Dr. Melanie Cooper,

Reader in Maternity and Migrant Health

Biography

Mel practised as a nurse then as a midwife before beginning her career in higher education as a Lecturer in Midwifery and Reproductive Health in 1997. She is now a Reader in Maternity and Migrant Health and a Fellow in the Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research. Her research interests are around health inequalities in minoritised ethnic (including migrant) communities and co-producing and evaluating public health interventions to overcome barriers to good health. Interventions include those that improve health and also those that support engagement with health and maternity services. Examples of interventions include: Project DAISI uses digital animation to communicate key public health messages with perinatal women. Peer and family focused Interventions to support ethnic minority women accessing cancer screening services. Using virtual reality to improve wellbeing in asylum seeking and refugee communities. Engaging the seldom heard voice is essential to Mel's work. She works closely with the voluntary sector to ensure 'experts by experience', including people who are seeking asylum and refugees are central to all research activity. Mel co-developed the charity; the Maternity Stream of Sanctuary https://maternity.cityofsanctuary.org/ and within this recently established the Maternity Stream research network with an ethos of ensuring women who are 'experts be experience' at the centre of any research undertaken https://maternityresearch.cityofsanctuary.org/ Mel also worked to ensure the University of Bradford is welcoming and inclusive for people who are seeking asylum and refugees. She led the Faculty of Health Studies to be the 1st University department to achieve a 'Health Stream of Sanctuary award' and then led the University to be one of the 1st in the UK to achieve a 'University of Sanctuary award.' One aspect of this award involves enabling people, who cannot access student finance, the opportunity to study at the University.