Wales in October 2022. She is the Chair of British Association of Women in Policing (BAWP)

She has national portfolio responsibilities for:

  • Police National Database
  • Volume Crime
  • Prevention Committee 
  • VAWG – Wales
  • Criminal Justice – Wales

Helen Christmas

Helen is a Public Health Consultant at Hull City Council with lead areas including babies, children and young people; drugs and alcohol; public mental health; inequalities; inclusion; and trauma informed city. She is also a part-time Training Programme Director for the School of Public Health in Yorkshire and the Humber.

Before this, Helen worked for Public Health England (PHE) nationally developing public health approaches in policing as part of her public health training. Helen has worked in a variety of other public health roles in the NHS, local authorities, PHE and academia. 

Brandon del Pozo

Brandon del Pozo is an assistant professor of Medicine, and Health Services, Policy, and Practice (Research) at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and a research scientist at Brown University Health. He is also a faculty member of Georgetown University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Prior to research, del Pozo was the chief of police of Burlington, Vermont, for four years, and served with the New York City Police Department from 1997 to 2015, where he commanded patrol precincts in the Bronx and Manhattan.

Del Pozo is an elected member of the national Council on Criminal Justice, and served as a Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science (LEADS) Academic at the National Institute of Justice, and a 2022-2023 LEAP Investigator at the National Institute on Drug Abuse. He has received recognition for his leadership from the Police Executive Research Forum.

Greg Fell

Greg Fell is the Director of Public Health in Sheffield. He graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in biochemistry and physiology in 1993. He has worked as a social researcher in a maternity unit and in a number of roles in health promotion and public health before joining the public health training scheme. Greg worked as a consultant in public health in Bradford in the PCT then Bradford Council. Since February 2016 he has worked for Sheffield City Council as the Director of Public Health for the city.

Greg was also appointed to the role of Vice President to the Association of Directors of Public Health (ADPH) in December 2021 and then became President in October 2023.

Greg was awarded an OBE for services to Public Health in the New Year Honours List for 2026.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Dr Alison Heydari

Alison joined Hampshire Constabulary in 2000 and is now a chief officer in the Metropolitan Police Service on secondment to National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

Alison’s varied career includes roles in the Criminal Investigations Department, Public Protection, child abuse investigation, city commander and emergency response commander. Alison has managed impactive community issues and driven the force-wide strategic response to hate crime and harmful practices. Alison practiced as a Crisis Negotiator for eight years.

Alison’s policing roles have been enhanced by secondments to His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Fire and Rescue and teaching at John Jay Exchange College of Criminal Justice, New York. Alison has supported victims of people trafficking in San Paulo, Brazil.

Alison transferred from Hampshire Constabulary and joined the Metropolitan Police Service in June 2020 as a Frontline Policing Commander with additional pan London responsibility for a number of portfolios including neighbourhood policing. Alison took up the role of NPCC Chief Officer lead for Out of Court Resolutions in 2021, she is responsible for supporting forces in readiness and ahead of the new Statutory Reform, according to Part 6 of the Police, Crime, Sentencing & Courts Act 2022, that delivers a rehabilitative approach to offending. Her appointment as Director for the Police Race Action Plan in August 2023 sees her driving a national programme of work necessary to respond to critically low levels of trust and confidence in Black communities. Alison is also a Gold Public Order Public Safety Commander.

Her policing imperative is to utilise the tenets of procedural justice to build legitimacy in building stakeholder trust and confidence, reduce harm to communities and drive equity in policing outcomes. This has been realised in roles in policing, influence on tactical delivery, impact on strategic policy and academic research.

Professor Simon Lindgren

Simon Lindgren is a Professor of Sociology and director of DIGSUM, an interdisciplinary academic research centre for the study of social dimensions of digital technology.

Simon’s research explores politics, power, and resistance at the intersection of society and digital technologies. He uses critical discourse approaches, computational text analysis, and social network analysis to study issues relating to movements, mobilization, opinions, and identities.

Baroness Alison Lowe of Armley OBE

Alison Lowe is the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime in West Yorkshire.  She started her role in July 2021 and was appointed by the new Metro Mayor, Tracy Brabin, because of her extensive voluntary sector, political and policing experience over a 30+ year period.

In this role, Alison has a variety of leadership responsibilities including chairing the Vision Zero Board which aims to end all road death in West Yorkshire by 2040.

