On International Women’s Day 2026, we are celebrating the women who are driving innovation and shaping the future of patient safety research across our team. Their expertise, leadership, and lived experience are helping to transform how we understand risk, deliver safer care, and ensure that patient voices are meaningfully embedded in research.

Meet some of the inspiring women behind the work of to the NIHR Greater Manchester PSRC:

Meet Elizabeth Monaghan

Elizabeth Monaghan is a public contributor with lived experience who collaborates with the Mutual Support for Mental Health in Research (MS4MH-R) group at the University of Manchester. She also works with the NIHR Greater Manchester PSRC and the National Confidential Inquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health (NCISH).

As a single mum of four teens, she had to give up work and study to care for her daughter during a very difficult period of mental illness. By raising her voice and sharing her lived experience, Liz has been involved in meaningful PPIE that is shaping safer care across the mental health landscape.

Meet Natasha Tyler

Natasha Tyler is a Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, working within the Division of Population Health, Health Services Research & Primary Care. Her research focuses on patient safety in care transitions, particularly in mental health, where breakdowns in communication and coordination can undermine safe discharge and recovery.

She began her academic career as a Research Assistant within the former NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre and has continued to work alongside the NIHR GM PSRC.

Meet Louise Gorman

Louise Gorman is the the Public and Community Involvement and Engagement Manager a the NIHR Greater Manchester PSRC, and she also serves as our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion manager.

Before stepping into these roles, Louise spent years as a qualitative researcher: first as a research fellow working on cancer risk prediction, prevention and communication, and later as a research associate in our suicide and self-harm prevention theme.

Meet Gill Lever

Gill Lever is a PhD student funded by the NIHR Greater Manchester PSRC, who is working on a project exploring social workers’ implementation of national guidelines with looked-after-children who self-harm.

She came into research with direct lived experience of self-harm in state care and the cumulative harm of poor care continuity and inconsistent and insensitive approaches that erode patient trust.

Meet Natalie Armstrong

Prof Natalie Armstrong co-leads our Enhancing Cultures of Safety research theme. She is a Professor of Health Services Research and Executive Dean for the School of Health & Medical Sciences at City St George’s, University of London. Natalie is also an Honorary Professor at the universities of Manchester and Leicester. 

Her work uses sociological ideas and methods to understand health and illness, and to tackle problems in the delivery of high-quality healthcare.

Her main focus at the moment is a project looking at the role of Non-Executive Directors in supporting patient safety, particularly in relation to maternity and neonatal care.

Meet Joy Spiliopoulos

Dr Joy Spiliopoulos is a sociologist and qualitative researcher at the University of Leicester, and a research associate at the Enhancing Cultures of Safety research theme at the NIHR Greater Manchester PSRC.

Joy has worked for academic institutions in the UK (Lancaster University, University of Leicester and Sheffield College) and China (University of Nottingham Ningbo China, and Zhejiang University) and taught in the subject areas of sociology, international relations, criminology, gender studies, qualitative research methods.

Meet Nicola Mackintosh

Prof Nicola Mackintosh co-leads our Enhancing Cultures of Safety research theme. She is a Professor in Social Science applied to Health at the University of Leicester. She has a background in critical care nursing, and her research uses sociological theory and methods to bring new understandings to patient safety and improvement science research.

Her current work addresses patient safety cultures and response systems for escalation of care; the role of digital technologies in shaping patient-provider roles; and patient responsibilities around self-diagnosis and self-triage linked to self-care and patienthood. Nicola is the Deputy Research Group Lead at SAPPHIRE group at the University of Leicester. 

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