Dr Karen Maxwell is a public health researcher with an interest in reducing social inequalities. Karen currently works in the Sexual Health and Blood Borne Viruses Research Group on a Scottish Government funded project "Improving health by reducing the burden of Blood Borne Viruses: Where and how should we provide testing to reduce undiagnosed BBVs in Scotland?". She leads the qualitative arm of this project, integrating expert review of the evidence with intervention development focus groups to identify the optimal intervention settings and pathways to reduce undiagnosed BBVs in Scotland. Prior to this, she worked in the Substance Use Research Group.

Karen has worked extensively in public health research, investigating a wide range of public health topics. Karen’s research interests centre around social inequalities in health, with previous research having focused on alcohol policy, sexual health, parenting, poverty, and women’s reproductive health. She holds a BSc (Hons) in Psychology from the University of York, a MSc in Occupational Psychology from the University of Manchester and a PhD in Social and Public Health Sciences from the University of Glasgow.

Prior to joining GCU, she worked for the MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit (SPHSU) for ten years on a range of projects related to public health, most recently as part of the team conducting the 4th National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL) in the UK. During her time as part of the Natsal team, Karen worked on the development and validation of a new measure of Sexual Wellbeing (the Natsal-SW) to be used in population surveys. During COVID, she worked on Natsal-COVID, investigating the impact of COVID-19 on people’s sexual health and wellbeing. Whilst at SPHSU, Karen also conducted research into abortion experiences and stigma (the SASS project: https://www.sassproject.org.uk/).

Karen is co-chair of the School of Health and Life Sciences ECR Network.