Alison worked in the Third Sector for more than 30 years, most recently as Chief Executive of Touchstone, a Mental Health Charity working across West Yorkshire. Touchstone works with and for people that are affected by mental health problems, and they specialise in working with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Alison has been involved in local government for 29 years and was a councillor with the Labour Party. Alison was also the Chair of the Police and Crime Panel, the body that scrutinises the performance of the Police and Crime Commissioner and represents the interests of all the 2.4 million people across West Yorkshire.  Alison was the Deputy Lord Mayor of Leeds in 2003-4 and was made an Honorary Alderwoman of the city in 2020. In this role, Alison was asked to review Leeds’s statues following the BLM protests.

Alison is a Non-Executive Director with Leeds Community Health NHS Trust.

Over the years, Alison has been a well-known campaigner on equal rights and chaired the Leeds Domestic Violence Forum that raises awareness of domestic violence against women and children by known men for over 25 years.  

Alison Lowe holds an MA in Medieval Studies from Leeds University and a BA in History and has 2 Honorary Doctorates: one from Leeds (2022) and the other from York St John University (2025). Alison was also awarded an OBE in the January 2022 Queen’s Honours List.  Alison Lowe has 2 grown up children, Adam and Rosy and grandchildren Mae and Oscar.

Professor Ingrid Nyborg

Ingrid has worked in development research and education for the past 30 years, first in Africa, and then in South Asia. She currently heads the Centre for Community-Based Policing and Post Conflict Police Reform (ICT4COP Center), at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences. The Centre was established as a follow-up to Horizon 2020 ICT4COP research programme in post-conflict police reform which studied 12 cases across four continents. In the course of the project, Ingrid and her team developed an extensive network of police experts and civil society organisations working on community policing issues which often involved public health issues such as gender-based violence and social inclusion of vulnerable groups. She has continued work in this field, expanding research, teaching and networking on human security, community-oriented policing and youth within Europe and more recently in Ukraine.

Professor Kate Pickett

Kate Pickett OBE FRSA FFPH FAcSS is Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Science at the University of York, where she leads the Public Health and Society research group and is Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change.

Kate is a co-investigator at the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre, where she works on the Centre’s ‘place-based’ research. This work brings communities together with practitioners, policymakers and researchers to create deep and shared understanding of the inhibitors, facilitators and opportunities for inter-organisational service provision in policing vulnerabilities. The work focuses on Bradford, West Yorkshire and Kate contributes her knowledge and experience of its diverse socio-economic and demographic composition and related inequalities, rich data (including linked routine data) resources and partnerships.

Gary Ritchie

Gary Ritchie is a Managing Partner in the Global Consortium Group (GCG).  Prior to this he was an Assistant Chief Constable with Police Scotland for 33 years, retiring in 2025.  During his time as a member of the Police Scotland Executive team he oversaw portfolios and directorates for Organisational Change; Partnerships, Prevention and Community Wellbeing, International Policing Development and Operational Support.

He was appointed Assistant Chief Constable in 2019 and during his tenure he oversaw directorate of Partnerships, Prevention and Community Wellbeing where he developed new public health led approaches in partnership with other public services to reduce and prevent harm and achieve better outcomes for communities and vulnerable people. As head of Drug Strategy, he compiled the first specific drug strategy for Police Scotland, shifting the emphasis from enforcement to harm reduction. As part of this new approach, he led the roll out of Naloxone (Narcan) to police officers which has resulted in Scotland becoming the first nation in the world to equip all its frontline police officers with nasal Naloxone. Since then, police officers have regularly used Naloxone in cases where people have taken overdose, helping to save hundreds of lives.

He also led on the establishment of Police Scotland’s International Academy, founded on the principles of police senior leadership development through international study, engagement and networking. He established several internal policing leadership development programmes with police agencies in the USA, Australia, South East Asia, South America and Africa based around principles of values based/adaptive leadership, strategic incident command, leadership modelling for conflict de-escalation, policing culture and international collaboration.

Gary also sat on the board of the Scottish Institute of Police Research, a nexus of eight Scottish universities in partnership with policing and supporting postgraduate research reflecting the most prominent policing and societal issues in order to assist policing in the development of evidence-based policy and practice. He has recently taken on the Chair of SIPR’s International Board.

He was awarded the King’s Police Medal in 2025 and, in recognition of his collaboration with academia over the past few years, he was made an Honorary Professor of Edinburgh Napier University.

Following his retirement from policing he emigrated to Australia and lives in Sydney.

