Leadership Team
Professor Joanne Smith
Head of Department
Joanne is a Professor of Social Psychology. Her research focuses on the role of group memberships and social norms in shaping individual behaviour with application to health behaviours and pro-environmental behaviours.
Josie Sweetland
Department Manager
Josie is professional services lead for the department. Alongside the Head of Department, she is responsible for facilitating the delivery of the departments strategic plans and leading on operational delivery.
Professor Darren Croft
Co-Deputy Head of Department
Darren is a Professor of Animal Behaviour, with an interest in the ecology and evolution of social systems. A key focus of his research is how family dynamics shape cooperation and conflict in animal societies.
Dr Gavin Price
Co-Director of Research and Impact
Gavin studies the neural bases of numerical cognition, investigating questions such as how does the brain understand a number is a number, how does the brain connect number symbols and their meanings, and how do differences in brain structure and function help us to understand maths learning difficulties.
Professor Gemma Sharp
Co-Director of Research and Impact
I trained as a reproductive biologist and epidemiologist and I conduct interdisciplinary research at the intersection of reproductive and mental health. I direct the Menarche Menstruation Menopause and Mental Health (4M) consortium.
Professor Natalia Lawrence
Co-Director of Research and Impact
Natalia is an Associate Professor in Psychology who develops novel interventions that help people shift to healthier and more sustainable diets. For example, she studies whether food response inhibition training (‘brain training’) reduces overeating - http://www.exeter.ac.uk/foodt/.
Dr Tim Fawcett
Co-Director of Education and Student Experience
Tim studies the evolution of animal behaviour, with a particular focus on courtship and aggression. He teaches a mixture of courses in animal behaviour, statistics and evolutionary theory and is a Senior Lecturer in Animal Behaviour.
Dr Eliana Maestri
Co-Director of Education and Student Experience
Hazel is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and Fellow of the HEA, special interest in qualitative methods, and psychology of eating. Research interests in body image and Instagram/TikTok, darker side of social media and negative body image.
Professor Anke Karl
Co-Director of Global Engagement
As Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology and Director of the Biobehavioural Lab, my research focusses on the refinement of psychological therapies for trauma survivors with PTSD and depression through understanding biopsychosocial mechanisms.
Professor Anna Adlam
Co-Director of Postgraduate Research
Anna is an Associate Professor and Research Lead for the Child and Adolescent Neuropsychology group, with research interests in evaluating psychological interventions of neurological conditions for children.
Dr Anna Kapantai
Co-Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Ioanna Kapantai (Anna) is a Senior Lecturer, and lead for the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team in Psychology (alongside Joseph Sweetman- shared lead). Anna focuses on both staff and student inclusion and leads on Neurodiversity work for the department as well as our Decolonising work. Anna also runs the Academic Peer Mentorship Scheme and the Mature Students Workshops (shared lead with Hazel Mycroft). She is also the chair of our Athena SWAN team.
Professor Catherine Gallop
Director of CEDAR
Catherine is the Director of Cedar and Clinical Training (PGT), overseeing the strategic direction and governance of Cedar and Cedar Create. She is also the Co-Chair of the Psychological Professions Network–South West (PPN-SW).
Dr Garrick Taylor
Dr Alex Shaw
