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Heather Kayton

Heather is a doctoral researcher at the University of Oxford, specialising in large-scale international assessments and reading assessment. Her research utilises advanced quantitative techniques to explore the validity and fairness of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) for South Africa’s diverse linguistic context. With seven years of teaching experience as well as a background in educational research, Heather has developed a deep understanding of educational systems and an ability to translate complex data into actionable insights for improving policy and practice.

Annette Riziki

Annette Riziki is a Research Assistant at the Wellbeing Research Centre and a DPhil student in the Education department at the University of Oxford. Her current DPhil research focuses on children’s and teachers’ wellbeing and educational outcomes in emergency contexts.

Before commencing her DPhil research, Annette completed an MSc in Child Development at the University of Oxford, looking at the role of teacher behavioural and cognitive judgments on the learning trajectories of Black primary school students in England. Her research interests are education access and the wellbeing of children and teachers in resettlement and asylum contexts. In line with this, her past research has focused on the integration and resettlement processes of refugees and immigrants within Canada.

Cathy Talbot

Cathy has worked in multiple fundraising positions across a variety of non-governmental organisations, including: Maggie’s Centres, Cancer Research UK, and Oxfordshire Youth, specialising in corporate fundraising and income generation strategy. She has also spent some time abroad working in International Development, and in particular, focusing on empowering young people living in poverty in South East Asia. Cathy is passionate about the charity sector and using her wealth of experience to help create a happier world.

Cathy is responsible for securing and managing diverse income streams to generate sustainable funding for the World Wellbeing Movement, and supports the Managing Director in defining the organisation’s long-term fundraising and partnership strategy. She also develops both new and existing partnerships with the World Wellbeing Movement’s member organisations.

Dr. Caspar Kaiser

Caspar is an Assistant Professor with the Behavioural Science Group at Warwick Business School. He is also a research fellow at Oxford University’s Wellbeing Research Centre, a research associate at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, an associate member of Nuffield College, and a trustee of the Happier Lives Institute.

His research focuses on the measurement and determinants of wellbeing.

Regarding measurement, he works on improving the comparability of survey data on people’s feelings and analyses whether such data can measure welfare cardinally. Concerning determinants, he investigates how social comparisons and inequalities, particularly with respect to people’s incomes, shape wellbeing.

Beyond these foci, he is interested in the wider normative implications of using subjective data, questions of welfare measurement more generally, the determinants and consequences of social mobility, as well as developments in causal inference and machine learning.

Caspar holds a DPhil in Social Policy from Nuffield College and the Department of Social Policy & Intervention. Brian Nolan (INET, Oxford) and Maarten Vendrik (SBE, Maastricht) supervised his doctorate. He was previously an Assistant Professor at the Department of Methodology and Statistics at Tilburg University.

Karl Overdick

Karl Overdick began his DPhil (PhD) in Management Studies in 2018 under the supervision of Professor Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Professor Andrew Stephen.

He is funded by the ESRC Grand Union Doctoral Training Programme and a member of Green Templeton College.

Prior to starting his doctoral degree, Karl obtained a BA from University College London studying Economics and Statistics. Meanwhile, Karl also worked part-time as a Research Assistant in the London School of Economics Centre for Economic Performance Wellbeing Programme under the supervision of Paul Frijters.

Karl’s research interests are primarily in human wellbeing. His current focus is the use of wellbeing data to establish causal relationships using statistical and experimental methods.

Leoni Boyle

Leoni Boyle is an Executive Assistant at the Wellbeing Research Centre, following the completion of her MSc in Child Development and Education at the University of Oxford. Her research is focused around the advocation for children, particularly marginalised children within cultural contexts where social stigmas might act as a barrier to these individuals being able to be fully recognised within society.

During undergraduate study, Leoni was President of the University of Cambridge Education Society, as well as JCR Welfare Officer, amongst other committee roles.

Cherise Regier

Cherise Regier is a PhD candidate in Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral thesis examines the impact of labour market policies on worker wellbeing using quantitative methods, with a focus on interventions that aim to promote employee voice in the workplace. She is particularly interested in the political economy of worker wellbeing across high-income countries and wellbeing public policy theory.

Before commencing her doctoral studies, Cherise studied at the University of Toronto, where she earned a Master of Public Policy from the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and a Master of Industrial Relations and Human Resources from the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resource Management. Alongside her academic endeavours, Cherise worked as a Policy Analyst for the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

Micah Kaats

Micah is a Research Associate at the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford. He has also worked as an Analyst at the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen and Research Assistant at the Erasmus Happiness Economics Research Organization (EHERO). Micah is committed to developing evidence-based tools for public and private decision-makers to promote subjective wellbeing. He holds two Master’s degrees in Economic Policy and Applied Ethics from Utrecht University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from UPenn. He has contributed to academic publications and reports on subjective wellbeing, cost-benefit analysis, and policy evaluation. His research interests converge around topics in health, work, aging, and migration. He is based in Amsterdam.

Dr. Wanying Zhou

Wanying Zhou completed her PhD in Psychology and Education at the University of Cambridge and holds an MSc in Counseling and Mental Health Services from the University of Pennsylvania. She is interested in better understanding and improving wellbeing. Her PhD thesis focuses on adolescent mental health and wellbeing. It uses theoretical modelling to examine the relationship between wellbeing, academic achievement, and social emotional skills and further evaluates mindfulness-based interventions in improving these factors. In addition to this, she studies the conceptualisation of wellbeing and how this concept is understood cross-culturally given the globalised complexities of the 21st Century.

Her approach to research has a strong interdisciplinary nature and embraces both qualitative and quantitative data analysis methods. She also serves as a coordinator for the Cambridge Wellbeing and Inclusive Group and is on the editorial board of the Journal of Youth and Adolescents.

Dr. Jose Marquez

Jose is a Research Associate at the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford. He is a wellbeing researcher interested in studying how schools, organizations, and communities can improve the wellbeing of children and young people. He is currently based at the University of Manchester, where he works on the ground-breaking #BeeWell project to assess and promote adolescent wellbeing. Before, he was an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Cambridge University. Jose has been awarded multiple grants and fellowships, published in leading scientific journals, and presented his work at over 20 national and international conferences and seminars. He has contributed to numerous initiatives on child and adolescent wellbeing measurement and promotion led by reputed organisations in the United Kingdom (Oxford University, Cambridge University, What Works Wellbeing, The Children’s Society) and international organisations such as the OECD, UNICEF, and the World Health Organization.