Tamsin Greene Barker

Social Policy and Intervention (2021 cohort)

Tamsin is a DPhil candidate in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Tamsin’s DPhil is supervised by Professor Frances Gardner and Professor Peter Fonagy. Her research is embedded within the Kailo project, a partnership of leading researchers, intervention experts and mental health practitioners who work alongside disadvantaged communities to identify systemic determinants and inequalities related to adolescent mental health. Kailo aims to develop, test and scale an evidence-informed framework supporting local partnerships to co-design strategies that address social, economic, and environmental drivers of poor mental health (https://kailo.community).

Tamsin holds a bachelor’s degree in Philosophy, Politics, Economics and Sociology (PPES) from Trinity College Dublin where she was awarded the Whately Memorial Prize for graduating with the highest grade in economics. Following her undergraduate studies, Tamsin worked in the behavioural economics unit of Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI). She then worked as an economist, statistician and policy analyst for the Irish Government Economic Evaluation Service (IGEES), Central Statistics Office (CSO) and National Competitiveness and Productivity Council (NCPC).

Tamsin’s passion for improving young people’s mental health developed while working as a dance teacher for 12 years, and later as she managed her own business teaching over 100 children weekly. In these roles working closely with young people, Tamsin observed a need, and opportunity, for early intervention to improve mental health. Tamsin has experience working with numerous mental health organisations and research groups, including Trinity Student Counselling Service, Nightline, Crisis Text Line, Mental Health Innovations and Oxford’s iCATS (identifying Child Anxiety Through Schools) research team.

Tamsin’s keen interest in mental health and psychosocial interventions prompted her to pursue a MSc Psychology (conversion degree) at University College London and MSc Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation (EBSIPE) at the University of Oxford, graduating from both with distinction. Tamsin was awarded a George Moore Scholarship and recognised on the Dean’s List of top performing psychology students at UCL.

In her spare time, Tamsin rows with Wolfson College Boat Club and volunteers as welfare representative for St Cross College, Oxford.