Rhiannon Hawkins

Rhiannon (she/her) is a disabled PhD Researcher based at the University of Glasgow. Her PhD is exploring the impact of climate change on people's mental health and wellbeing based in Scotland, with her research being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC). Her research interests broadly intersect the themes of climate change, mental health, disability justice and disaster risk reduction. Rhiannon currently works at UCL's Warning Research Centre, where she has developed the novel Mental Health Vulnerability Index (MHVI) to measure the vulnerability to developing mental ill health during a climatic hazard. The MHVI has been widely praised by multiple institutions including the WHO, Public Health Scotland, UKHSA to name a few. She has also worked on research projects for the Scottish Government along the theme of Mental Health, flooding and household preparedness.

Beyond her research Rhiannon has worked for the Royal College of Psychiatrists for the past six years where she is currently a Patient Representative for the Child and Adolescent Faculty (CAMH). In this role she represents the views of young people in psychiatric care and has helped develop the national autism training programme for higher clinical trainees, funded by NHS England. Through this position Rhiannon has written several first author articles for the Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health (ACAMH) journal.
Additionally, she has worked broadly across the theme of climate change, particularly within the scope of education, where she has been recently awarded the Royal Meteorological Society's Education Award for her contribution to helping develop the "Teach the Teachers" climate education model in Wales. Rhiannon holds a BA in Geography from The University of Oxford and MSc in Earth Futures Research from The University of Glasgow.