Research Team

Humera is Professor of Social and Cultural Psychology at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, University College London. Her research centres on the identity and migration experiences of families and young people, including how they engage with institutions in new settings. She also studies statelessness, citizenship rights and activism in minoritised groups. Another strand of her research interrogates how arts and creative practices can help foster wellbeing. She leads the Wellcome funded 'Mental Health Costs of Statelessness' Project.

Tahera is a lawyer and the Founder and Director of Imkaan Welfare Organisation, leading initiatives focused on child welfare, legal identity, health, and community development in underserved communities in Karachi. Tahera is actively engaged in advocacy on statelessness and citizenship rights in Pakistan. She serves on the Steering Committee of the Statelessness and Dignified Citizenship Coalition Asia Pacific (SDCC-AP) and is a Commonwealth Scholar. She has received the Ruth Pfau Award for Ownership and the Commonwealth Points of Light Award.

Francesca is a Clinical Psychologist and Researcher based at the Helen Bamber Foundation and an honorary clinical lecturer at UCL. Her work centres on trauma, forced migration, and the psychological impact of persecution, displacement, and human rights abuses. She integrates clinical expertise and research to strengthen trauma informed care and improve mental health support for survivors of violence and exploitation. Francesca acts as a project consultant and has been involved in the development of the survey and training of our community researchers.

Umme Salma Hamdani is a strategy and institutional development professional with more than 15 years of experience in the social impact sector. She currently serves as Lead, Strategy, Operations and Development at Imkaan Welfare Organization, where she leadsprogramme design, resource mobilization, monitoring, evaluation, and learning (MEL), safeguarding, human resources, financial oversight, and donor engagement. Umme acts as the project field coordinator and also oversees safeguarding and protection systems,staff capacity building, and compliance with organisational safeguarding standards and procedures.

David is a Professor of Social Psychology at the Thomas Coram Research Unit, in UCL's Social Research Institute. His research interests sit at the intersection of close relationships, stress, stigma and health. David acts as a mentor on the project and will particularly advise on research tools, methods and data analysis.

Humma is a Research Fellow at UCL and a Senior Lived Experience Research Lead at KCL. She completed her PhD at UCL where she designed and conducted a mixed-methods project to explore the differential risk and experiences of psychosis in migrants from ethnic minority groups including a qualitative study on first-generation Pakistani migrants’ experiences of psychosis in the UK. She is interested in furthering our understanding and ultimately improving the mental health outcomes of migrant and vulnerable groups using a range of research methods. Her work centres lived experience expertise and she is particularly interested in involving people with lived experience in quantitative research methods. Humma is a Research Fellow on the MH-COST project and will be leading on managing and analysing the survey in collaboration with the rest of the team.

Zarish is a Clinical Psychologist and part time Lecturer at Szabist University. Her work explores how psychological, social, cultural, and religious factors shape identity, wellbeing, and experiences of mental health difficulties. Zarish is the Research Assistant on the Project.