Professor Stephani Hatch

Biography

Professor Stephani Hatch is the Vice Dean for Culture, Diversity & Inclusion and a Professor of Sociology and Epidemiology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, King’s College London. Stephani leads the Health Inequalities Research Group; an interdisciplinary research programme and public engagement activities focused on urban mental health; inequalities in mental health and health services; discrimination; and young adult mental health. The group is supported by Wellcome, the Economic and Social Research Council, and Impact on Urban Health, part of Guy’s and St Thomas’ Foundation.

Stephani joined King’s College London in December 2006.

Stephani is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) for the Tackling Inequalities and Discrimination Experiences in Health Services (TIDES) study funded by the Wellcome. The TIDES team is developing an intervention framework to address the role of discrimination by healthcare practitioners in generating and perpetuating health inequalities. Stephani’s team will use innovative quantitative and qualitative methods, including linked survey and health record data as well as virtual reality methods to examine how biases and discrimination impact clinical interactions and treatment recommendations. The study was expanded in 2020 with funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of UK Research and Innovation’s rapid response to COVID-19, to utilise a participatory framework to identify processes through which racial and ethnic inequalities in mental health and occupational outcomes are produced, maintained and resisted in the context of Covid-19.

Stephani co-leads the Marginalised Communities and Mental Health programme within the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health, focused on advancing research with communities that have often been ignored, to examine and disrupt structures maintaining social inequities in mental health, with an emphasis on race within an intersectionality framework.

She is currently co-developing The Health and Social Equity Collective with funding from a King’s Together Award and a grant from Impact on Urban Health, part of Guy’s and St. Thomas’ Foundation. The Health and Social Equity Collective consists of researchers, community leaders, policy makers, and health professionals responding to persistent social and health inequities.

Stephani is also co-PI for the South East London Community Health (SELCoH) study, a psychiatric and physical morbidity survey set in the boroughs of Southwark and Lambeth from 2008 to 2015.  SELCoH is the largest, most comprehensive UK study of urban mental health and service use that provides much-needed data on ethnic minority and migrant populations. Stephani has been co-leading initiatives promoting and changing policies to insure the embeddedness of Diversity & Inclusion at KCL since 2014. In recognition, Stephani received the King’s Award for Diversity in the Workplace in 2016.

Education and Training

• 2016 Senior Fellow, UK Higher Education Academy
• 2005 National Institute of Mental Health Postdoctoral Training Fellowship, Psychiatric Epidemiology, Columbia University, New York, NY, US
• 2002 PhD Sociology, National Institute of Mental Health/American Sociological Association Pre-Doctoral Fellow, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, US
• 1996 MA Sociology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, US
• 1993 BA Psychology (Minor: Sociology), Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, US

Research Interests

• Population mental health
• Inequalities in health services
• Health and social equity
• Mental health over the life course
• Discrimination and other social adversities
• Mixed methods (quantitative and qualitative) and inclusive research approaches

Teaching

2021-present:

• Co-Director, King’s PhD in Mental Health Research for Health Professionals, KCL

2010-2021:

• Course Director and Module Lead, Integrated Academic Training, Applied Research Methods Course, Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine and IoPPN, KCL

2010-present:

• Personal Tutor, Department of Psychological Medicine, IoPPN, KCL

Expertise and Public Engagement:

Stephani is the founder and lead for the Health Inequalities Research Network (HERON), a public engagement network that promotes collaborative community approaches to knowledge dissemination, action and youth outreach. The range of engagement activities can be found on the Health Inequalities Research Network (HERON) website Twitter: @HeronNetwork

Current Boards include:

• Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness, Trustee
• Deputy Editor, Society and Mental Health, American Sociological Association
• NHS Race and Health Observatory, Co-Chair Academic Reference Group and Board Member
• Thrive London Advisory Board
• Critical Public Health Advisory Board
• Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, International Advisory Board
• Institute of Women and Ethnic Studies, Board Member, USA