Leoni Descartes joined King's College London in 2025 as an MSc Addictions student at the IoPPN, and most recently joined the National Addiction Centre in September 2026 as a Research Assistant on the NIHR-funded Prison Release Engagement Trial (PRET). Her areas of expertise centre on continuity of care at the prison-community transition, opioid agonist treatment in custodial and community settings, and frontline substance use service delivery.

Her MSc dissertation was a systematic review examining opioid agonist treatment at the point of prison release and post-release outcomes for adults with opioid use disorder.

Prior to academia, Leoni worked extensively across frontline addiction services, including as a Recovery Worker at Change Grow Live, a Substance Misuse Through-the-Gate Advocate at Women in Prison, and Substance Misuse Team Leader at The Forward Trust, HMP Downview.

She holds a BSc (Hons) in Biology from The Open University, a Certificate in Pharmacology from Kingston University and has just completed an MSc in Addictions at King's College London, supported by the KCL IoPPN Scholarship and Society for the Study of Addiction (SSA) Bursary. She has also completed the KCL President's Global Leadership Award.

Research Interests

• Continuity of care at the prison-community transition
• Opioid Use Disorder treatment in custodial and community settings
• Digital case management and digital health in drug and alcohol services
• Post-release engagement and continuity-of-care interventions in criminal justice populations

Expertise and Public Engagement 

• Contributor with lived experience, National Suicide Prevention Alliance / Co-production Collective (City Bridge Funding, Suicide Prevention)
• Case study contributor, Counting the Cost of Maternal Imprisonment Report, Crest Advisory