Chief Constable Sir John Robins QPM DL

Sir John is one of the longest serving and most experienced Chief Constables in the UK. Under his tenure as Chief Constable:

  • crime across West Yorkshire has reduced,  
  • offenders being brought to justice have increased, and  
  • high standards of service to victims and witnesses have continued.

The positive performance of the force has been acknowledged during inspections by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMICFRS) over the last seven years. As well as being Chief Constable of one of the largest forces in the country, Sir John is also responsible for a variety of regional and national collaborations and he also holds several national policing appointments.

Sir John is in his 36th year of policing. Uniquely, he has completed all his service in just one force; moving from Constable to Chief Constable within West Yorkshire Police.

  • In 1990 Sir John was appointed as a Constable. He worked in a variety of roles across West Yorkshire. For many years he was a nationally trained Hostage Negotiator, dealing with numerous suicide interventions, kidnaps and criminal sieges. 
  • In 2003 Sir John was posted to Bradford as the Superintendent in charge of Operational Policing. He dealt with many high-profile events, lead numerous policing operations as a firearms and public order commander and assisted the community to recovery after many periods of heightened tension. 
  • In 2006 Sir John was promoted to Chief Superintendent at the Force Headquarters, overseeing Criminal Justice. 
  • In 2008 he became the District Commander of Kirklees, once again dealing with sensitive policing operations that attracted both local and national media coverage. 
  • In 2012 Sir John became an Assistant Chief Constable, taking the lead for Workforce, Development and Standards. He subsequently took charge of Local Policing across the Western side of West Yorkshire. 
  • In 2014 Sir John became the Temporary Deputy Chief Constable, leading on Professional Standards, Ethics and Equality. In 2017 he was appointed as Deputy Chief Constable. 
  • In 2018 Sir John became the Temporary Chief Constable for West Yorkshire Police and in July 2019 he was appointed as Chief Constable.

Nationally, Sir John leads the largest police collaboration in the country; the National Police Air Service (NPAS). This provides aviation support to policing across all of England and Wales through 19 helicopters, four aeroplanes and is piloting the use of beyond visual line of sight drones. 

He is also the lead Chief Constable for the national Child Abuse Image Database (CAID), the Police National Legal Database (PNLD) and the Video Identification Parade Electronic Recording systems (VIPER). He is the Vice-Chair and the longest serving Chief Constable on the Counter Terrorism Co-Ordination Committee (CTCC) and sits on several National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) boards to represent policing. 

Sir John has recently overseen the national roll out of Police Education (PolEd). PolEd is an innovative education programme in schools, written by teachers for teachers in schools to deliver. Its purpose is to keep children safe by developing their understanding of risk, consequences and the law and to develop their resilience and ability to help each other.

Since 2021 Sir John has been the national Chair of the Chief Police Officers’ Staff Association (CPOSA) which provides advice, guidance and professional support to chief officers across the country and seeks to positively influence policing in the UK. 

Regionally, Sir John leads one of the largest counter terrorism units outside of London; Counter Terrorism Policing North East (CTPNE) protects communities across the Yorkshire, Humber and North East of England. Sir John also has responsibility for Regional Scientific Support Services (RSSS) across Yorkshire and Humber and the Regional and Organised Crime Unit (YHROCU).

Sir John has been an ambassador for many national police charities, highlighting his support for frontline police officers, staff and their families across the UK. Sir John is a trustee of several charities: the Police Treatment Centres (PTC), the Police Children’s Charity (TPCC) and the Police Remembrance Trust (PRT). He is a Vice-President of the Police Mutual Oversight Committee. In 2025 Sir John was appointed as the Acting Chair of Trustees for the Care of Police Survivors (COPS) charity.

Sir John holds an Honorary Fellowship at Leeds Trinity University and has been awarded Honorary Doctorates at both the University of Huddersfield and at the University of Bradford. In 2019 Sir John was awarded the Queen’s Police Medal (QPM) for ‘distinguished service’. In 2022 he was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant (DL) of West Yorkshire. Sir John became a Knight Bachelor in the King’s New Years 2026 Honours list for ‘services to policing’.

Dr Amy Stevens

Dr Amy Stevens is a Public Health Consultant in Yorkshire with a degree in International Health and a Master’s in Public Health. She has a special interest in child health having previously worked as a paediatric doctor in the UK, New Zealand and India.  

