Jess is a Professor in Child Mental Health and Wellbeing at UCL, Director of Applied Research and Evaluation at the Anna Freud National Centre for Children and Families and Director of the Evidence Based Practice Unit. Her expertise focus on: 1) the evaluation of interventions and multifaceted programmes to support mental health and well-being in children; 2) factors that promote resilience in children and young people; 3) the interplay between mental health and educational outcomes. She leads the English National evaluation of the National Lottery Community Fund’s HeadStart
programme, and the UK Department for Education funded Children and Young People’s Mental Health Research and Evaluation Programme. She also co-leads the early intervention theme for the Department of Health’s Child Policy Research Unit.