Public Engagement

Lynsey Cross is the Public Engagement Officer for the Health Informatics Department at Swansea University. Her role involves; supporting researchers from the department by providing bespoke training and advice on grant applications, developing public engagement strategies, co-producing innovative engagement activities, coordinating the Health Informatics consumer panel, as well as establishing and building a PE network.

Lynsey studied to become a primary school teacher at Trinity College, Carmarthen and later taught in a number of different schools throughout South Powys. As a teacher all diverse needs of the pupils must be met including their health needs, it’s through this Lynsey discovered her passion for health promotion. Following a move into Carmarthenshire, Lynsey went on to join the team at the Welsh Government anti-poverty programme Communities First, with a specific health focus. The role involved identifying health needs and addressing these by co-producing initiatives with the most deprived communities.

Kerina is a Professor of Population Data Science at Swansea University Medical School. She is the Associate Director for Information Governance and Public Engagement (IG&PE) to ensure data protection and to maximise socially-acceptable data utility across the various Swansea University-based Population Data Science initiatives, including: the SAIL Databank, Administrative Data Research Wales, the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory Data Partnership and the HDRUK collaboration. Her work spans the spectrum of Ethical, Legal and Societal Implications (ELSI), recognising the importance of social acceptability. Kerina established an active Consumer Panel to advise on research and developments in Population Data Science.

The Population Data Science initiatives hosted at Swansea University are world renowned. Kerina is internationally acknowledged as having an essential and unique leadership role in these initiatives, by focusing on innovative data governance models and public engagement to enable person-based data to be used effectively and safely. This is a rapidly developing field with changes to regulatory & governance frameworks and evolving societal perceptions. Kerina leads an innovative research programme centred on IG&PE that includes work to inform cross-centre data sharing and how emerging data types, such as genetic data, and free-text data, can be used safely in conjunction with health and administrative records.