About
Sharon’s research examines how social, structural and environmental determinants shape access to adult social care, with a particular focus on unmet need, housing instability, neighbourhood infrastructure, migration-related barriers and gendered informal care. Her work integrates spatial, social and systems-based perspectives to understand how care is accessed, organised and experienced across diverse contexts.
She joined CPEC as an NIHR School for Social Care Research career development awardee. Her research considers how adult social care systems are embedded within wider local environments, including transport, housing, community organisations, information networks and informal support structures.
Sharon holds a BA Hons in Architecture and an MSc in Urban Development Planning, awarded with distinction. Her academic background underpins an interdisciplinary approach that combines spatial analysis with social research methods. During her master’s studies, she contributed to a co-produced research project in São Paulo examining social care-related infrastructure in informal urban settlements. Using an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design, the project analysed how residents, community organisations and local services identify needs, coordinate support and respond to uneven provision.
Her dissertation, which received an accolade of commendation, applied systems thinking and actor-network theory to analyse a refugee camp as a complex service environment. The research examined how institutions, humanitarian actors, infrastructure, technologies and displaced residents interact to shape service navigation, agency and everyday forms of support.
Before joining CPEC, Sharon worked across the charity and NGO sector, combining practice-based experience with applied research on displacement, housing and climate vulnerability. This work examined how environmental risk, housing insecurity and institutional barriers influence access to support for displaced and marginalised communities, further informing her interest in service navigation and the wider determinants of adult social care.
Expertise
social, structural and environmental determinants, mixed methods; participatory research; ethnographic research