Amy works as the Public Health Lead at Bevan, a social enterprise providing health and wellbeing services to Inclusion Health populations, and has previously worked with Doctors of the World UK Policy and Advocacy Team, Save the Children Global Humanitarian Team and WHO Europe’s Child and Adolescent Health Unit. She is academically active in the field of child migrant health and her current research explores violent pushbacks experienced by child migrants at European borders. 

Dr Diane Stockton

Director of Public Health for Public Health Scotland and the Director of the Clinical and Protecting Health Directorate.

Diane was previously Head of the Clinical, Health Intelligence and Research division in Public Health Scotland, providing scientific leadership around prevention, health improvement, healthcare public health and research. She has a leading role around Equity and Justice, and is a co-director of the Scottish Prevention Hub. This is a collaboration with Police Scotland and Edinburgh University, taking a whole-system public health approach focused on primary prevention for children and young people, to support system change to improve outcomes in Scotland.

Previous national roles have included Director of Public Health Sciences in NHS Health Scotland, covering public health surveillance, evidence and evaluation aimed at improving health and reducing health inequalities, co-lead (and co-founder) of the Scottish Public Health Observatory and principal investigator for the Scottish Burden of Disease Study. Earlier in her career she led the cancer surveillance team for Information Services (ISD) Scotland.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Diane led the Scottish Public Health response for children and young people (with a particular focus on education) and the national COVID-19 vaccine surveillance programme. She has a wide range of research interests, contributing to over 100 scientific publications.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Sutherland

Assistant Chief Constable (ACC) Mark Sutherland is Police Scotland’s executive lead for Criminal Justice and Contact, Command and Control (C3). In this role, he shapes national policy, refines justice pathways, and strengthens public-facing operational functions.

As the force’s National Champion for Neurodiversity, ACC Sutherland chairs the Neurodiversity Strategic Working Group (NSWG). The group guides training, policy, and organizational support for neurodivergent individuals within both the policing workforce and Scottish communities.

To advance understanding across the justice system, he pioneered Police Scotland’s first knowledge-exchange neurodiversity conference. This landmark event was created in partnership with Edinburgh Napier University, GLEPHA, and the Scottish Institute for Policing Research. ACC Sutherland also showcased these frameworks globally at the International Law Enforcement and Public Health (LEPH) 2025 Conference, promoting how Police Scotland recognizes, supports, and values neurodiversity.

Associate Professor David Thacher

David Thacher is Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Planning at the University of Michigan. His research draws from philosophy, history, and the interpretive social sciences to develop and apply a humanistic approach to policy research. Most of his work has focused on policing, including studies of police order maintenance, the role of knowledge in police innovation, and the transformation of police authority in 19th and 20th century America. His current research focuses on the history of the police response to people with psychiatric and cognitive disabilities. David received his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Professor Kiran Trehan

Professor Kiran Trehan is Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Enterprise, Partnerships and Engagement at the University of York.

Professor Trehan is an internationally recognised scholar in knowledge exchange, engagement and impact. Her research specialises in how diversity and inequality is experienced by minority groups. She has longstanding research experience of the key issues affecting minorities in business and communities and has led an extensive number of ESRC and AHRC funded research activities which are distinguished by user engagement, innovation, and community orientation.

Professor Trehan’s work has helped cast new light on academic debate. Her research findings have been influential in shaping national and European policy including the OECD, as well regional communities. She has studied and led engagement and impact projects across a range of contexts and disciplines to illuminate what works and why. Her work on how engagement and knowledge transfer have been leveraged to generate deep and sustainable change through research has led to the development of evidence-based tools that ensure research impact changes the way we generate and share knowledge, facilitating purposeful and beneficial change. Through robust, evidence-led research, her work has developed new approaches to the use of research in supporting and delivering policy and practitioner engagement, learning and impact.

Professor Trehan chairs the ESRC Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre’s National Engagement Group (NEG), which support the Centre’s national policy engagement, provides advice on policy, practice and research developments and opportunities, and ensures effective connections between the Centre and relevant national stakeholders and user groups.

Professor Jennifer Wood

Jennifer Wood is a Professor of Criminal Justice and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at Temple University in Philadelphia, USA.

Jennifer’s research focuses on the many intersections between policing and public health, including changes in frontline responses to people with health vulnerabilities such as mental illness. She serves on the Board of Directors for Pathways to Housing, PA. 

Jennifer is a member of the Vulnerability & Policing Futures Research Centre’s International Advisory Board. In this role she works to advance the Centre’s comparative research agenda on policing and vulnerabilities.