Our people
Alison Park
Senior Responsible Officer, ADR UK
Professor Alison Park is interim Executive Chair of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for ADR UK. Professor Park joined ESRC as Director of Research in January 2019. Prior to joining ESRC she was Professor of Social Research and Director of Cohort and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources (CLOSER). Professor Park was awarded a CBE for services to social sciences in the 2018 New Year Honours and is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Emma Gordon
Director, ADR UK & ADR England
Dr Emma Gordon is Director of the ADR UK Strategic Hub and Director of ADR England. She is responsible for setting the strategic direction for the programme, leading on the coordination of the partnership and engagement with senior stakeholders, to improve access and analysis of administrative data to inform policy decisions. She is also part of the ADR UK Leadership Committee, and is Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Population Data Science (IJPDS). Emma joined ADR UK from HM Treasury, where she led the team supporting government economists and social researchers across government. Prior to this, Emma was Head of Health Analysis at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and at the start of her career was a post-doctoral researcher on the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children.
Rosie French
Deputy Director, Operations & Governance, ADR UK Strategic Hub
Rosie is Deputy Director for the ADR UK Programme, responsible for Operations and Governance. Rosie leads the ADR UK Programme Management Office (PMO) and works closely alongside the Office for National Statistics, ADR Directors and Chief Statisticians in the devolved administrations to develop and implement effective systems to deliver the operational functions of ADR UK within its governance structure. Prior to working at ADR UK, Rosie worked as a programme manager at UCL, including for the Cohorts and Longitudinal Studies Enhancement Resources consortium (CLOSER). She has a variety of public sector experience in local government and other non-departmental public bodies.
Karen Powell
Head of Research Strategy and Commissioning for ADR England
Karen Powell is Head of Research Strategy and Commissioning for ADR England. Her focus is on providing opportunities for the academic community to access ADR England’s flagship, research-ready data to conduct policy-relevant research, as well as building and nurturing a professional community of administrative data researchers. Karen worked at the Department for Education for a decade before joining the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), including various analytical roles, a secondment to a local authority, policy development and running a programme office. At ESRC, Karen took a lead across the What Works Network investments before shaping the ‘service design’ for what has become ADR UK. Karen developed the ADR England Strategy and places a high importance on ensuring research can become useful evidence to inform better decisions for public good.
Emily Oliver
Head of Research & Capacity Building, ADR UK Strategic Hub
Emily is responsible for leading on catalytic activities within the ADR UK Strategic Hub by engaging with Whitehall departments and other government bodies responsible for data access and use. With joint operational oversight of the ADR England strategy, she is focussing on setting up new PhD studentships and developing training pathways to increase the pool of researchers with skills to create and use linked administrative data. Emily joined ADR UK from the British Red Cross, where she led research in first aid and humanitarian education.
Christine Boase
Strategic Lead for Campaigns & Communications, ADR UK Strategic Hub
Christine Boase is the Strategic Lead for Campaigns and Communications for the ADR UK Strategic Hub. As such, she owns the communications strategy and stakeholder engagement narrative in support of ADR UK’s objectives. Christine also chairs the ADR UK Communications Steering Group. She and her team work closely with the communications teams across the partnership, as well as with UKRI to promote the value of research using linked administrative data. Prior to ADR UK, Christine worked for the British Red Cross as the strategic lead for education product development.
Aideen Maguire
Co-Director, ADR Northern Ireland
Dr Aideen Maguire is a Psychiatric Epidemiologist by training and currently a Lecturer in Social Epidemiology within the School of Medicine at Queen’s University Belfast. She is Co-Director of ADR Northern Ireland and runs the team of research specialists within ADRC Northern Ireland from Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University who are focused on delivering high-quality and impactful evidence that supports policy and practice in Northern Ireland. The ADRC research portfolio includes work examining income, poverty, deprivation, education, air pollution, the built environment, children in care, homelessness, the justice system, and mental ill health. Aideen is Co-Investigator on a number of research grants leading themes utilising administrative data to better understand population health and wellbeing such as the Northern Ireland Longitudinal Study (NILS), Groundswell, MuM-PreDiCT and Behavioural Research UK. Aideen is an active member of numerous committees, acting as an independent academic advisor on the Northern Ireland APG for Mental Health and the APG for Suicide Prevention, and is also a member of the ADR UK Leadership Committee. Aideen began her current role in October 2023 after the untimely death of her beloved colleague and predecessor, Prof Dermot O’Reilly, who led ADRC NI since its inception in 2014.
Philip Wales
Co-Director ADR Northern Ireland; Registrar General and Chief Executive, NISRA
Philip is Co-Director of ADR Northern Ireland and a member of the ADR UK Leadership Committee, in his role as Chief Statistician of Northern Ireland. He is also the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency’s (NISRA) Chief Executive and Registrar General for Northern Ireland. Philip has extensive experience as a government statistician and economist; most recently as Deputy Director with responsibility for public sector statistics at ONS. Throughout his career, Philip has championed the use of detailed survey and administrative data to better understand the challenges facing our economy and society. He is passionate about the central role that independently produced statistics and analysis play supporting policy, informing decision makers, and in democratic accountability.
Deborah Lyness
Head of Demographic Statistics Branch, NISRA (ADR Northern Ireland)
Deborah is a Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA) Senior Principal Statistician with oversight of production of vital events official statistics, the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measures and the NISRA Research Support Unit, a team supporting both the ADR NI and the NI Longitudinal Study. She also heads project development and impact delivery for the NISRA part of the ADR NI. Deborah joined the ADR NI from her role heading the Statistics Branch in the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Prior to this she led production of a number of key NI economic statistics and has also held a number of statistical roles in the criminal justice area including with the NI Youth Justice Agency and Department of justice. She has a BSc in Psychology and a MSSc in Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Elizabeth Nelson
Public Engagement, Comms & Impact Manager, ADRC-NI (ADR Northern Ireland)
Elizabeth is Public Engagement, Communications & Impact Manager for the Administrative Data Research Centre Northern Ireland (ADRC-NI), where her remit includes developing partnerships with voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector groups as well as policymakers. Based in the School of Nursing at Ulster University, Elizabeth holds a Master of Laws in Human Rights Law from Queen's University Belfast, and completed an honours Political Science degree at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Elizabeth was previously the Parliamentary and Campaigns Officer for the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities. She has extensive experience in engaging with vulnerable and disadvantaged communities, and enhancing the participation of these groups in politics, research and policymaking.
