Our Team

Before moving into evaluation, Fiona's work focused on the application and communication of academic research to practitioners and policymakers - a passion she has taken into the generation and use of evidence in evaluation. She has worked for the Centre for Poverty Analysis in Sri Lanka, Oxfam in the UK, as well as in the Centre for Development Studies at the University of Bath where she worked with James Copestake on the Assessing Rural Transformations action research project, culminating in the development of the QuIP and the creation of Bath SDR. She founded Causal Map Ltd with Steve Powell in 2020 and is a director of that company, as well as a member of the board of the Wavestone Foundation.

Contact: fiona(at)bathsdr.org

Jo brings a background in project management and events from the corporate sector and assists in organising the QuIP Lead Evaluator Training, managing our researcher databases, preparing contracts and travel arrangements and other administration.

James has carried out research, supervised doctoral students and published widely on rural development, development finance (including microfinance), defining and measuring wellbeing and the political economy of development. His research experience spans India, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Andean region. James is Director of Studies for the Professional Doctorate in Policy Research and Practice (DPRP) at the University of Bath, an initiative of the Institute for Policy Research.

James was principal investigator of the Assessing Rural Transformations action research project which generated the first full version of the QuIP and laid the groundwork for the launch of Bath SDR.

Steve has over 20 years' experience in research, training, monitoring and evaluation, as well as communicating the results, in over 30 different countries (mainly SE Europe, S & SE Asia / Pacific, Sub-Saharan Africa) on topics from disaster response in Haiti and psychosocial programming after the 2004 tsunami to social capital in the former Soviet Union, biodiversity in West Africa, community resilience in East Africa and counting stray dogs in Sarajevo. He has strong experience in both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and is currently managing Causal Map Ltd full time.

Mel has over 15 years of experience researching demographic and global health topics in low and middle income countries. Her research focuses on menstruation, sexual and reproductive health and rights, son preference, gender statistics, and fertility preferences. Much of her research is focussed on Nepal, but she also has experience working across South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and Latin America. She is currently leading a 5-year UKRI funded project looking at menstrual justice in Nepal and Guatemala. She is also Honorary Secretary of the British Society of Population Studies.

Sophia is interested in how the transition to a decarbonised future currently under way does not disadvantage certain parts of society. Her research expertise is on climate justice and socio-ecological transitions. She has worked with a broad range of stakeholders, including businesses, policymakers, expert institutions, communities, and non-profit organisations to foster place-based understandings of climate justice. Currently she is part of a research team working on a community-led just transition in the context of decarbonising industrial areas in the South West of England.