Meet the team
Susan Harkness, principal investigator
Susan Harkness will serve as the intellectual and practical project lead. She is an expert in the intersection of income inequality, poverty, and family structure, with an interest in disadvantaged groups such as single-parent and low-income families.
Susan’s expertise in these areas is exemplified through frequent public and academic engagements, including, most recently at the house of lords as part of the child maintenance commission.
Silvia Avram, co-investigator
Silvia Avram will act as co-investigator, modelling the effects of different policy processes on family forms. She has expertise on economic inequalities, with particular attention to how these are influenced by public policies and institutions. As an expert on structural economic inequality, she gives focus on the measurement, understanding and examinations of the consequences of bargaining power imbalances in the labour market.
Silvia’s proven track record of producing robust models of structurally driven inequalities makes her a key member of the Family Change project.
Sam Mohun Himmelweit, co-investigator
Sam Mohun Himmelweit will contribute to the dissemination of its findings. His expertise in comparative welfare systems and family policies will further extending the outreach of this project.
In addition to his academic work, Sam has considerable experience in policy-related work having previously worked for think tanks, policy consultancies, and in social research roles, providing him with valuable insight into how research can inform and shape public policy and valuable networks through which to disseminate this research across wider audiences and geographies.
Sarah Lambert, communications lead
Sarah Lambert is head of policy and campaigns at Gingerbread, our partner charity, and will be the lead spokesperson and first point of contact in this project. She will take the lead in drafting press releases and identifying and realising opportunities to disseminate results from the project, fed in from the academic teams.
Gingerbread are in regular discussions with government ministers and opposition leaders on policy development, as well as working closely with other policy experts (Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Citizen’s Advice, amongst others) and connecting with a broader audience through their extensive social media following.
Amber Howard, senior research associate
Amber Howard is a postdoctoral researcher who joined the team in February 2025. She has a diverse background in the social sciences, having completed her PhD across the Departments of Health Policy (University of Melbourne) and Human Geography (University of Amsterdam).
Amber brings to the project a strong interest in family change, wellbeing, and inequality, as well as experience in quantitative research and survey data analysis.
Researchers
- Lisa Waddell: research associate, University of Bristol