Meet The Team

Charli Babb - PhD student/researcher
Charli completed her Psychology Bachelor's degree at Cardiff University in 2016. She has experience working on an inpatient eating disorders ward under the supervision of the clinical psychologist and has also worked as an autism support worker. During her undergraduate degree, she was involved with the national charity Student Minds. She will be working on the SEDAF project as part of her three year PhD at Cardiff University. Charli explored the relationship between autism and eating disorders in her dissertation at undergraduate level and she has been interested in developing her knowledge in this area ever since.

Janina Brede - PhD student/researcher
Janina completed her Psychology Bachelor’s degree at the University of Bath in 2014 and her Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Science at University College London (UCL) in 2015. Her thesis examined co-occurring mental health difficulties in children with autistic traits. Janina will be working on the SEDAF project as part of her three-year PhD at UCL. Prior to joining SEDAF, Janina worked at the Centre for Research in Autism and Education (CRAE) on a project evaluating the experience of autistic children who had been excluded from education. She also worked as an Assistant Psychologist in a gender identity service for young people and in an adult autism diagnostic service.

Dr. Will Mandy - Senior Lecturer/Clinical Psychologist

Will Mandy is a clinical psychologist and senior lecturer at University College London (UCL). His work aims to improve the recognition of autism and to develop new interventions to help autistic people. He has a particular research interest in improving the identification and care of females on the autism spectrum, who are currently at high risk of going unnoticed by clinical and educational services. This includes work on the overlap between autism and eating disorders, in which Will and his collaborators are seeking to understand how better to help autistic people who suffer from serious eating problems. 

Will also studies sub-diagnostic autistic traits in non-clinical populations, and the role these can play in the development of a range of common childhood, adolescent and adult mental health problems. With colleagues at Great Ormond Street Hospital’s National Centre for High-Functioning Autism, he has developed and trialled interventions to help children with autism transition from primary to secondary school and to teach children about their autism diagnosis, with an emphasis on fostering their sense of self-worth and pride. 

Dr John Fox, Senior Lecturer/ Clinical Director

John is the Clinical Director with the South Wales Clinical Psychology Training Programme and a Senior Lecturer with the School of Psychology, Cardiff University. Apart from organising the clinical side of the training programme, John has developed a programme of research looking at eating disorders over the last 10 years. This work has predominantly looked at anorexia nervosa and has historically focused on emotional factors including the development of the SPAARS-ED with Mick Power in 2009. Over recent years, John’s research interest has broadened and he is currently looking at developing specific psychological treatments for anorexia that focuses on the ‘anorexic voice’. It is from this broadening of research interests that John has also developed an interest in anorexia nervosa within autism, especially in the development of services/ treatments for this population. John is supervising Charli's PhD with Dr Catherine Jones.

Dr. Catherine Jones - Senior Lecturer/Co-Director of Wales Autism Research Centre
Catherine is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Psychology, Cardiff University as well as Co-Director of the Wales Autism Research Centre, Cardiff University. Catherine has been involved in autism research since 2005, when she joined the UCL Institute of Child Health as a post-doctoral researcher on the Special Needs and Autism Project. Broadly speaking, Catherine’s research interests in autism focus on how perception and cognition can be different in autism, and how this relates to autistic behaviours. Supervision of Charli's undergraduate dissertation sparked Catherine’s interest in the association between autism and disordered eating. She is particularly interested in the relationship between restricted and repetitive behaviours and atypical eating patterns and is supervising Charli’s PhD with John Fox.




Dr. Lucy Serpell - Senior Lecturer/Clinical Lead

Lucy Serpell is a senior lecturer at University College London (UCL) and clinical psychologist at North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT), where she leads a busy lifespan eating disorder service. She has over fifteen years of research and clinical experience working with individuals with eating disorders. Lucy is a core member of the NICE Guideline Development Group for Eating Disorders, contributing to the identification and standardisation of treatment approaches for eating disorders. She also contributes to the revision of the Mental and Behavioural Disorders chapter of the ICD-11, which is used to categorise and diagnose different mental health conditions.

Lucy’s research interests are focused on eating disorders in young people and adults. Besides being involved with SEDAF, she conducts research into the neuropsychology of perseverative behaviour/thinking in anorexia nervosa and in fasting states such as 5:2 dieters. She is passionate about developing research that contributes to advancements in treatment using psychological therapies. Lucy is supervising Janina's PhD with Will Mandy.