Rachel Churchill
Professor in Evidence Synthesis

Profile

Biography

Rachel is a Professor in Evidence Synthesis and is Director of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) York Evidence Synthesis Group (York ESG) within CRD. She works in methodological development (design, conduct, reporting and implementation of evidence synthesis) and leads on knowledge translation and mobilisation as well as the Mental Health theme within CRD.

She has worked at the interface between research and policy to support evidence informed policy and practice across a range of health care areas in both the UK and several other countries, including in the US as a Clinical Evidence Specialist at the Center for Evidence-based Policy at Oregon Health and Science University.

A psychologist and epidemiologist, much of her work has been dedicated to improving healthcare decision-making for children, adults and older people with mental health problems. Throughout her career, alongside evidence synthesis, she has undertaken a range of different studies, including RCTs, cohort studies and qualitative research. She was previously Coordinating Editor of the Cochrane Common Mental Disorders Group (CCMD) and has a portfolio of Cochrane reviews that assess the effects (including harms) of interventions for the prevention and management of a range of mental health problems. More recently, she's established the Youth Mental Health Evidence Synthesis Hub (Y-MHESH), an international collaboration that brings together research evidence to answer questions in mental health identified through co-design and coproduction with young people.

She has represented Coordinating Editors on the Cochrane Steering Group, the Board of Trustees of Cochrane, and has contributed to a number of NICE and international guideline development committees. She is currently a member of the Evidence and Evaluation Advisory Panel for the Foundations What Works Centre for Children and Families, one of nine independent Centres funded through a combination of government and non-government sources that provide evidence in policy areas accounting for a total of £250 billion of public spending in the UK.